How can places offer 2 day classes?

[SNorman]

I see places advertising scuba courses that give you your cert in "2 days". How is that possible? Seems like an awful lot of information to cram into 2 days and then expect to remember it all.

A friend of mine didn't want to take the scuba class with me because he said "I only want to dive in warm water, and if I go somewhere on vacation I'll just take the 2 day class there". Seems like a waste of 2 days on vacation to me though.

 

[scubamickey]

I did a 3 day course while on a 10 day vacation. I'm a fast reader, though. I went through the book and the Knowledge Reviews in 3 nights (about 2 hours each night), we spent 4 hours on the confined water skils (I was the only student) which were a piece of cake and I couldn't imagine extending the time on that. Then did the OW dives over the course of 2 1/2 days, with discussion of theory during the surface intervals. I don't learn by rote which makes a difference. When I learn it's because I understand not because I memorized a bunch of phrases or whatever.
I taught myself the tables, so the instructor was able to skip that lesson. I got one question wrong on the final exam and it wasn't a table one

The advantage that I had though, is that I am a college grad with courses in Chemistry and Biology and I understood the physics as well. Plus, I had my hubby giving me details and further clarification in the evenings. One of his degrees is in Chemistry and at the time he had 28 years experience diving. I think all that made a difference for me.

I retained everything I learned and I immediately started reading everything I could get my hands on that was related to diving physics and dive medicine. I am the exception I think. I would not recommend a 3 day course to someone who struggles with the basics or has any issues in the water. I also wouldn't recommend taking the course while on vacation unless you had more than a week.

By the end of that vacation I had logged almost 20 dives. A month later I had my dry suit certification and was diving in 58 degree water here in Alaska.

 

[BIGSAGE136]

You show up. You dive. You're a critic. What's new?

 

[Rick Inman]

Last weekend, a buddy and I took a nice lady from Phoenix diving in our local puddle. She was visiting friends for the 4th, found me by doing a google search and sent me an email asking if we could please take here diving.

Why, sure!

Turns out she couldn't dive. Not that she was a bad diver, but that she could not actually manage to start diving. She tried, and we tried to help her, for about 40 minutes, until all of us gave up and she went back to her friends truck.

She couldn't get her equipment sorted out, couldn't get her fins on, couldn't stop her mask from flooding, kept loosing her reg and couldn't recover it, hoses and gages were freely dangling and getting lost, tank fell out of strap, gloves made her hands hurt, couldn't dump her bc air and wouldn't stop fining so she couldn't get down... Endless issues. Plus after 40 minutes she was so hot and exhausted she couldn't have made the dive anyway.

She had a total of 5 dives - all from a dive boat in Cancun during vacation while getting her "weekend cert." She explained that the DM had had set up all her gear for her, sat her down into the tank, and because she couldn't carry the weight, they lifted the kit off her back and walked her to the back of the boat, where they put on her fins for her, inflated her BC, turned on her tank, handed her the reg and slipped her into the water.

She was a very nice lady, tried very hard, but just didn't have the training to dive in our little pond.

 

[TheFoggyMask]

Its shocking that these "certified" divers don't feel like they have gaping holes in their abilities. Its even worse that PADI allows this garbage to go on in their own programs.

 

[tparrent]

While I agree that a 2 or 3 day program is not ideal, I also believe that some good, careful divers come out of those programs. I beleive it's the diver more than the diving program that makes a difference. What the quicky programs DO allow is more people who do not feel a long term commitment to get certified.

In my case, I picked up the book Friday afternoon, read it cover to cover Friday night, took the book classes Saturday (pretty much a waste for me - I did read the book after all), took pool classes on SUnday. Did my open water dives later.

Am I the world's best diver? Gee, no, I'm not.

Do I land on the reef, rocket to the surface and put my gear on backwards? No, I don't do that either.

I went on my first trip shortly after my open water dives and I was blessed with a wonderful divemaster and some patient friends. Everything went well and I learned a ton while not dragging anyone else down. Experience is the key to learning and it does not necessarily have to occur in a formal class.

I would guess that MOST new divers come out of weekend classes. That doesn't make them all bad but it does allow some bad ones to get through.

On the other hand, I have also gone out with very experienced divers who took long training programs and have multiple certifications. And I wonder how they are still alive. Horrible practices and lots of luck. ("Hey, let's do a deep night dive while we're still drunk because tomorrow we will be too hung over to enjoy it!" - I've seen that TWICE in my short diving time)

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Actually I think we have come a long way. A BIG thuimbs up to instructors everywhere!

 

[scubamickey]

There are many divers out there that can't dive. I saw for myself this summer while on a dive on the Spiegal Grove. No concept of Gas management or *why* they are doing anything.
One of those was an instructor who had 3 discover scuba students with them. He stood on the floor of reef during our second dive, bicycled his way everywhere...it was sad to see. Especially, when I swam by in horizontal position, knees bent doing the frog kick, no danglies, and no scullying. His students commented to my husband and I that we looked so good. "That must be so hard" they said. What I wanted to respond was that it was just their instructor who sucked.

 

[scubamickey]

Its shocking that these "certified" divers don't feel like they have gaping holes in their abilities. Its even worse that PADI allows this garbage to go on in their own programs.

Well, in the case of that woman that Rick mentioned, she probably has no idea. Poor instruction and a lack of common sense on the part of many divers is partly to blame. I don't think PADI cares as long as they are making money.

I'm glad that I discovered GUE standards.

 

[Zaffy]

I took a 2 day weekend class. I did all my book work the week before, then I did my pool work & dives in the ocean with an instructor 1 on 1.

I feel like he was very thorough and made sure that I understood and got practice in the things that were required for an OW cert.

I try to recognize my limits, and I don't dive beyond them. I'm still a fairly new diver, but I don't think I'm "bad" at it due to a 2-day course. I haven't had any negative feedback from people I've dived with. I don't think it's right to make a sweeping statement that all people who do a 2 day course will get you killed (hyperbole I know, but you get the point) It depends on the person, and the instructor, but that's also true for any class.