Disturbing trend in diving?

[Belzelbub]

Do people here think that maybe if divers had to be more personally involved with diving, instead if just wanting to experience it without any of the annoying details, they might commit more to becoming more serious about the hobby in the long term?

For sure. It will also be a barrier to entry. Whether that is a good thing or bad is up for debate.

In reading through this thread, I do think there might be a need for the experience type of diving. It’s not for me, but I guess it might be for others. I guess this might be a valid reason why the Scuba Diver (or Discover Scuba) courses exist. If all the person is after is an experience led by a DM, then I guess this could be done reasonably safely by conservatively planning the dives.

Not for me. If you go the OW route, you should be able to dive without a DM controlling the dive. If not, then your instructor did you a disservice.

If dive ops want to offer this type of dive, it ought to be done in such a way that that it does not interfere with divers that are a bit more capable. I wouldn’t want to go on a charter and have my dives limited by the least experienced.

 

[The Chairman]

I wouldn’t want to go on a charter and have my dives limited by the least experienced.

There are limits, and then there are limits. Before OW, you're 'limited' to 60FSW. Hell, that's where most of the pretty fish live. Maybe these new divers are exceeding your limits of patience? You got yours, so be patient and compassionate as they dive into their new journey. It is the way.

 

[JuLe]

Is there a video of this event ?

I don't know, I'll see if I can find something. The event was streamed live, so I would expect that something can be found.

 

[Cthippo]

Do people here think that maybe if divers had to be more personally involved with diving, instead if just wanting to experience it without any of the annoying details, they might commit more to becoming more serious about the hobby in the long term?

No. I think you have to be pretty dedicated to spend the time / effort / money up front, especially if you know it is an activity you will only do once a year. Requiring tropical vacation divers to be as capable and independent as cold water local divers does not make more local divers, it just results in fewer divers overall.

 

[MacDuyver]

I think PADI or other agencies should offer an online 'quick refresher' type thing - and not charge $150. Either free or $10-20 and have it be a 15 min course, kind of a commonly forgot things... I mean things like "check your ndl time," and "Don't forget to do your checks before jumping in." None of it is rocket science, but I think even people who've gone a single year or less without diving could forget, yet not need a whole entire 're-activate' cash grab.

Absolutely this. NUAI gives you access to the materials, but a quick refresh that was cheap would greatly improve diving in general

 

[Leatherboot69]

Absolutely this. NUAI gives you access to the materials, but a quick refresh that was cheap would greatly improve diving in general

Isn’t this just going back over the OW e-learning?

Or for those members of the “PADI Club” the PADI Reactivate e-learning is included as part of the subscription

 

[Leatherboot69]

I think many casual divers who do OW only want to dive within Scuba Diver limits - ie supervised dives with a shallower depth limit. But the SD course isn’t that common and the OW course is only two more dives, so they do the OW course instead. So they are ending up with the level of training they need for the type of diving they want to do.

I’d also say that no course I’ve ever been on, diving or otherwise, has expected true mastery of a skill by the end of the course. By the end of my OW I had ‘mastered’ the 24 skills that my instructor taught me, but I hadn’t ‘mastered’ diving as a whole for another 40 dives or so, as I had to go off and practice on my own to build experience of applying those skills in real life diving. Same with driving-passing my driving test meant I had mastered the basics enough to go off and build real life experience outside of a training environment. Training courses are useful but it’s important to understand their role in the training process.

 

[DCN]

I had to go off and practice on my own to build experience of applying those skills in real life diving.

The multiple hurdles of actually doing "real life diving" can be too high, and many don't want to invest the time, effort or money, and are perfectly happy with their warm water holiday dives once a year in rental gear that doesn't require much of them. (some would disagree).

Autonomous dives with your own gear? We'd argue that is a different ballgame.

 

[Belzelbub]

There are limits, and then there are limits. Before OW, you're 'limited' to 60FSW. Hell, that's where most of the pretty fish live. Maybe these new divers are exceeding your limits of patience? You got yours, so be patient and compassionate as they dive into their new journey. It is the way.

I get that. I’ve taken novice divers off of my boat. It’s not really about patience. It’s more about getting what you paid for. If I’m a paying charter customer, I should not have to be inconvenienced in order to accommodate those less experienced. There are ways that a dive op can ensure both experienced and novice divers get what they paid for.

 

[MacDuyver]

Isn’t this just going back over the OW e-learning?

Or for those members of the “PADI Club” the PADI Reactivate e-learning is included as part of the subscription

Dunno I never got OW e learning.

I had a break of several years a while back and completely bypassed the refresher training and dives because it was going to be $150-$200, opting instead to just go with a pretty accomplished buddy. Not ideal and easily preventable. I would have payed $30-$50 for a 30-60min review session.