PADI 2 day OW class

[PerroneFord]

I got my OW certification in Barbados in Three days...

I HIGHLY recommend this method! One on one instruction was AWESOME. I learned alot from the instructor and this fully prepared me, I believe, to dive and also to proceed with further training.

Russ,

No disrespect meant here, but just an honest question. What are you comparing your experience to? When you've taken half a dozen or a dozen courses, and you can relate your OW experience to other dive training, I can understand saying your instructor prepared you well.

I'm not saying you didn't have a good instructor. Maybe he was the best in the world. But quite frankly, most OW students think their instructor is awesome, until they move on. I have found in most instances that top instructors RARELY teach OW classes. Yes there are exceptions, but that is the general trend I see. Which is why we tend to have sooo many discussions here on SB about the general poor quality of basic diving instruction.

Again, I am not saying you had a poor class. I wasn't there, and I don't know. But it is hard to take your words at face value given that you aren't able to compare your experience objectively.

 

[Charlie99]

Here's a description of my OW cert class. It was supposed to be 5 days, but ended up taking 2-1/2 days. You can also read all of the shock and gasps about about how deficient such classes are, and how many standard violations occurred.

In reading posted descriptions of other classes, it appears that my 2-1/2 day class covered many items omitted from classes that others have taken, but the key difference is that it was a private class. Since I was the only student, I didn't sit around watching others repeatedly do their skills, and the class could proceed at whatever pace I was comfortable with.

Even as a private course and me being very comfortable in the water, 2-1/2 days was a pretty fast pace, and I'd be very leery of anyone trying to complete a multi-student OW cert class in 2 days.

Charlie Allen

 

[loosebits]

You never know what you weren't taught. I took a much longer 16 week university class. Here are some things we covered that maybe were abbreviated or not taught at all in the standard class.

1) Gas management (rock bottom calculations)
2) Buoyancy & trim - we spent a lot of time (6+ hours) working on this, not a 30 second hover and some fin pivots.. we never even did a fin pivot.
3) Rescue procedures (tired diver tow, panicked diver, getting unconscious diver to the surface, DCS first aid)
4) Free diving
5) Gear comfort drills (ditch & don - throw your gear in the bottom of the pool, dive down, put it on, try and put on as much as possible before going for the reg).
6) Navigation (swimming a pattern, not just swim out 20 kicks, turn around and swim back).

I'm sure there is a lot more but it's been a long time since my OW and I've never taken a standard class so I don't know what all it's lacking.

 

[ucrtwf]

I'll probably attract some old school flak here, but my wife and I were certified in Jan. Through a "resort based dive shop" in Mx. We signed up for a "intro to scuba", then deceided to go for the full cert after our first pool dive. I do feel that there were some corners cut (after reading posts from here), but I still feel comfortable in the water, and did better on my (after cert) dives than several already certified divers. The dive shop couldn't find the "english" dvd, so we didn't watch one. There was also no classroom instruction besides what was done in our 2 pool dives. Everything else was- we'll do these techniques on this dive (told to us on the boat on the way to the site), read the book and pass the tests. We did a few skills each dive, as soon as we were done with a particular section in the book and passed the tests, we could do the "more advanced" skills- and finish the OW dives. We did the two pool dives the first day, two dives the second, then the last two the third day. I will say that we studied our butts off for those couple days/nights, but we were WAY ahead of another couple that spent a couple weeks in the pool and in class (at home in the US before heading to the OW dives). I'm in no way trying to say that this was the BEST way to learn, I'm just saying that I do think it can be done if you put your head into it. When it's all said and done, if you KNOW the book and KNOW the skills required, it meets the requirements right? I think everyone knows that the OW cert is very elementary, as long as it's understood that you are not Joe-pro-diver when you're done, it's all good.
Just my $.02
Tim

 

[loosebits]

When it's all said and done, if you KNOW the book and KNOW the skills required, it meets the requirements right?

While I'm sure that 98% of all OW instructors meet the agency requirements, I feel it is the requirements themselves that are grossly lacking.

 

[GA Under Water]

::::EDIT::::

Sorry, could have been seen as rude and milacious so, deleted and
agree to disagree with Loosebits

 

[PerroneFord]

Gaunderwater, is that you in your gallery pics with the yellow accents on your wetsuit? If so, you might want to pay some attention to what loosebits is saying...

 

[GA Under Water]

why is that, are the pictures of my first dive making me look clumsy??

 

[PerroneFord]

why is that, are the pictures of my first dive making me look clumsy??

Well, contrast them with this:

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/53849/cat/500/ppuser/42697

And tell me what you think....

 

[RussR]

Russ,

No disrespect meant here, but just an honest question. What are you comparing your experience to? When you've taken half a dozen or a dozen courses, and you can relate your OW experience to other dive training, I can understand saying your instructor prepared you well.QUOTE]

Perrone,

No disrespect taken. I compare my training to a few of my dive buddies that were certified locally (NJ) through a standarsd course. It seems to me after discussing it that the instructors did not have enough time to give personal attention to each student and therefore some students do not come away with all the needed skills. A couple of the divers still struggle with buoyancy, gear set up and are not comfortable in the enviroment.

I dont think my instructor was the greatest ever but she did a good enough job to create a saftey minded diver, who realizes there is more to learn.

However i must say that I have been in and around the water my entire life andwas very comfortable from the begining so I am sure the expierence is different.

I truly believe that one on one instruction is a fantastic way to learn if you can arrange it.