If it is the norm, then someone who comes to the class with those basic skills nailed is penalized by having to take an overly long and more expensive course. It will not have to be the norm if you explain up front that the two day course assumes you will be able to do a reasonable job with certain skills when you take the class. If you cannot, you can expect to have to take more time or maybe take a skills course before that.
Several of us teach a PADI distinctive specialty called Tecreational Diving that teaches those skills. I don't know of any other recreational course that teaches them. As for OWSI instructors not being able to do those skills, I can say without embarrassment that I could not do them when I was a new OWSI, and neither could most of the other instructors where I worked. We had in fact never seen them.
LOL LOL LOL,
I originally wrote the argument against this stance in my last post, but then deleted, waiting instead to see who would make this claim. Funny it's the PADI guy taking it.
My OW diver class isn't any longer than anyone else's. Well, it's longer than the goobers teaching it in two or three days, but you know what I mean. My students have really good buoyancy, trim is flat, and frog kick is perfected. And these things are taught in 4 -6 dives. It doesn't cost the student any more or any less to learn to dive neutrally buoyant, flat, no danglies and with a good frog kick than it does anyone else. All it takes is an instructor who pushes mastery instead of simple demonstration. Tell them what you consider acceptable, and then lead by example.
So, let's fast forward to Cavern Class. I've always taught 3 days. Never tried two, seems too rushed. Here's how my days are laid out. It's similar to my mentor's schedule.
Day 1 there's about 4 hours of lecture; covering payment, paperwork, our contract, my expectations, what's needed to pass. We go over cave conservation. We go over land owner relations, safety, rules of cave diving, etc etc. etc.
Depending on the diver, there might be 2 hours of getting his gear unscrewed. I remember spending an hour cutting off every gimmick the Open Water Dive Shop could possibly sell. After we got rid of the telephone cord bungee light holder, the retractable cable slate holder, and about 20 other absolute piece of crap items, we then went towards getting hose lengths right, lights stowed properly, zip ties omitted and cave line tied to bolt snaps, etc. All in all, day one takes almost 6 -8 hours depending on the size of class. CAN YOU DO IT FASTER? Not significantly faster.
Day 2 we get to the site, I demonstrate proper tie offs. I demonstrate how to run a primary reel. I demonstrate bump and go exits, etc. Then I have each student do each skill on land. Every skill we will do in the water, I first do on land, then each student does on land, then I do in the water, then each student does it in the water. After we've done all the skills on land, sometimes x4 students, we start setting up gear, analyzing gas, going over the dive plan. Eventually we hit the water.
We hit the water and I demonstrate the proper way to do an S-Drill. I do it, then each of the students do it in pairs. In all my classes, MPEN is the only one who did it right first try and didn't require a repeat performance. So most of the time, you might kill an hour learning to do a proper S-Drill. Then there's a water evaluation to make sure these guys can swim. I make them swim a line course in 4-6' of water following a line without a mask. Each diver must swim to the end of the line without a mask and back. There may or may not be a hiccup on the way, as I'll sometimes throw a curve ball into the mix to see how the student reacts. This could take 45 minutes depending on size of the class. After everyone is squared away, we'll calculate gas, go over the dive plan, and start a dive, where I'll demonstrate how to run a reel into the cavern. The student needs only to watch and learn. We complete the dive, calculate gas, and repeat. Each student running a reel into and out of the cavern. This might take another 90 minutes depending on the size of the class. And the only skill we've really accomplished is how to run a reel into the cavern. Multiply that time 4-6 important skills and tell me how this is supposed to get accomplished in just a standard two day cavern class. Now, am I supposed to charge more just because someone who wrote cavern standards 30 years ago didn't take enough time to teach the class? Hard to say. My class is $400. It should take 3 days. If you come to me with crappy skills and can't do it in 3 days, you're probably going to have to pay for more classes. And NO, if you're able to do it in 2 days, the class isn't cheaper. I'm a lot like vegas. The house always wins. But people keep coming. I'm teaching a full class on Easter. I planned 3 days.
---------- Post added March 30th, 2015 at 07:49 PM ----------
have I not proposed solutions? I believe I have.
how often are you up here cave diving? i'm not sure you're even being affected by any of this so your grandstanding and pontificating are just noise.
I'm not sure how much he's being affected now, but as Jim's recent roommate, I'm sure Netdoc been privy to a lot of whining and animosity. I can tell you right now, there's more people out to get Jim than I've ever known in history. So, I'm sure Netdoc has been affected by it.
---------- Post added March 30th, 2015 at 08:01 PM ----------
I don't think the problem is nearly as bad as threads like these would like to make us believe.
Just for the record, I spent a lot of time cave diving in 2014, actually most of it in a cave that was named above.
In fact I would bet that I spent way more time in that cave last year than any other instructor out there, bar none.
During countless hours of diving and doing deco, I saw a lot of classes. As we all know they are fun to watch.
I saw some not so great instructors and good ones. But I never saw anything that I would consider grave and worthy of reporting.
Quite to the contrary, I felt that even the instructors that were themselves struggling with the flow or did not have the most beautiful frog kick, were doing their best and doing ok. And after talking to a lot of them, I discovered most of them even have a mindset that makes them want to improve.
Perhaps your standards are not high enough then. I can't make a dive at Ginnie without seeing things that blow my mind. Unless I'm diving at night and have the cave to myself, every single dive last year had someone doing something that I would have failed a student for. My last dive at ginnie... Two divers at Hill 400, both on CCR. One of them with both dangling backup lights, lit. One dragging 6' of line from his reel in his right drysuit pocket and his buddy dragging all 7' of his bailout reg hose behind him. That's just one dive out of 100. If you're saying you don't see anything grave, then either you have really bad eyesight or you're borderline one of the problem divers we're discussing.
