OW pool training

[Dr Dog]

I have done training with just divers and with kids. They were not jumping over my head, but they were around. You have to take them for what they are...kids... which the lifeguard probably was also, and is there to make sure everyone lives. NOt yell at kids for swimming

I say you have to " man up " here and put up with it. Think of it as training for the future, when things may not go your way, you will have to be able to adjust.
Like when you have boats overhead, or you are in the water with a bunch of others, and fins are hitting you

Bottom line is yes it would be optimum for you to have a private pool, but those resources do not exist for everyone, so if you want to continue you will have to deal with it. Once you are certed you can go anywhere, and there are no kids at 60 feet. At least none I have seen

 

[Kronek]

The shop I just finished mine up does their pool training in off shore helo dunk tanks. So we had the tank to ourselves. But at the same time, 10 years ago, the same shop rented out entire pools for their classes.

 

[ErikNYC]

We used the local YMCA, and had our own lane. The view underwater was awesome at times.

 

[nimoh]

The part about the kids jumping off the diving board above you seems bothersome. Although if it were a 1m springboard into a 5m pool, they wouldn't be getting down far enough to interfere with your session.

When doing the surface skills such as the swim and treading, is it really that big of a deal to have kids swimming around you?

 

[graham_s]

I shared a pool with the local canoe club.
If they trespassed into our area, we sank them

 

[shmuggy]

At this point in your training it is important to be fully focussed on what is being taught so no, this is not a good or even adequate, training environment. I trained in a YMCA pool that was rented by the dive shop after hours so it was all ours for the sessions. I would ask them about where they do the OW certification dives and who else will be there. I don't understand why the people from your dive shop didn't intervene to stop this from happening more than once. It is not as if you should expect to encounter this when you are diving.

 

[nimoh]

I shared a pool with the local canoe club.
If they trespassed into our area, we sank them

If you trespassed, did they float you?

 

[boulderjohn]

At this point in your training it is important to be fully focussed on what is being taught so no, this is not a good or even adequate, training environment.

I agree. There is also an element of danger. What if one of the students does an ascent at the moment a kid is coming in off the diving board?

 

[Them]

The lifeguard did not say anything as to keeping them away from where we were training. When doing the 200m swim part we were told to take 1 lane and have all 12 people in the class circle up and back in that lane together. When we were doing the 10 min floating portion there were kids doing laps in between us. The lifeguard was sitting in their chair not saying anything. If this is any indiction of what's to come, I am seriously considering not going into the OW with this dive group...

Personally, I wouldn't prejudice myself about the OW dives based on the pool experience. They are totally different. Those kids (probably) won't be following you out to the ocean.

Instead, assess whether you think you are ready for the open water. In other words, did the distractions in the pool degrade your learning experience to the point where you missed something or didn't really "get it"? If so, that's a conversation to have with your instructor/shop.

The whole thing sounds really hokey to me, but then again I was in a reasonably sized (deep end marked as 18 foot depth, and I'm guessing 45x20 feet on the surface) pool with two other people (one instructor, one other student) and I thought it was too small, so maybe there is no pleasing some people.

 

[DukeAMO]

IMHO, it's not a big deal if you have to share the pool with others. What would be a problem is people jumping on top of each other.