Got it! Do you do the gulf dives because the odds of your students diving in the ocean are good or does your agency require 6 scuba dives. I believe you do turn out good divers with 12.5 hours in the water coupled with the small groups and 6 OW dives, I wouldn't consider that a "weekend" course. How many dives do you do for AOW? We do 16 and they must attend all dives and accumulate 400 minutes of bottom time or they don't get their card.
I know our scuba program has been around since 1980, possibly longer I don't recall. Our students whine about some of the exercises, especially the 45 minutes we make them spend doing skills (including searching for CO2 cartridges we put on the bottom of the pool) while their masks are blacked out so they can experience zero visibility. When they get into the quarries here in Ohio, I've heard countless students say "Now I know why you made us do that exercise!" We too, turn out good divers. My instructor takes her AOW students to Florida for their dives when everyone can afford to go. One boat captain didn't want to let them charter the boat because he didn't think the students had enough experience. She convinced him to take them and at the end of the trip he said, "If all your students are like these you're welcome on my boat anytime." That seemed to me like a pretty high compliment.
Ber
I know our scuba program has been around since 1980, possibly longer I don't recall. Our students whine about some of the exercises, especially the 45 minutes we make them spend doing skills (including searching for CO2 cartridges we put on the bottom of the pool) while their masks are blacked out so they can experience zero visibility. When they get into the quarries here in Ohio, I've heard countless students say "Now I know why you made us do that exercise!" We too, turn out good divers. My instructor takes her AOW students to Florida for their dives when everyone can afford to go. One boat captain didn't want to let them charter the boat because he didn't think the students had enough experience. She convinced him to take them and at the end of the trip he said, "If all your students are like these you're welcome on my boat anytime." That seemed to me like a pretty high compliment.
Ber