PADI training better than USN training?

[Uncle Pug]

Today instead of diving (beautiful sunny PNW weather) I helped roof a friends house... not just any old friend either... my first dive buddy, Dave.

Dave was a USN diver during the Vietnam conflict and sat in on the PADI class I took to get certified (along with my son Dave and his son Dave - man I'm glad my name's not Dave!)

After spending the day in the hot sun on his second story roof we sat on the P/U tailgate and talked about the old days (Dave doesn't dive anymore... hasn't for years)... and of course we were talking about the stuff Shane and I have been learning in the GUE classes and the kind of dives we are doing now... and Dave told me something astonishing:

He said that he thought the training that we had received in our PADI class was way ahead of what he received in the USN! He said it blew his mind... and that blew my mind... he had never said anything about this in all the years I have known him.

This is not to talk down the USN dive training... I have Dave's vintage Navy Dive Manual and it is comprehensive, if a little dated... but I think during that time training moved along fast getting guys ready to go... and I have a suspicion that perhaps Dave hadn't really paid all that good of attention

But... it got me to thinking... I know that there is a lot of PADI bashing (just like there is DIR bashing - though for different reasons)... but I am really thankful for the early training that I had and all those years of fun scuba diving as a rototiller.

 

[SM Diver]

I don't have much of a reference point, with all of my training having been PADI, but I have been extremely pleased with my PADI training, and the specialty courses, as well. I visit several LDS's in the area (I just realized the other day that there are an amazing three LDSs within 2 miles of my front door, and probably 7 LDSs within 12 miles), and I always get the same question: Who did you do your BOW with. That is usually met with comments that A) their certification program is better, and B) their shop/instructors are better.

Anyway, I have seen nothing that makes me want to shift out of PADI.

 

[Walter]

I toured the USN Dive Training school on Friday. Unless you had an extremely unusual class, it wasn't even close to what I witnessed. If it was, it was certainly a result of an outstanding instructor and not what came from PADI standards.

 

[Cave Diver]

Knowing nothing about the USN standards I don't have anything to reference in regard to their standards. However it has been said before and I will say it again: A divers competency often has more to do with an individual instructor than any particular agency.

I was certified through PADI up to Rescue Diver by the same instructor who taught me BOW. I took my nitrox course through and IANTD instructor and my full cave course through NACD. I have also now taken a GUE DIRF class and have to agree that the GUE standards are a bit higher than what my other instructor held me to, except for possibly my cave course. I have also had the chance to witnesss several NAUI courses.

In my opinion, my PADI instructor did a good job of thouroughly teaching me the basic skills that gave me a solid foundation to continue my dive education on. On a trip to Cozumel with my LDS there were students trained by both the NAUI and PADI instructors from the same shop, and the ones my instructor trained were MUCH better divers than the NAUI ones.

My personal opinion is that training will be a reflection of two things: Instructor capability and student willingness to learn and excel. ANY agency will produce good divers when those two criteria are met, and even GUE with it's phenomenal standards can't make a good diver if the student isnt willing.

 

[Mouth Breather old]

I have a couple of former SEAL buddies and they told me the biggest difference between PADI and Navy SEAL training were the "Specialty Courses"...especially the "Swim a half mile, then kill a guy" course.

Mouth Breather

 

[JustAddWater]

Uncle Pug,
How many years (or dives) until you started training in DIR? What was the impetus? (Did more challenging diving necessitate advanced training? Were you introduced to DIR by someone? Did you feel that you had reached a plateau in your skills?)
Just curious,
JAW

 

[Uncle Pug]

How many years (or dives) until you started training in DIR?

15 years (several thousand dives but I am only guessing since I didn't keep a log book.)

What was the impetus?

Safety.

Did more challenging diving necessitate advanced training?

Yes & no. We were doing dives on air and taking chances we shouldn't have been but we didn't know any better.

Were you introduced to DIR by someone?

I found out about it on the internet and fortunately lived close enough to 5thD that a group of us could take a DIRF from Andrew G.

Did you feel that you had reached a plateau in your skills?

No... we were not smart enough to realize that... but fortunately I did realize that we were accelerating in the risks we were taking.

 

[Butch103]

Interesting reply to the questions posed to you.......What is most important and interesting is that, although you have 15 years of diving, you are still willing to "learn" and take further training. This is important to all new divers, you should never stop learning.........

 

[DaveO]

My BOW instructor said the training he gives is only slightly less rigorous than the training he received in the military (instructor sneaking up and stealing your mask, turning your air off, tying you off to something big, etc.) Since that was Ranger training I figured SEAL training would be commensurate with everything you'd expect of a SEAL.

I was startled to hear from a currently active SEAL that they had very recently abandoned horse collar-type BCs in favor of something more modern. I thought for sure they'd be diving something along the lines of a HyperWhizBang 5000.

 

[Cave Diver]

Mouth Breather once bubbled...
I have a couple of former SEAL buddies and they told me the biggest difference between PADI and Navy SEAL training were the "Specialty Courses"...especially the "Swim a half mile, then kill a guy" course.

Mouth Breather

During my DIRF class, the instructors mentioned they knew a few Navy SEAL's. They told us that the SEAL dive training was roughly equivalent to PADI BOW training. Most of them couldnt dive very well at all, but they could kill you 15 different ways with a paperclip. Funny, but I always expected Navy SEALS to be like, well like seals in the water...