How long would that be? a year, two?
Mike, I gotta disagree. As soon as you THINK all of your students are competant prior to the ow dives, that is when you may suddenly be surprised. Although they may seem so, they have very little experience. What was comfortable and appeared smooth in the pool can go right out the window in the event that a student becomes stressed, anxios, or panicked in the OW.
While I agree that the best way to prevent a problem is to be sure students are competant. IMO The best way to control aproblem, should one occur, is to have the means to intervine and control, preferably before a minor problem becomes an incident.
I have met a lot of instructors who feel that a line is not nessessary once they have a few years of experience under their belt. I've seen way too many instructors make THIS mistake, sooner or later--a hard lesson learned.
Although a line is only REQUIRED for CESA, it can be a very useful safety tool for several other skills as well. Hopefully the need to use it does not arise. One could argue that this is overkill (if you never use it). Once you have seen a line used to prevent what may have been a disaster, you respect for having one increases dramatically.
I've seen way too any instructors make this mistake. Sooner or later a hard lesson may be learned.
