Barnaby'sDad
Contributor
An OW certification is nothing more than a license to learn. At least that’s how NAUI referred to it. Basically “you passed the bare minimum standards to receive this certification...now it’s up to you to go put it into practice and become a competent diver.”
Keep in mind that the vast majority of people complete an OW course, go on vacation once, complete a few dives via a hand holding dive operator, and then go 1+ year without diving again. You can’t build upon basic skills by doing something once in a blue moon. Ex. One operator in the Keys that I dove with...they were literally assembling people’s gear for them.
That and “you don’t know what you don’t know (or what you forgot).” Ex. People that have been diving 5+ years, have only a few dives, and don’t take a refresher when they decide to go diving. @Eric Sedletzky...I would put money on it that the people you’re speaking of learned those basics. The issue is that they covered the material so long ago that they’ve forgotten much of it.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of people complete an OW course, go on vacation once, complete a few dives via a hand holding dive operator, and then go 1+ year without diving again. You can’t build upon basic skills by doing something once in a blue moon. Ex. One operator in the Keys that I dove with...they were literally assembling people’s gear for them.
That and “you don’t know what you don’t know (or what you forgot).” Ex. People that have been diving 5+ years, have only a few dives, and don’t take a refresher when they decide to go diving. @Eric Sedletzky...I would put money on it that the people you’re speaking of learned those basics. The issue is that they covered the material so long ago that they’ve forgotten much of it.