Rec Diving Then vs. Now

[MauiScubaSteve]

Diving these days does not appear to require either general fitness nor any degree of watermanship. Not attempting to be judgmental, just saying. I'd just as soon have a relatively fit buddy with passable swimming skills.

It is possible that 10 year olds are allowed to become certified now, where as 12 was the youngest age for certification in '91.

It is possible that all certified divers were required to "swim" at least 200 yards/meters in '91 where as snorkeling 300 yards/meters is now an option.

As far as agency Standards for required Watermanship and general fitness I do not see much more required back in '91.

A very fit native of Cameroon would likely struggle with swimming 200 meters, while an obese Minnesotan could back float 200 yards without breathing hard. Allowing snorkeling may have increased the overall fitness level of new certified divers.

 

[Skarn]

Diving these days does not appear to require either general fitness nor any degree of watermanship. Not attempting to be judgmental, just saying. I'd just as soon have a relatively fit buddy with passable swimming skills.

Good diving, Craig

Interesting...when I got certified with NAUI in 1986, it was stated that you didn't even need to know how to swim! My thoughts are that if you can't swim, you won't be comfortable in the water!

Skarn

 

[fnfalman]

Fnfalman,

Unlike you, I was speaking from personal experience and commenting on significant differences between my Basic Scuba Diver certification from LA County in 1970 versus my PADI Open Water certification from 1997. The contrast was quite striking.

LA County dive courses are still stringent and exacting, more difficult and demanding than a lot of big name diving organization. Why don't you contrast LA County dive course between 1970 and now or PADI back in 1970 versus now?

You compare apples to oranges and use that to cite as sources for "better" training back in the days?

I suppose I could get on my high horse as well. Yeah, back in MY days (2007), during AOW we went down to 130-ft for our deep dive. Nowadays, the relaxed standard only allow the PADI AOW student to go down to a mere 100-ft.

 

[geoff w]

My wife and I got certified in '94 (PADI OW). After the class, we didn't feel competent to dive anywhere (although in retrospect we probably were), and took the PADI AOW class right afterward. We bought gear packages from our LDS (where we still buy equipment, from the same owner) for the AOW class. We still have the same Scubapro Classic jacket BCDs, MK 15 / G250 and Air 2 regulators we bought in '94. We've upgraded masks and fins a few times. When we got certified, all the LDS instructors wore the Classic jacket BCDs, now everything is back inflate with integrated weights and quick release buckles everywhere. We got certified using computers (Suunto Solution), and about 6 years ago upgraded computers to newer Suuntos. Nitrox wasn't taught or available, and now can be combined with the OW class. Drysuits were pretty exotic things back then, and now readily available so you can stay more comfortable. We learned how to use dive tables (and the wheel for the AOW class), and promptly forgot. Now, there's an electronic dive table calculator that looks easier to use than the tables.

When we got certified, Mares Plana Avantis were the great fins. We had much lower end fins, and somewhere along the line upgraded to Quattros. My wife lost one of her Quattros in the surf last year, and I picked up an old pair of the Plana Avantis on eBay. Compared to the Quattros, the Avantis were awful. I subsequently upgraded to the split Apollo Biofins and find I use less air than with my Quattros. My LDS pushes both the Apollo and Atomic split fins to students.

The biggest difference I can see if information availability. Back then, our choice was to talk to our LDS or local friends who dove (with varying levels of competency). Now, everyone with an Internet connection can give you their opinion, right or wrong. Product information largely consisted of what the LDS owner was selling, now it's expanded to what all the online dive equipment sellers have, along with reviews of varying quality.

As far as what is taught in terms of diving, I don't see a lot of difference. Motivated students become competent divers; the rest either quit the sport or can't maintain proper trim or buoyancy

 

[Mod63]

Nobody told us that we would "die" when diving deeper that 40m (130ft) and for the highest certification you actually had to do some dives between 40m and 50m (165ft).

sounds dangerous experience.

No, because we had adequate training and were building up the experience to do those dives. And of course you had to have more dives that you need today to get an instructor certification

 

[scubadada]

LA County dive courses are still stringent and exacting, more difficult and demanding than a lot of big name diving organization. Why don't you contrast LA County dive course between 1970 and now or PADI back in 1970 versus now?

