Herding Cats

[RumBum]

What about diving cats?

http://mac-gkk01.psych.lsa.umich.edu/~gkk/ScubaDivingCat.wmv

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

oops, I didnt quote with my above post. the diving cat rocks!

 

[msedivingdoc]

oops, I didnt quote with my above post. the diving cat rocks!

Gotta say I love the diving cat!! You think he'd relax more on nitrox???lol

 

[AndyNZ]

As an aside to this, are you PADI? Max ratios for OW is 12:3 (in the water at the same time). The AOW students count for the ratios too if they tag along.

I have to agree - those ratios are not exactly providing quality of education in my view!

If it is PADI, then those ratios are not inline with standards. One Instructor and one DM can take 10 O/W students, not 11. The other variations are academic.....

Don't, whatever you do, allow your personal standards be dragged down by instructors or other dive professionals who have low standards. When I was a DMT, I was assisting on an AO/W course where the instructor chose to not do all of the skills that should have been done on the deep dive. It was a tough decision, but I ended up speaking to the LDS owner about it as it not only devalues the certification, but also provides the students with a false sense of safety. It also impacts the perception of the LDS as a training provider.

I'm glad I did it. Certainly, in the same situation the first thing I would do would be a QA report straight to PADI which unfortunately isn't an option to you as a DMT.

 

[downdeep]

As an aside to this, are you PADI? Max ratios for OW is 12:3 (in the water at the same time). The AOW students count for the ratios too if they tag along.

Thanks for the input everyone (Yes, the cat and dog rock - I agree). We broke the OW students into two groups. Group A had 5 students and Group B had 6 students. Then I did navigation dives with 3 advanced students. And yes, there was a great deal of waiting around (too much). But these were employees and family members of our National Lab facility who all signed on together. So it was a group grope kinda thing. Scientists and engineers and physicists, oh my. All that radioactive material makes them glow in the dark, you know. Easier to see them in the silt of the quarry.

 

[downdeep]

[QUOTE=AndyNZ]I have to agree - those ratios are not exactly providing quality of education in my view!

If it is PADI, then those ratios are not inline with standards. One Instructor and one DM can take 10 O/W students, not 11. The other variations are academic.....



There were two divemasters and an instructor. As divemasters we positioned ourselves on each side of the dive platform behind and a little above the students. It provided the best vantage point for us to see the students lined up on the opposite side and signal each other on who needed attention. The instructor was then free to concentrate on individual students.

 

[AndyNZ]

There were two divemasters and an instructor. As divemasters we positioned ourselves.... <snip>

Sorry to be pedantic, but there was one divemaster and one DMT (dive master trainee)....

Apologies as I did mis-interpret your original post - splitting the 11 students into two groups does get around the ratios problem and I should have realised that 10 dives in two days meant that you had split the group. But even so, a group of six is likely to spend a lot of time sat on the bottom doing nothing and wondering why they are there - not fun when it's cold!

 

[Vayu]

We had 8 students, 1 instructor, and 3 assistant instructors.

-V

 

[downdeep]

Yes, the large number of students made for a very long day. Saturday from 9AM to around 6PM and Sunday from 2 til about 8. There were some extended waits between training and surface intervals. But the instructor is very thorough and made sure that each student completed all the required skills. Just took a while.

 

[UnixSage]

The way mine was done was diferent than I have read or heard about. There were 11 students 2 DIs and 5 DMs so every student pair had a DM. What made it nice is that we would do our skills with the DI as a pair and then touring with the DM around the quarry. Got a lot of dive time and did not have to spend a lot of time on the platform waiting on a group just my buddy.

 

[downdeep]

Sounds like a plan.
I just hope I helped the students feel a little more confident and safer. It's been 7 years since my OW course but I remember it like it was yesterday. I thought I was a diving sack of hell. Looking back, geez I sucked.