Recreational Pony Bottles, completely unnecessary? Why or why not?

[Bob DBF]

And then there's the raw novices at the beginning of their diving careers, trained to follow-the-leader.

Which, unfortunately, is not what OW training is meant to provide.

 

[Rukkian]

Personally I absolutely agree with you. But what about the rec. tourist who think his or her buddy will be there for them in an emergency.

That is their choice. Most will be just following a guide anyways.

 

[tursiops]

And then there's the raw novices at the beginning of their diving careers, trained to follow-the-leader.

I guess I disagree. They are NOT trained to follow-the-leader; rather they are trained to dive without supervision. That is different.

 

[BoltSnap]

But what about the rec. tourist who think his or her buddy will be there for them in an emergency.

They are in deep trouble if things go bad. This is the issue with the tourist diver training.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Which, unfortunately, is not what OW training is meant to provide.

That's a horse that's been beaten to death and its lifeless corpse has continued to be beaten. The beating will never stop.

 

[Bob DBF]

That's a horse that's been beaten to death and its lifeless corpse has continued to be beaten. The beating will never stop.

Perhaps it's time to change horses.

 

[grf88]

On Your Own: the Buddy System Rebutted ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

njscuba.net

 

[BoltSnap]

That's a horse that's been beaten to death and its lifeless corpse has continued to be beaten. The beating will never stop.

Do you mean that the topic of this thread hasn't been beaten to death just the same here on SB?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Perhaps it's time to change horses.

I think everyone knows how cynical I am regarding the instruction industry

 

[boulderjohn]

The problem illustrated in the last few posts is learned dependence.

OW instruction does not teach divers to follow a guide. In PADI instruction, following a guide isn't even mentioned in the course. Divers are taught to plan and execute dives independently, although the buddy system is indeed stressed.

Then divers go out to tropical resorts, where they could do many years of diving and amass hundreds of dives, all of them led by a DM. Whatever they may have learned about dive planning in their OW training will be forgotten.

While teaching dive planning in my OW classes, I have had several occasions in which students told me that their experienced diver friends told them that planning dives like that was only done during their OW classes--in the "real world," all the planning is done by a DM.