You compare apples to oranges and use that to cite as sources for "better" training back in the days?

I suppose I could get on my high horse as well. Yeah, back in MY days (2007), during AOW we went down to 130-ft for our deep dive. Nowadays, the relaxed standard only allow the PADI AOW student to go down to a mere 100-ft.

I believe we may have major sociocultural differences and do not communicate well. Your edited versions of our exchange to not accurately reflect the conversation. You come across as extremely defensive. Luckily, anyone can go back and recreate the entire encounter. Best of luck to you in your diving future. I'm exteremely confident in my scuba training, I hope you are too.

Good diving, Craig

 

[fnfalman]

I believe we may have major sociocultural differences and do not communicate well. Your edited versions of our exchange to not accurately reflect the conversation. You come across as extremely defensive. Luckily, anyone can go back and recreate the entire encounter. Best of luck to you in your diving future. I'm exteremely confident in my scuba training, I hope you are too.

Good diving, Craig

I think that I've communicated my thoughts very well. You compared apples to oranges when you compared your 1970s LA County diving class against your 1997 PADI class. I simply ask you to compare either the LA County classes of then versus LA County now, or the PADI of then versus PADI now and tell me whether or not standards had laxed for either of these agencies.

I am also extremely confident in my SCUBA trainings.

 

[Diver0001]

A post in a recent thread in this forum suggested that rec diving has changed in the last 15 years. This made me wonder, and I replied:

I learned to dive 27 years ago (which makes me, I'm afraid, old enough to be the father of most of my students)

Some things really have changed. I'll try not to make a big story about it but here are the top 10

- dive computers. We didn't have them but they're pretty much standard gear now. I still dive without a computer sometimes and not unexpectedly it raises some eyebrows...LOL (noobs)

- dry suits. I think the first trilam drysuits started hitting the market in about 1985. I recall getting one of the first pototype trilam suits from "Fitzgerald" (now Bare) because I was willing to "test" it for them. Back in the day drysuits had "cuff dumps" that needed to be activated manually and many still had inflator hoses attached to the chest so they could be orally inflated. Diving in a dry suit has become much more straight forward and much more common since then.

- BCD's; We actually had BCD's but where I learned normally people in drysuits used the older horse collar thingamabobs and back packs. Until the Hog config hit the main-stream, it was still the most streamlined way to dive.

- Regulators. My first reg was a single hose Aqualung that was manufactured in 1972. It performed pretty well for an unbalanced piston but frankly, today's regs are in every way superior. IIRC my reg had 1 HP and 2 LP ports, which meant that I needed to add a "T" coupling to it in order to attach the drysuit, the reg, AND the inflator. Obviously, I needed an air-2 type inflator because adding two "T" couplings for an octopus would have been a pain

- oh yeah.. the octopus. Everyone has one now.

- Cave diving has become *much* less suicidal than it was in 1984.

- Light "technical" diving has become much more common and much less of a coin-toss than it was in 1984

- We now have DIR which despite all of it's failings is a reasonably adequate statment of best practices. Unfortunately it's given rise to huge "egos" and smack talk that we never used to have either.

- We now have internet, which means that information actually gets diseminated beyond the 10 people you know personally

- People are universally more careful then they used to be. Diving to 40m on your 5th ever dive isn't something that most people do these days and making 60m bounce dives with a single AL80 and no way to plan deco stops has become a bit of a taboo.

- we do safety stops now

- and understand how to make ascents

- buddies are no longer primarily useful for sharing gas money

- and we now have deco chambers available to sport divers

I"m sure there's more but that's more than 10 and I'm sure it's not the whole list either.

R..

 

[leabre]

...dive computers that will also complete your tax returns...

One of them would come in handy in a bout a month or two

 

[danvolker]

Here is a story exactly on point, somethng I wrote in 1990 for Florida sports Magazine, and then later on used in the first issue (1993) of the South Florida dive Journal.....When the Florida Sports article ran.... "the Gueirlla Divers", Stone Phillips of CNN liked it so much, he had us shoot a video segment which ran many dozens of times on HNN, after a few on CNN.

The South Florida Dive Journal