Certification card dilemma

[RIHappyDiver]

Ok, so here's my question. We have 3 YMCA cert cards with the same logo, so, logic would say, from roughly the same time period, late '70s, early 80's. All have different cert titles. @Eyegore has Open Water, @Norrm has Basic, I have Scuba Diver. Does anyone know what the differences are? When I took my class in '79 there was no option for different entry courses, and the next available was Advanced Scuba Diver. Flash forward to '88 and @rhwestfall is labeled Open Water. Were there also Basic and Scuba Diver certs then, as well?
Enquiring minds want to know!

Erik

 

[mmerriman]

im curious also - mine same YMCA Scuba DIver - Basic. 1984 As I recall over 10 nights of classroom and pool and 2 days of ocean dives.

 

[rhwestfall]

Mine was a semester long college PE class with the instructor on the University staff (not an LDS providing it). Lecture & pool were 2x a week (IIRC), and at least 6 dives for the check-out, including core skills, buddy breathing (we also had an octo on our gear), and navigation.. We even did a sunset -> night dive at the end of the long weekend.

Dives were in Lake George, in the spring, just after ice-out!

 

[Ben_3]

I second those who have mentioned to keep a copy or photo of their cert card/s on theirphone or e-mail. Great idea.

 

[Bigbella]

Mine, from 1977-8, was designated "openwater," though I don't recall any other options at that time; and was quite similar to whwestfall's experience. When I was taking university courses, NAUI, gave me an openwater II card (now "advanced," I believe), after submitting my card and blowing bubbles, one afternoon, in the deep end of the pool, and not dying. I had already been diving for a few years, by that time.

Those were still the deadly buddy breathing days; and I didn't sport an octopus until the mid 1990s . . .

 

[Belzelbub]

Mine was a semester long college PE class with the instructor on the University staff (not an LDS providing it). Lecture & pool were 2x a week (IIRC), and at least 6 dives for the check-out, including core skills, buddy breathing (we also had an octo on our gear), and navigation.. We even did a sunset -> night dive at the end of the long weekend.

Dives were in Lake George, in the spring, just after ice-out!

Mine was similar. IIRC, I did the class over summer. We had a class in the lecture hall once a week. Then 2 days a week, we had a 3 hour block twice a week. The first 1/2 hour or so was going over the academics. Reading tables, plotting repetitive dives, etc. The rest was in the pool. Quite a difference from my first PADI OW cert where I only did a single dive to a max depth of about 10’.

Checkout dives were in the Florida Keys.

Oh, and this was in 1996. Card says “Open Water.” I had the option of getting three different OW certs. YMCA, NAUI, and CMAS. I elected to just do the YMCA since I had a PADI OW cert already.

 

[JackD342]

Seems there are several contributions to this thread from folks that took a scuba course at school, with quite a few hours and sessions involved.

I have no doubt that some/many of those courses from days past did include more content than you normally find in a current Open Water course, whether in an academic setting or not, but I also want to add a quick note of context on taking scuba for course credit.
Typically, in order to be recognized for course credit, a scuba certification course MUST be structured to include more classroom time than is typical/necessary for today's Open Water certification courses. This means that the class is by its nature a less efficient use of time, stretched out over a longer period, with less independent study, more classroom/lecture, and more frequent pool time in smaller chunks. And yes, often added content to fill the semester hours.

 

[Belzelbub]

This means that the class is by its nature a less efficient use of time, stretched out over a longer period, with less independent study, more classroom/lecture, and more frequent pool time in smaller chunks. And yes, often added content to fill the semester hours.

I agree, the course could have been done in a shorter timeframe. However, since you need a specified amount of credits to graduate, and this satisfies those hours, it’s efficient as long as you have enough required courses.

In my case, it was one of those courses where you get out of it what you put in. The professor was pretty clear at the start of the class that this would not be an “easy A” class. More than a few ended up dropping the course. I definitely had the time to get real comfortable with the gear and skills. Something I could not have said after my PADI OW course 6 years earlier. Of course, that course probably didn’t meet PADI standards at the time, and definitely not now.

 

[Nemrod]

I was given a Y cert long ago. My wife has a Y cert. The courses were tough and long and demanding and equal to what is today sold as Basic, Advanced and Rescue, all in one. As I recall the courses were six to eight weeks long and two nights a week, of four hours duration. Usually two hours of class and two hours of pool per week. So what is the problem? N

 

[Seaweed Doc]

My YMCA cert was 1985 and was labeled open water.

We did some rescue skills, navigation, and more rigorous skills than done today in OW. It was taught through a "Y" not a college.

I recall the instructor mentioned a useless lesser SCUBA Diver certification.

Our depth limit was as follow:

1. At 100' you get narced. Be aware.
2. At 200' you die of oxygen toxicity.
3. Use Navy deco tables as needed.
4. Deepest training dive was 60'. Increase depth a bit at a time: Don't go to 100' in your first post certification dive.