New diver with a question about OW course

[JudasFm]

First of all, I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question - I ran a search but couldn't find anything similar - but when I say I'm a new diver, I mean I did my first open water dive a couple days ago (amazing and nerve-wracking at the same time!) so I'm still finding my feet in this exotic world

Anyway, my situation is this: having done this first dive, I decided to go for my Open Water. I did a little research and it mentions five pool dives and four open water dives, yet this center says I can become certified in three days (I should probably add that this isn't something they brag about offering or try to pressure me into; it's more a case of 'well, you could do it that way if you wanted to, but if you'd rather take your time then that's fine too').

Is it normal to cover more than one key point in one pool session, thus reducing the number of pool dives to two or three as opposed to five? I want to become certified but I don't want to rush things for the sake of it

Thanks for reading and any answers would be much appreciated.

 

[Skittl1321]

Is it normal to cover more than one key point in one pool session, thus reducing the number of pool dives to two or three as opposed to five? I want to become certified but I don't want to rush things for the sake of it

I just finished my OW certification. We did two days in the pool, two days in OW. However, during those days, we did multiple 'dives'. For the pool, it wasn't really clear which part was which dive, but all the skills were covered. For the OW, we came up and debriefed between dives. We were told in tropical locations it is common for the training dives to be full length dives, but in our close to no viz, somewhat cold quarry, the dives were just done to get done.

For me personally, the pool part was too rushed. I was uncomfortable, however, my shop let me come back the next month to try it again (even though I had already 'passed'). For my husband, he said he would have been incredibly bored if it was dragged out any longer. Make sure your shop doesn't charge extra if you need extra time- the schedule sounds fast paced, which may or may not mean it is rushed.

 

[Just_Me]

Every student learns at a slightly different pace. There is also no such thing as the one instructor for every student. Take your time, at at your comfortable pace and enjoy it.

 

[JudasFm]

Thank you, that makes sense now I hope I can manage it in only a couple of pool dives (not trying to be impatient, but we have to use the hotel pool, which includes a lot of dust from the nearby building site, and a whole lot of tourists. Not ideal conditions for learning key skills or any kind of swimming, come to that :confused6: Still, the dive shop is very good about letting you take things at your own pace...)

 

[Quero]

The five pool "dives" just mean you get in and out of the water five times. When I teach intensive Open Water courses, I dedicate two long sessions to these five dives. Students may think of this as two dives rather than five dives, but in fact we brief the dives in term of what we will accomplish in them, and then after the dive is finished, we debrief and talk over what we did before briefing the next dive. If you don't do an intensive course, you may have a dive a week or two dives in a week, either separately or in a single session. So that's what you need to ask your dive instructor--how the course is structured in terms of how many hours of pool dives, how many dives in a session, and when the classroom sessions take place in relation to the pool dives. Some schools will do all the classroom work first and then do all the dives. Some will break it up so that you cover a chapter of the book and then do the corresponding dive, then the next chapter and the next dive....

A lot will depend on your availability and the kind of learner you are. If you don't like intensive classes, go for the regular one, but if you are impatient at the pace of your progress in a regular class, go for the intensive one.

 

[DanLW]

In my training, I had one pool dive. Yeah, one. We repeated the skills in OW. I was fine with it as I was comfortable from the beginning, and I was with one other student. Normally, they did two pool sessions, but there were special circumstances which made actually getting to a pool difficult. And the actual OW dives were in a high visibility waters. What they did was move some of the pool skills into the OW.

Of course, it's really up to the individual. If you don't feel comfortable about something during or after the pool dives, bring it up with your instructor, and make sure you're good with the skill. In my mind, being able to dive safely is all about being comfortable underwater. If you're comfortable, you're less likely to panic and turn an easily resolvable situation into a dangerous situation.

 

[XS-NRG]

I personally did 5 days. One classroom/theory/knowledge review then off to the pool that night. After our 5 days like that I then had 2 more days for OW checkouts. It worked quite well for me. My mom took hers in Australia and did the condensed 3 day course where all 5 modules were done day 1, all 5 pool sessions were done day 2, then 2 double dives for check outs. She said it was a ton of info and would have like it spread out more but then it all comes down to the individual and how fast you learn and can process that much info. Spreading it out helps you cover the same skills multiple times therefore I think it sinks in more (pardon the pun).

 

[spectrum]

JudasFm,

Call it a dirty little secret if you will but agency standards get trampled and streamlined all of the time. Sometimes it makes sense but often it's instructors taking shortcuts. This is why it is important to research the instructor you are considering.

Pool sessions vary widely from a single marathon to 5 or more progressive lessons. Students who are naturals do OK in spite of shallow learning. Other with challenges may crash and burn.

You may find yourself making several dives on one cylinder of air without ever the water. Dive, surface, chat go back down and exit. Call it what you will they should be covering the material but you may not get the repetitive set-up experience intended. Others who are not naturals crash and burn.

Personally in 2005 we had 2 evenings in class. Then it was 3 or 4 evenings in the pool, actually a few more to let my wife get really comfortable with it all. For checkout dives week/dive 1 we went in and did all of the skills and a short free swim to kill the cylinder. Week/dive 2 was a single cylinder dive where the instructor led us on a tour with us following, we got a little coaching on buoyancy and were proclaimed divers.

It sounds like you have done a discover dive so despite the wracked nerves you know in your gut that you can do this. Pay your money, take your choice. Longer is better. Everyone is different but you can't get overexposed to experience and information. You will be on information/sensory overload so time between exposures has real information absorption value.

Pete

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Most "accelerated classes" taught by the standards of a major certifying agency take at least 4 days. The "book and pool" portion can be accelerated to two fairly long days, and the open water dives by prescription are to occur over two separate days. If all is done in two days, the students must have watched all videos, read all materials, done all written reviews, reviewed and corrected all of those with their instructor, taken a series of tests, have them graded and reviewed with the instructor, filled out much registration paperwork, and the instructor has to do all (his)(her ) paperwork. All of that plus all pool sessions necessary for the student not to just be shown and try all the skills, but to learn them correctly, takes two pretty long days. I for one cannot envision a very good training program that encompasses all the requirements of open water certification taking place in less than 4 days, and those day are pretty long and full days (especially the first two).
DIvemasterDennis

 

[Skittl1321]

The five pool "dives" just mean you get in and out of the water five times.

We didn't even get out of the water between the dives We just came to the surface debriefed, and then talked about the next dive. (We did put our gear together the proper number of times though, as they had us put it together, take it apart, put it together, repeatedly.)


Even in OW we didn't get out of the water between dives, after our dive we just waited above water with a DM until the instructors were done with the next groups and ready to brief the second dive of the day.