Should Padi OW be called Resort Diver?

[KeithG]

One thing to consider is that different people have different capabilities.

The same training course will produce graduates with different skill levels. They all pass, but can have wildly different abilities. Just think about the driving skills of the people you see on the roads everyday. They all took the same test.

Maybe the OP has been unfortunate enough to locate a resort diver hotspot?

I am a vacation diver, and get to watch a wide range of diving competency. Sometimes (not often) I wonder who certified this person?

Regardless of skill level, I do see a large percentage of divers that want to be led by the dive guide. Not sure why. Maybe I should ask?

 

[buton]

Lol I love this threads, some times just snubs.

I will put an example....

Should I call you incompetent because you use a computer with Windows os or Mac?. If you don't know how to use Linux and compile a custom kernel then you don't know how to use a computer....?

The training content is good, is up to you to follow it...

 

[TMHeimer]

Same cert., different skill levels. Agree. I think a lot of that has to do with familiarity with the ocean/lake/water activities and "comfort" level in water one has before the OW course starts. For some, the OW course is about learning skills and getting a card, as there was little doubt they could be successful divers in a short time. For others that find the environment more foreign to them, it may take quite a bit longer after certification to be really comfortable diving. Perhaps many of these become resort divers.

 

[Montana Diver]

I have dived with various OW divers that are tropical tourist divers. They are most comfortable diving with rented gear all set up for them. This situation is exacerbated by the boat crew that likes to tell me that they will set up my gear for me since I am on vacation. Additionally, I always have a difficult time trying to find divers that want to go do shore dives outside of a dive operator. Perhaps this is due to instruction based on a resort mentality.

I will agree that training is the most important aspect to create independent divers willing to dive as buddy pairs, however a lot of divers do not wish to devote the time to become proficient. I enjoy following my instructor as he is working on OW skill certification and I have had the opportunity to dive with some great new divers and others that will only dive in the tropics. Diving in a drysuit in Montana, 65-70 degrees and 20 feet visibility, certainly does not have the same allure as diving in 80 degree water with 120 feet of visibility. A MT OW course nearly always means the OW diver is proficient at handling the additional task loading of a drysuit to complete OW certification. Does this mean they are better divers or just idiots for learning to dive in a more challenging environment? Same certification, different skill levels.

 

[DevonDiver]

If I was 'King of PADI', I'd make fundamental changes to the system. That said, I'm not factoring to preserving market share, profitability or keep share-holders happy...

I would down-grade all of the current core recreational qualifications (versus recommended limits/supposed outcomes)...and add a level.

- Scuba Diver would be scrapped in toto.

- Open Water Diver would inherit the Scuba Diver limits: 12m with supervision only (supervision being the most essential attribute). The training would remain unchanged.

- Advanced Open Water Diver would become 18m/60ft without supervision. It would be extended to six (6) dives; of which mandatory dives would be navigation, self-rescue (module stolen from the Rescue Diver course), PPB and an initial review dive that assessed/remediated basic OW skills. The performance standards of those three dives would reflect an assessment of both core diving (OW) skills at an improved level and specific progressive skills relative to the dive activity. PPB would have tangible and higher-level standards for assessing buoyancy, trim, weighting and propulsion.

- Rescue Diver would receive additional training elements associated with 'narcosis management' and 'DCI avoidance'. Qualification as Rescue Diver would permit a recommended depth limit increase to 30m/100ft.

- Deep Diver would permit depth increase to 40m/130ft. It would focus heavily upon precision dive planning, gas management, emergency decompression and the use of redundant air sources (which would be compulsory in training below 30m/100ft). There would also be an intensive review of air-sharing and other protocols.

- All courses would start with a formal assessment dive of prerequisite skills (those stated skills that form a necessary foundation for training to improve upon). Core (OW) skills would also be assessed in that session - with incrementally higher standards than the previous level of training. This would, in effect, motivate trainee divers to practice and improve upon their skills after training had been completed at each level.​

 

[LanceRiley]

wow.. it's gona cost us divers more money to get to 100ft depth lol

 

[TMHeimer]

DevonD, Correct me if I'm wrong--Deep Diver does increase depth to 130', no?

 

[DevonDiver]

wow.. it's gona cost us divers more money to get to 100ft depth lol

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Everyone seems to complain about the monkeys they pay for...

Anyway... what's the rush to 100ft? Money shouldn't get you to 100ft... competency in the appropriate skill-set should.

DevonD, Correct me if I'm wrong--Deep Diver does increase depth to 130', no?

Agreed - no changes to the depth limitation at that level, but a significant change to the training itself. The Deep course as it stands (on paper - if just regurgitated by a drone instructor) is entirely insufficient to develop an appropriate deep diving skill-set. IMHO.

 

[Ste Wart]

PADI already has such a course, it's called Scuba Diver. I can't say I've ever seen anyone take it though.

I've seen 11 people take it, according to my student counts report.
Resorts push it as a two day dive course . It's not a particularly popular course and I know some instructors will hand out to people rather than give them OW cert. I had a the case where an instructor refused to cert the student as OW because all she could do was frog kick, so he gave her Scuba Diver.

 

[boulderjohn]

I've seen 11 people take it, according to my student counts report.
Resorts push it as a two day dive course . It's not a particularly popular course and I know some instructors will hand out to people rather than give them OW cert. I had a the case where an instructor refused to cert the student as OW because all she could do was frog kick, so he gave her Scuba Diver.

I have seen it done in two cases. One was to a student whose autism was such that the instructor (and the students parents) agreed that he should always dive with a professional. The other was one I did. We were late in the year, doing the last OW dives before the instructional area here closed for the winter. The student could not finish the last dive, and he wanted to walk away with a certification he could use for a trip later that year. He figured he could at least dive and then complete the certification on the trip.

In our area it is only given out to students who have some reason (like those) that they cannot complete the course.