Looking back on your OW course

[bmrwizard99]

I'd have to agree with Buoyancy Control. I also wish I'd have had some orientation on how to "go it alone". By that I mean without a guide so how me and my buddy could walk into a LDS in some new locale and get a good orientation to where to go / what to expect etc. and not offend the LDS...they need to make a living too.

 

[Airleron]

Bouyancy....for sure. I thought my bouyancy control was adequate, until I took AOW. Also, SMB deployment, handling finger reels.

 

[pengwe]

I would say buoyancy, but I think we were supposed to learn that, and I just failed to. (Actually, our instructor told us not to worry about buoyancy control, as it would come on its own eventually. But I think it is in the PADI standards that we were supposed to learn it)

One thing I would have liked is an overview of how a dive works. We got given a pile of convoluted (to me) equipment, practised a random bunch of skills, and learnt some apparently unrelated bits of theory. It would be nice to have a framework to hang everything on, so that it made more sense.

 

[bamamedic]

Looking back, if there was ONE thing you wish you had been taught in your OW course that you learned "the hard way", what would that be?

On the instructors section there's always a lively debate about what instructors believe students should learn.... but what about people who aren't instructors....

R..

My OW instructor actually did a great job (and I'm not just saying that 'cause he reads Scubaboard from time to time). I don't know how many times I've recommended him to coworkers interested in learning to dive.

The only thing I could say, is I wish he had taught mask removal while hovering in the water column. Honestly, that might've been a bit too much for me at that early stage, since I was having issues with comfort during mask removal and replacement even with my knees on the bottom of the pool/platform. However, it would've saved me a a few hiccups in having to teach myself to remain neutrally buoyant while removing and replacing my mask (sounds easy, but the first couple times I tried it, I created quite a silt cloud when I crashed into the bottom 20 ft below me!)

It seems to me that your average instructor (at least from my limited experience) teaches basic skills with the students negatively buoyant on the bottom. While it might take an additonal half hour or so to get those students neutral, it would probably do wonders for their in-water comfort.

The other thing, I can't fault my instructor for...he taught me how to use a compass, I just didn't practice the skill one bit after OW. Now, I'm faced with an Advanced Nitrox and Deco class at the end of the month, and I find myself putting a towel over my head, and trying to navigate a course in my backyard, with my boyfriend (er...fiance') laughing hysterically at me

 

[princessaprilia]

(....)
The other thing, I can't fault my instructor for...he taught me how to use a compass, I just didn't practice the skill one bit after OW. Now, I'm faced with an Advanced Nitrox and Deco class at the end of the month, and I find myself putting a towel over my head, and trying to navigate a course in my backyard, with my boyfriend (er...fiance') laughing hysterically at me

WHAT A GREAT IDEA.

I'm totally stealing that one. It's beautiful.

:idea:

 

[bamamedic]

WHAT A GREAT IDEA.

I'm totally stealing that one. It's beautiful.

:idea:

I wish I could say it was my original idea, but I saw some AOW students doing it in the parking lot of the semi-local dive quarry...I had to dodge them while driving in one day...like some kind of towel clad obstacle course

 

[TravisD]

Proper weighting.

 

[Oyster Diver]

The other thing, I can't fault my instructor for...he taught me how to use a compass, I just didn't practice the skill one bit after OW. Now, I'm faced with an Advanced Nitrox and Deco class at the end of the month, and I find myself putting a towel over my head, and trying to navigate a course in my backyard, with my boyfriend (er...fiance') laughing hysterically at me

My basic instructor went way beyond the minimum and I really appreciate it. However, my compass ability is less than desirable. For my AOW I did the same drill with the towel over my head on land and could hit the target every time, but put me in water and I would follow a random pattern (you might as well draw an arrow on my hand and tell me its North). So when my Adv. Nitrox and Deco Procedures instructor said I didn't even need to carrry a compass I was greatly releaved.

 

[sabbath999]

Deploying an SMB or DSMB would have been handy much earlier on - especially in the UK!

+1

I wish I had at least rudimentary SMB training in my OW.

 

[lmorin]

Nothing. The OW course is what it is. There are lots of things that I have subsequently learned and that could be included. But they are all, arguably, also things that should be left out of the basic course. The major purpose of the basic course is to get folks out diving safely on their own. My OW course accomplished that.