Diver training

[cgvmer]

I am new to diving, having earned the much maligned PADI SCUBA sub-cert on a cruise ship (the whole cert was offered but would have caused a family meltdown if I took it) with my 12yr old son. We completed our OW at a Dive shop in Ft. Lauderdale less than a year after the SCUBA cert.

I have read much of the attacks on different cert agencies (especially PADI) understanding some of the points, not understanding a few, and hearing the I'm better than though chest beating in others.

Well today I want to let you hear about a dive training regimen from an LDS that does SSI. One of my son's classmates, age 14, and his father were enrolled in the OW class in expectation of a trip to the caribbean the first week of July.
Hearing them discuss it and talking with the father I understand it was 1 night each week for 6 weeks with the OW dives on the weekend at a quarry in PA. This sounded very typical.

Knowing they were expected to do the cert dives 2 weekends ago, when I ran into the father at a baseball game I asked how it went. He started with "You'll never believe what happened on the way to PA". He then went on to tell me his truck broke down on the way to the dives, and they had to get towed back to town. So they missed the OW dives, wasted a lot of money for rentals etc. What really blew me away was what he told me next.

Knowing he was going to be diving on his trip to the Caribbean, the LDS gave them temporary cert cards so they can dive without doing the OW dives.


Now I talked with my son and told him this, he looked at me at said "but we learned so much on those dives why would you do that"....out of the mouth of babes.

Yes I'm one of those newbies that did his OW dives in April and hasn't had a chance to dive since, (now June) and really don't plan to dive till August but even I can't believe any cert agency would be this lax. or is this just this one LDS?

 

[mobster75]

Well, I'm sure no certifying agency would allow this. HOWEVER, its up to the individual LDS whether they want to strictly follow the agency's requirements. Sometimes the almighty buck speaks louder and an LDS might be willing to fudge the paperwork they send to the agency.

While I think an LDS and instructors should be allowed some discretion with their students based on their expertise and experience and the student's abilities, completely bypassing obvious guidelines and common sense is just dumb.

Maybe its not a temp cert card. Perhaps they gave them referral paperwork so they can do their OW checkout dives on vacation? That happens all the time. I've seen referrals that are just small cards with all the information on them about the student.

 

[Damselfish]

maybe it's a misunderstanding about what they were given, we can hope. Hard to believe even a lousy LDS would do this, you'd think fear of liability (very real in this case) would trump any other factors.

 

[cgvmer]

I did ask if it was a refferal, he said it wasn't

 

[Damselfish]

bizarre. Sounds like a perfect situation for a referral. Maybe if you see this person again you should suggest they try to set up a referral instead. Assuming the paperwork isn't too mucked up at this point to do that.

 

[plwtwo]

Just like your son said..they've missed a lot of learning and understanding. Hopefully, its just a referral and he doesn't understand......otherwise, Scary :shakehead (and dangerous.) Hopefully everything will work out safely! If it really is a temp card it reflects bad on everyone in the industry.....we (dive professionals) need to be prudent in our training of students..to keep big brother and his regulations out.

 

[divingjd]

This is definitely NOT SSI practice or sanctioned in any way by SSI. This is contrary to SSI and RSTC standards.

 

[Calvinandhobbs]

For safety sake, you might want to urge them to get a referral from that dive shop and do their certification dives in the caribbean.

The only difference between the regular dive and the certification dive is the instructor will likely take time at the beginning and end and have them demonstrate their skill in the open water. The time inbetween is spent enjoying the dive site (my experience anyway).

Also, the instructor will likely keep a closer eye on them knowing they have not yet been in the open water.

 

[Damselfish]

perhaps something that should be reported to SSI?

 

[ChrisA]

What really blew me away was what he told me next.

Knowing he was going to be diving on his trip to the Caribbean, the LDS gave them temporary cert cards so they can dive without doing the OW dives.

I strongly suspect that what they got was an "OW refferal". That is basically a "transfer" between dive shops. And the OW dives will be done with another instructor . I'd bet your freind mistook the name of the paperwork.