No. The omission of buddy breathing is not in itself a serious safety concern. Most divers do have an octo. Usually, that octo even works. Sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, the combination of malfunctioning gear combined with the inability to buddy breathe, it can be a serious safety problem. I never recommend buddy breathing as a first choice, but it's nice to have as a second choice. It beats the hell out of an ESA.
I would think it would be common sense to verify the operation of your safety gear before diving, including the octo. Granted, common sense isn't as common as its name might imply, so expecting people to do a rather simple, intelligent step is rather presumptuous.
I would also like to point out that PADI lists Buddy Breathing as preferable to the ESA as well.
I'm referring to the PADI Open Water course. You are correct in your reading that you are not limited to following a DM around. OTOH, after getting their PADI OW C-card, most are not prepared for anything more than that and they all should be better prepared that that.
This is again an anecdotal statement. You say "most"; do you have any documentable statistics to quantify your statement? Or, are you basing it only on the complaints you've heard? I wouldn't doubt that you might have heard an overwhelming majority of complaints from people about their training. It's pretty much a given that unhappy people make more noise than happy ones do. A business could have a 90% or better rate of happy customers, and it's still a good bet the majority of their feedback mail is going to be complaints, because the few unhappy ones are the ones who will sound off.
Here again, the logical question: Are they not better prepared because of their training? Or are they not better prepared because they lack basic self-confidence?
Ask me to play my flute in front of an audience, and I'll be terrified the whole time. Is that because my flute teacher is inadequate? Or because of my own insecurities? My flute teacher is very good, and the instruction she provides exceptional. However, no amount of intellectual concepts, nor any number of smooth rehearsals, nor even having played a piece until it's almost automatic to perform it, has ever managed to banish that gut-wrenching nervousness I get playing in front of an audience. It can only be worked through with enough determination.
I've heard older divers talk about their first few times in the open water, and many of them say similar things to what you're reporting from new divers. Perhaps the old, more intense training wasn't so much the confidence builder, as such an investment that a person wouldn't give up so quickly if the first couple of dives weren't wonderful.
You've obviously not been reading what's been available for you to read. This type of comment shows you are either clueless about the class we are discussing. We are not upset they you have it easier, we are upset that you have a harder time while learning less. Most of today's classes are shorter and harder than what they once were. In a quality class (hard to find, but still around), skills are broken down into smaller steps to make them easier to learn.
I'm either clueless, or what? You didn't finish your statement. Either you lost your train of thought, or else your English teacher was inadequate and failed to ingrain in you the simple rules of written English.
Yes, that's an unfair statement, and I hope it managed the rhetorical purpose of getting you to see a point.
For one, you have no idea what I have or have not been reading. You assume I have not read what you consider authoritative texts because I question your statements. You are assuming I'm having a harder time learning less.
Excuse me, sir, but you are not in my class, are you? You have no idea what I have been learning, or how difficult it has or has not been for me. You merely embrace the conclusion that I fit into the preconceived average you wish to support by your statements, and project onto me the inadequacies inherent in that demographic.
One of the reasons I'm here on Scubaboard is to learn more than I'm going to get in class. That would be true whether I was in the PADI class, or in the old school NAUI course. I try to assimilate as much information as I can, beyond what the classroom situation I'm currently involved in provides.
What I don't do, however, is passively buy into opinions flung out with nothing more than vague generalities. As you have likely noticed, I can fling just as many vague generalities right back, and so far, I have little reason to believe yours are any more valid than mine. Yes, you have many years of experience diving, but you still have not managed to quote one lousy verifiable statistic to back up your observation.
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Wow, I wonder how much additional training it takes to get the "AGE" patch... and no, not the old age emblem, the "Lets see how fast I can surface... OUCH, THAT HURTS!" emblem, errrr, the Embolism Emblem??
