Redesigning AOW

[Thalassamania]

I cannot see what arguement anyone could have for the OW course lacking any essential information at an entry level for recreational diving. It is a fine balance between providing critical information and not over-loading the student initially.

The current data contained in the PADI OW course could not, in my opinion, "overload" an eight year old, and plenty of critical information is missing ... but that been the subject of many past threads, perhaps Walter would like to recap.

PADI opted for a modular course structure, allowing students to complete OW, AOW and Rescue in their own time and to match their own development as divers. They could, I suppose, have culminated these courses into one giant entry level course - but then some of you girls would have only been crying about how it was too expensive as an entry level course.

Every entry level course that I've ever taught included everything that you find in PADI's OW, AOW and Rescue courses plus a whole lot more. It's not the non-PADI Instructors who've been sniveling about the expense and effort of entry level courses its been PADI HQ and their claque of "girls" as you call them.

I think ucfdiver just has a chip on his shoulder because someone once slapped him with the reality that he isn't the 'diving god' he thought he was.... LOL

We've managed to get this far without the ad homonim horse pucky, now you've gone and stirred that crap, please do not continue to do so.

 

[ucfdiver]

I cannot see what arguement anyone could have for the OW course lacking any essential information at an entry level for recreational diving. It is a fine balance between providing critical information and not over-loading the student initially.

PADI opted for a modular course structure, allowing students to complete OW, AOW and Rescue in their own time and to match their own development as divers. They could, I suppose, have culminated these courses into one giant entry level course - but then some of you girls would have only been crying about how it was too expensive as an entry level course.

I think ucfdiver just has a chip on his shoulder because someone once slapped him with the reality that he isn't the 'diving god' he thought he was.... LOL

I passed the NAUI when I was 12, as did many others on the forum I'm sure. Exact same as the adult course. I struggle to believe an adult can't handle more than a 12 year old can.

 

[mgmonk]

We've managed to get this far without the ad homonim horse pucky, now you've gone and stirred that crap, please do not continue to do so.

It's been almost 24 straight pages of ad hominem attacks. Why stop now?

 

[DuboisP]

It's been almost 24 straight pages

you're false
only 5 pages for me
you can change your options

 

[seaducer]

It's been almost 24 straight pages of ad hominem attacks. Why stop now?

 

[seaducer]

PADI spent many thousands of dollars depauperizing the Advanced Course and creating, for their own profit, the situation that appertains at the moment, they owe it to all of us and to honesty in general to take responsibility for the mess that they created and clean it up!

What mess? Diving is thriving, people of all skill and experience levels are having fun, and last I checked people were not dropping like flies whilst engaged in the activity. Also a good percentage of those who do perish are either way out of their league condition wise ( not any agencies fault) or they have health problems (not any agencies fault) or their equipment fails (not any agencies fault).

Maybe I am just an Ocean Half Full guy, but I fail to see the doom and gloom reasons so many people hate PADI and other agencies

Could things be better? Sure they could, but lets not all jump off the bridge, things are not bad as it is...

 

[jviehe]

Of course. It is clearly more efficient to recognize a cert than to delve into each customer's history.

Unfortunately, the cert that they are recognizing can in no way assure them that the card holder is qualified.

They are recognizing it as something that the agencies don't purportedly believe it to be, and certainly don't design it to be.

Sure, but thats up to the boat. It has nothing to do with the Agency putting out the card.

 

[jviehe]

Agreed, it's about making up what should have been taught in OW, allowing you to dive sites you couldn't before, and collecting $200 or so of your money.

Obviously there is no point in continuing this debate. You have made up your mind and will not allow the facts to interupt.

 

[ucfdiver]

Obviously there is no point in continuing this debate. You have made up your mind and will not allow the facts to interupt.

 

[Thalassamania]

What mess? Diving is thriving, people of all skill and experience levels are having fun, and last I checked people were not dropping like flies whilst engaged in the activity. Also a good percentage of those who do perish are either way out of their league condition wise ( not any agencies fault) or they have health problems (not any agencies fault) or their equipment fails (not any agencies fault).

Thriving? Hardly. Diving is in a no growth situation and has been for some time (or so many say) yet it has a drop out rate that is said to be 80 to 90 percent. Shop owners who take a rather myopic view blame their personal situation on internet sales and that may, in fact, be part of the story. But there is also that huge dropout rate and the lost sales that it represents.

If that could it be stemmed it would result in a very health growth rate. One of the major reasons for that dropout rate many think is inadequate level of training offered to new divers and their lack of comfort with going out and diving on their own. Today's open water diver is not prepared to dive without supervision (nor for that matter is today's AOW diver).

A solution might be to overhaul our training schemes so that the OW diver was better prepared. An intermediate class should be re-introduced (something along the lines of the old 6 dive no lecture program), and AOW should be returned to about where it was: as a fairly rigorous academic program with six to eight dives.

It's not just a question of being the "right thing" to do. I think that sort of change would reduce the raw numbers coming into diving, but would also reduce the dropout rate and thus increase equipment sales. I suspect that more divers would wind up continuing on, and more divers would purchase more gear, and the industry might be able to move to a healthier state.

Maybe I am just an Ocean Half Full guy, but I fail to see the doom and gloom reasons so many people hate PADI and other agencies

Could things be better? Sure they could, but lets not all jump off the bridge, things are not bad as it is...

Moral questions and pedagogical disagreements aside, I dislike PADI because it has demonstrated, since the early 1980s, a corporate culture is one of short sightedness and a preference for the quick buck at the expense of longer term stability for the industry.