Taking an open water student below 60 ft?

[TMHeimer]

My only real beef with St. John was that we didn't take the written test--the instructor had the class answer by raising hands on the multiple choice questions. The 2 times I took EFR there was nothing on bandaging.
For O2, we assembled the unit in Rescue course. Then 3 years later I did it again in DM course. Of the 4 of us there, everyone made at least 2 mistakes (the other 3 DMCs had just taken Rescue a month or 2 before).
So, I had the owner show me the procedure again and wrote the steps down. Not rocket science unless you don't review it often enough on your own. The owner's suggestion I buy a $700 O2 botttle fell on deaf ears (maybe if I were made of money...).

 

[Rickk]

On St John courses we always did the written test, even made the Scouts do the formal written test, your experience just shows no matter what the subject and no matter what the governing agency, the instructor means the most.

Now I usually dive with ships and DM guides, i trust them to have O2 available. (However I will now be asking to see their kit, I'll say I want to be familiar with it should the need arise, true but I also want to see if they have gas in the O2 bottles.) However when I was still in Canada, my dive buddies and I would often dive independently of any shop, often in places that no one else dove as we would travel around with our compressors and look for good spots. For that a set of dive buddies, an informal club, could and should put out the $700 for some O2.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yes, the O2 in that situation is a good idea, and less costly if divided between several buddies. I had a steady buddy for a couple of years, but since it's been all solo, except for a few boat charters. The buddy shore dives were almost always shallow, so O2 would probably not be needed for any DCS. Other stuff like near drowning yes, but that becomes a risk tolerance thing vs. cost of $700 for one person.