Poll: Were you OW trained to standards?

[DogDiver]

When I started diving in 1966 we bought our gear. $99 for a tank, backpack and regulator. There was no such thing as rental gear. The shop owner told us to breathe normally and don’t hold your breath. That was all the instruction we got. Oh no SPG, no bcd, no depth gauge, and no octo.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Certified PADI in 1995. We covered all of the material in the book. I felt prepared to conduct my own dive, and did upon certification.

I have no clue if we met standards. It wasn't even discussed. I couldn't answer the poll, because I don't know.

You don’t even know if you met standards??
Did you read the PADI OW manual to see?
It’s all in there.
This thread is kinda about the poll.
Please take the poll.

 

[Chavodel8en]

It was 20 years ago, but from my recollection, the training was just up to the standards.

It was a PADI course with four evenings of class, a weekend of pool work & a weekend at Monterey. I remember there were certain skills that we trained to, and had to demonstrate in the pool and the ocean.

In the ocean, I had trouble descending, so they put more weight on me - up to 38 (!!!) lbs. However, my instructor told me I was greatly overweighted and I would need to drop weight as my buoyancy dialed in. My trim was not that good - again, my instructor told me I would need to improve it.

Some of you here are likely appalled by the state of my training described above, but I accept it as an expedient needed to get me trained along with dozen other students in one weekend, for the ~$300 I paid for the group training. They did not make me a proficient diver, but I wouldnt kill myself, and I had a license to learn. We even got some "fun dives" in after the skills, and I managed to do them.

I did not have the time nor the money to get trained up to the level that some folks insist on here. Quick, dirty - and cheap - was fine with me

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It was 20 years ago, but from my recollection, the training was just up to the standards.

It was a PADI course with four evenings of class, a weekend of pool work & a weekend at Monterey. I remember there were certain skills that we trained to, and had to demonstrate in the pool and the ocean.

In the ocean, I had trouble descending, so they put more weight on me - up to 38 (!!!) lbs. However, my instructor told me I was greatly overweighted and I would need to drop weight as my buoyancy dialed in. My trim was not that good - again, my instructor told me I would need to improve it.

Some of you here are likely appalled by the state of my training described above, but I accept it as an expedient needed to get me trained along with dozen other students in one weekend, for the ~$300 I paid for the group training. They did not make me a proficient diver, but I wouldnt kill myself, and I had a license to learn. We even got some "fun dives" in after the skills, and I managed to do them.

I did not have the time nor the money to get trained up to the level that some folks insist on here. Quick, dirty - and cheap - was fine with me

Actually, what you describe is about standard for the time. At least the instructor told you that you were overweighted for the class and you’d have to clean that up later on your own. Many people never get told that and dive overweighted for months/years before they figure it out.
If you did four days, two day class and pool and two days in Monterey ocean diving then you got the full deal by the book.
I think my OW was $350 but $50 of that was gear rental.

 

[jborg]

I believe I was trained precisely to standards. Sweden, 2019. There was a fair amount of pool work and I remember doing most of the skills on the list; we probably did the things I don't specifically remember, too, because the instructor was working off the PADI slates and seemed diligent about it. Everything was done on the knees, which could have been better but not a standards violation.

We switched to dry suits for the OW dives because it was getting cold in the water, and we had an extra pool session for familiarisation -- that may or may not be up to standards today, given recent events, I'm not sure. OW dives were 20 minutes at 6-10 meters, skills on the knees. Oh! And an actual CESA, from about 3m, if I remember correctly. Maybe that was actually outside of or in contravention of the standards...

I remember freezing our asses off in the dry suits because we had inadequate undersuits and about twice as much lead as required. Getting the weighting right is trickier in a dry suit with unknown undersuit properties, so I don't think this was out of line.

All in all, I think we came out of it capable of doing the kind of dive we did autonomously.

 

[eelnoraa]

I want to say I was trained to standard because my AOW was so much below standard, I felt like I didn’t learn one single thing. I didn’t feel i want to name the instructor publicly, but if anyone is considering in my area, please feel free to PM me.

The reason I took AOW was because I didn’t feel safe after OW even after two years of diving. I think the OW instructor did enough to let me know I need to take it seriously.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

My scuba instruction in 1967 from my non-instructor, non-certified dad consisted of don't hold your breath, don't surface faster than your smallest exhaust bubbles, and don’t come back until you have killed something for dinner. Fast forward to my PADI Basic OW Scuba class in 1976. My instructor opened his first lecture with, "The only way scuba diving could be made better and more fun is to devise a way to kick back on a rock underwater while toking on a joint." I kid you not. On our 2 certification beach dives he would take one last long drag, stick his regulator mouthpiece in his mouth, and blow smoke-filled THC bubbles out of his exhaust T as he descended. We did learn the tables and the various gas laws. Oh yeah, and put your weight belt on last. Not sure what PADI standards were back then. No clue if we fell below, met or exceeded standards. I got my basic OW card and could now buy air fills so that was all I cared about.

When I took Sam Miller's NAUI Advanced class we exceeded standards with 36 required dives in all conditions over 18 weeks plus 72 hours of lectures.

M

 

[Cthippo]

The reason I took AOW was because I didn’t feel safe after OW even after two years of diving. I think the OW instructor did enough to let me know I need to take it seseriously.

What would you have needed in your OW to feel comfortable diving?

 

[Vicko]

I did 3 ow courses.
My first one was a cmas 1* when I was 12 year old. The course lasted almost 2 months and made me the diver I am today. It had a number of confidence and in water comfort exercises that would get your instructor cert revoked today but were according to cmas standards. We even had EAN and rescue training.

My second one was in university, also a cmas course that was so bad and rushed that it was a disaster, I think we had 2 theory lessons and 2-3 pool sessions on the same day and done.

My third one was when I was already working in a dive centre, my cmas cert was not accepted by IANTD so I retook owd while already working as a divemaster. This was the only one done to standards but unfortunately I was not present for most of it as I had discovery dives to guide.


So in regards to the poll, all 3 of them.

 

[Celt]

I got a copy of SubSea, must be late 60,s then meet up with 2 divers from Waterford sub aqua and then divers out of Fort Bovisand. Portsmouth. late 70,s.
Edit, all I wanted was to be underwater and came up with a hare brained plan to join the Royal Navy as a clearance diver in the late 70,s. The plan was to get trained and go AWAL. No Irish government were going to send me back to the British considered what was going on in the North. I went to Belfast to sign up and do the medical, was picked up by the special branch for the shooting of 2 magistrates and interned. ( nothing to do with me) scrapped that plan when I got out.