It would be much better if the Advanced courses were really advanced and much tougher, much more book and pool work, much stricter swim standards, included introduction to rescue and nitrox, deeper diving and limited deco. The Basic OW course could remain much like it is, maybe tighten up a little bit on swim standards and introduce real world skills but it should remain a welcome mat and therefore not terribly intimidating. Advanced should mean your an accomplished diver with solid skills and watermanship.
It is the advanced courses that need to be "toughed" up. This would be good for the dive world because charter operators could then trust "advanced" divers to be able to actualy assemble their gear and get in and out of the water without nearly drowning--as I commonly see today by PadI Advanced and PadI Tech divers. The Advanced should proably take at leat 8 weeks (fours hours per week, half class and half pool) and include dives that challenge and demonstrate skills.
It is OK to flunk someone, they either rise to the challenge or move on to golf or keep working and succeed. If they are really interested they will put in the effort to succeed.
I took scuba in 68, it was a 12 week course, two nights a week, half pool and half lecture. You had to be able to swim, there were no BCs and we were using double hose regulators. Somewhere between that and the PadI online course with two hour pool checkout and dive in the local quarry or "referral" should exist a happy medium.
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