I was certified in 1980 with NAUI and did a Assistant instructor course in 1983. At no time was I expected to swim three miles on the surface in full gear. ...
@CT-Rich,
My course was taught by a long-time instructor who designed the course in the early 1970's, before BC's became a thing. So, much of his course, including my 1986 course, continued to be taught using many of the old skills.
The real surprise (to me) was that the 3-mile swim (1.5 miles each way, in full gear, with a completely full cylinder and a completely empty BC, under snorkel power) was so easy! Boring as h---, though, in a freshwater lake (Bull Shoals Lake AR) after the bottom dropped away out of sight. The idea is, we were prepared to be able to do a surface swim out to a distant reef (say), do a dive, and then swim back to shore.
I've mentioned before that my course was a for-credit, university PE course. Physical conditioning was stressed. We did a lot of surface swimming in the pool sessions of the course. A lot of this swimming involved mask, fins, snorkel, weightbelt, and NO wetsuit, while being a bit negatively weighted. By the time our open water practicum took place, after the semester-long lecture and pool training were over, we were all quite in shape for the 3-mile swim. The key, though, was/is being properly weighted (as well as being in shape!)--which is precisely what the skill was meant to reinforce.
Year before last my college student took what was essentially the same course (although my instructor had retired a couple of years earlier, after a very long career). My daughter completed the same skills.
rx7diver
). We did ditch and don, buoyant ascent, a bunch of stuff (Lots of pool time back in the day), but no open water surface swim. I remember in my SCUBA Diver certification class, we spent one class period using manual inflate horsecollar BCs. The AI course I was already using my own gear.
