Yeah... but a lame quarry is still not the ocean dive that you think is necessary.
It's okay with me that I don't agree with you.
I like the learners permit analogy as it's quite pertinent. My son has just gotten his learners permit and so far I've taken him to quiet neighborhoods inhabited by seniors and 25mph speed limits. Your reasoning would have me taking him on to our 6 lane 75mph interstate freeway because that would be
realistic. After all "one becomes certified to drive in conditions similar to those they were certified in".
Sounds silly right?
Just like a long haul truck driver that can't remember the day he didn't know how to drive and scoff at my driving lessons, many divers probably consider a dive to
ONLY 40 ft a waste of time, a safety stop at best. I'll remind you if it's necessary... 40 feet of water is deep. Realize that currently my son considers the deep end of a pool to be limiting and it wasn't long ago that having his face in water without pinching his nose was uncomfortable.
You keep talking about what's "unrealistic". A diver that doesn't have access to ocean diving and only plans on ever doing shallow inland dives would find Blue grotto quite realistic.
And I've already decided... confined inland freshwater certification dives. Either Blue Grotto or the option that
@Hoag offered.
SaltyCracker--
Stick to your guns. You're being a good dad.
There is absolutely nothing wrong--and there is much right--with your intended plan to have your son train in gentle inland venues, then learn to handle other conditions later with proper supervision
Introductory scuba training is akin to the "my race, my pace" approach to distance running. Don't worry about what conditions others are training in or how quickly they learn to handle more difficult conditions. Do what is right for you and for him.
There are no performance requirements in the open water curriculum that pertain to currents, waves, boats, limited visibility or anything else other than mastering the basic skills.
It's more important to spend those dives mastering skills and improving buoyancy control than is it to learn to handle other variables.
When I teach OW divers in the locations you're considering, I won't commit to letting the students do OW dives 3 and 4 from a boat in the Gulf until I see how they perform in their confined water and first two open water dives. The issue is not whether they can perform the dives safely--any student who has met the performance requirements of OW dives 1 and 2 can do that. If they can't, we're going to spend more time practicing those skills before I sign off on those early dives. The issue for me is whether the student is ready to handle the boat and ocean environment without being distracted from the training mission of the course and whether we can complete the training properly within the time constraints of the boat's schedule--that's a subjective call I make based on a lot of factors.
Regardless of where my students train, I always have "the talk" with them before I affix the final signature. In that talk, I stress that they are qualified to dive only in conditions comparable to those in which they trained, and they should increase degrees of difficulty very gradually, changing only one variable at a time and only with proper supervision from instructors, divemasters, or experienced buddies worthy of their trust.
As long as you and your son understand--as it appears you do--the limits of the open water diver certification and are careful not to dive in ways that outstrip your training and experience without appropriate supervision, there is no need to make OW dives 3 and 4 in more arduous conditions than those offered by Blue Grotto or Devil's Den.
Sometimes students take the OW course just before they're scheduled to take off for tropical vacations where they will dive in the ocean. I will work with these students to give them adequate preparation for the dives they're likely to encounter. But not every new OW diver has to be ready for the ocean when certified.
What Lorenzoid might have been getting at--and I would agree with him on this--is the reality that a lot of divers don't understand the limits of their credentials. They get certified in quarries or placid inland sites, then sign up for dive charters when they aren't prepared for the motion of the boat, to stride from a moving boat, to swim against a current, to handle waves, to find their way back to the boat, to climb a ladder and otherwise manage a no-decompression dive using the buddy system. I see these people on the boats I work on, and I think Lorenzoid's comments were aimed at avoiding this situation.
Best wishes,
