PADI Max Depth in OW curriculum?

[hqduong]

I know that after my AOW PADI says I can go 100 feet, and with OW I can go 60 ft.

What I am curious what guidance does PADI give its instructor to train at for each of these courses? My OW class the deepest was 30 Feet, while my girlfriends class was on average 50 feet. What depth should the instructor be training at? More of a curiosity than anything.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you think your girlfriend's instructor took her class down too deep.

If an instructional agency certifies a student to dive to a certain depth, then it makes sense that the class in question will observe that same maximum depth limit. Using this logic, it would seem that PADI standards specify a max depth of 60 ft. for basic OW and a max depth of 100 ft. for AOW.

Here in San Diego, it is quite common for PADI instructors and DMs to take their basic OW students down to about 50-60 fsw on one of the class dives. At La Jolla Shores, such a dive usually involves a brief "tour" of the edge of the canyon. Students typically run through their gas supplies rather quickly, so the dive can be quite short.

It's another issue whether it is a "good" practice for instructors to be taking novices down to 60 ft. without first teaching them proper gas management skills.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Going past the 2nd ata is usually a good practice to get the feel of the buoyancy at the 33' level to let air out, how many was in your class. if to many students per inst, your Instructor might have avoided it, sometimes you don't get all the lessons you need in OW. Good to ask here though.

 

[Hawkwood]

Simple, direct answer:

OW Dives 1 & 2 - not to exceed 40 feet
OW Dives 3 & 4 - not to exceed 60 feet

When doing three dives in a day, the maximum depth for the last dive is 40 feet

CESA must be done at a depth of no less than 20 feet and no more than 30 feet.

 

[CamG]

Greetings hqduogne Hawkwood just cut to the chase.
When I assisted whose were the guidelines we used to train OW divers.
Rarely did our first dives ever exceed the 35' range and if the students were doing well dives 3-4 would be in the 45'-50' but rarely ever exceed 50'.
We trained in cold water so we always planned dives for 10' more to pad the conservatism as well as account for cold water issues.
There was always a discussion about cold water issues and techniques before actual OW training.

I have come to understand that our OW class was not your normal run of the mill so to speak.
There were dive planning, cold water, gas management, safe diving practices, buoyancy, etc. briefings that were question /answer time as well as in water demonstration.
Sadly not all instructors take the time or energy to out fit there students with additional learning beyond the requirements.
It was always are practice to try to build the best diver we could out of the student.
We would identify the weak spots and go to work honing those skills.

Ow water students many times returned to dive with or around us to continue learning and training.
Many of these divers are actively pursuing their own path today in the dive world.
Depth was always progressional and purposeful in our training and never just a number or ata.
It was made very clear the deep dives were defined and detailed with a clear plan including all considerations.
This was a part of the dive plan discussion when the conversation went to diving the max of the cert. OW 60'.
This also included a pep talk on redundant air also a freeby.
Might I add that this was an independent instructor that was not working for a dive shop but rather affiliated with one.
He had about 99% return student ratio and as said many great divers to show for his training.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[Simon-]

As stated, dives 1 & 2 have a maximum depth of 12m, dives 3 & 4 a maximum of 18m.

There are 2 schools of thought here.

They are maximum depths for all of the OW dives. However, other than the General Standards and Procedures, there is no mimimum depth for the dives (except for the CESA which must be conducted between 6m - 9m).

Arguement 1 - Unfortunately, without a minimum, divers are being certified to 18m and the maximum depth of their training dives imay have been 7m. No experience of their certified maximum depth before being unleashed into the diving world.

Arguement 2 - Makes no difference if they don't go to the maximum depth, as all skills can be performed in shallower water.

For me, the answer lies with the quality of the dive experience. A simulated 3 mins safety stop at 5m when you have only been at 7m for 25 minutes; is that value/quality? Even a novice student may be wondering why you are doing the stop(even though you are teaching a technique of being neutral whilst maintaining a stop). However you take that same student to 16m and the simulated safety stop suddenly makes sense to them. It adds an additional value to the whole thing.

 

[dive pro]

i know that after my aow padi says i can go 100 feet, and with ow i can go 60 ft.

What i am curious what guidance does padi give its instructor to train at for each of these courses? My ow class the deepest was 30 feet, while my girlfriends class was on average 50 feet. What depth should the instructor be training at? More of a curiosity than anything.

i do agree with hawkwood, as a padi open water diver in training depths should be exactly as posted
your question is a question on the open water diver padi exam and it states that the open water diver in training limit is 60 feet, then the certified diver limit with deep diving knowledge is 100ft and the aow diver and maximum limit for recreational diving is 130ft.

 

[DevonDiver]

PADI provide some recommendations based on certification level.

Recommended maximum depth for newly certified Open Water divers is 18m/60ft.
Recommended maximum depth for divers with further training and experience is 30m/100ft.
Recommended maximum depth for divers with specific deep dive training is 40m/130ft.

However, PADI also categorically state that divers should dive within the limits of their training and experience. They should also dive conservatively and set personal limits. Those limits are based on a wide spectrum of factors, including; water/weather conditions, personal comfort zone and capability, dive objectives and your buddies comfort zone and capability etc

That advice really over-rules any concept that you are attaining a 'license that permits you to dive to X, Y or Z depths'. Divers should make a realistic assessment of each individual dive plan and ensure that they have the training, equipment, experience and psychological comfort to complete the dive.

Such an assessment should be based on the divers own capabilities and not be swayed by any assumption that external support will make the dive safer for them. Dives conducted on the basis that you can dangerously exceed your own comfort zone, training or experience on the basis of another divers' capabilities are often called "trust me dives" - and can be a recipe for disaster.



As for training depths, these should ideally give the diver experience in the type of diving they will likely complete post-qualification. It's far from unreasonable to assume that any OW qualified diver is going to complete post-qualification dives in the full 18m/60ft depth range. Therefore, an 'ideal' course will give that diver exposure to the fullest range of depths and dive profiles (within course standards).

Having said that, the depth of a dive is merely one small factor in the training equation. Completing shallow dives on an OW course may not be ideal - but the quality of those training dives is what really matters. A good instructor is a good instructor. Bad is bad. There can be valid reasons why deeper dives were not completed - and those would normally be reasons dictated by student safety and/or the availability of depth at a training site. Dives could also be kept shallow to maximise training time for the student.

From my experience, bad instructors are normally the ones who spend dive time longest and deepest. Burn the student's air, finish the dives quick and return to shore for an early finish to work. Sad, but true - I've seen that mentality in some dive 'professionals'.

 

[TSandM]

We try to get our OW divers down near 60 feet on the 3rd dive, but they can't always get there because of gas consumption issues. Since narcosis is not really noticeably different at 60 than at 40 (even for me) I don't think that matters very much. When you start doing dives down where narcosis really looms, I think the student who is certified to go that deep should have been evaluated at that depth.

 

[ajduplessis]

Instructors should stick to the recommended depths based on conditions and diver experience. The diver should do at least one dive to the recommended depth to get an understanding/feeling for that type of dive.