Disturbing trend in diving?

[The Chairman]

My first instructor never got in the water with me. He yelled at me from the side of the pool, berating me for every mistake real or imagined. He kept telling me I was going to die, die I tell you, if I didn't get it figured out. No, he wasn't a certified instructor, but boy did I learn to figure stuff out on my own, or I would get yelled at... again.

 

[boulderjohn]

I never claimed a randomly assigned buddy was successfully sued. Please read more carefully.

Silly me. I misread this post:

In the US divers have been sued following an accident involving a random assigned buddy.

 

[Leatherboot69]

We learn in the pool. We only do checkout dives in open water. So by that reading of the standard, PADI OWs are only certified to dive in pools and bathtubs.

That’s literally not true, by any reading of PADI standards

 

[boulderjohn]

That’s literally not true, by any reading of PADI standards

He's just trying to finesse the word "training" by saying the OW dive is for checkout and not part of training. Everyone else, of course, considers it part of the training.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

My OW instructor sat on a lounge chair with a Marlboro and a cup of coffee and showed my buddy and I a place in the lake, under a bridge to navigate to. It was 65 feet deep he said. Once we got there we were to surface and wave to him proving we made it. He then lit another Marlboro.

So now tell me things are worse.

 

[therookie]

My OW instructor sat on a lounge chair with a Marlboro and a cup of coffee and showed my buddy and I a place in the lake, under a bridge to navigate to. It was 65 feet deep he said. Once we got there we were to surface and wave to him proving we made it. He then lit another Marlboro.

So now tell me things are worse.

Well if I had had any doubts before, this little gem would have made me feel much better about the quality of my OW certification in the tropics!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Do you guys need a microscope, or are your eyes still that good that you can split hairs than fine?

 

[scubadada]

So, I was trained in Los Angeles, CA in 1970. We dived the local environment including shore and boat dives. I dived there for 10 years before a 17 year hiatus. I was recertified iin 1997 in the Cayman Islands, it was a piece of cake. I now do most of my divimg in warm water but most of it is solo drift diving in SE Florida. I have revisited colder water many times, San Diego, Galapagos, Cape Ann, MA.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

My first instructor never got in the water with me. He yelled at me from the side of the pool, berating me for every mistake real or imagined. He kept telling me I was going to die, die I tell you, if I didn't get it figured out. No, he wasn't a certified instructor, but boy did I learn to figure stuff out on my own, or I would get yelled at... again.

Not, in my opinion, a competent person to be teaching anyone. This is not how someone learns.

SeaRat

 

[Allen-1]

My first instructor never got in the water with me. He yelled at me from the side of the pool, berating me for every mistake real or imagined. He kept telling me I was going to die, die I tell you, if I didn't get it figured out. No, he wasn't a certified instructor, but boy did I learn to figure stuff out on my own, or I would get yelled at... again.

That's why I didn't let my dad teach me.