The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[danvolker]

Hate to rain on the parade, but the Memorial Day weather curse seems to be coming back. Flat calm through Friday night, then the forecast is to blow like hell Saturday, with seas building to 4-6 feet by afternoon and 5-8 feet by Sunday.

I going to just hope this was the weather departments using the dart board approach to weather prediction again.....
It's hard to imagine any occupation where you can be dead wrong as often as they are...

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Hi Dan!!

No one hopes you are right more than us. Maribi and I are doing our AOW this weekend and the boat dives were scheduled for Sunday. Don't see how those are going to happen if the forecast holds, as I won't go if the seas are over 4, especially with the nasty chop that NE winds bring. Unfortunately, NOAA has been pretty good in my experience.

 

[danvolker]

Hi Dan!!

No one hopes you are right more than us. Maribi and I are doing our AOW this weekend and the boat dives were scheduled for Sunday. Don't see how those are going to happen if the forecast holds, as I won't go if the seas are over 4, especially with the nasty chop that NE winds bring. Unfortunately, NOAA has been pretty good in my experience.

Are you teaching the AOW? What possible reason would there be for you to take such a useless course for an accomplished diver--which both you and Maribi are......?

 

[scubadada]

Hate to rain on the parade, but the Memorial Day weather curse seems to be coming back. Flat calm through Friday night, then the forecast is to blow like hell Saturday, with seas building to 4-6 feet by afternoon and 5-8 feet by Sunday.

I'm hoping for 3-5, I guess we'll see, visitors can't be choosers

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Are you teaching the AOW? What possible reason would there be for you to take such a useless course for an accomplished diver--which both you and Maribi are......?

Dan, it is absurd beyond belief. But, in my travels, I have come across two shops that will not dive me deeper than 60' without the AOW, even if I have my last 100 logged dives with me. It looks like it is going to become the price of admission at more places, and I don't want to get caught flatfooted if I am in California or somewhere and they demand "the card."

I am NOT thrilled that Maribi and I have to spend $400 between us to get this (at least Scubaworks was running a good deal), which anyone can get with only 8 dives in their life. But, it is also the gateway to rescue diver training and deco procedures training, both of which are in the future for us. I just don't see the point of the AOW course, when everything in it shouild be part of the basic OW (it was when I got OW in 1976, and we even learned "one stop deco" diving and how to use actual decompression tables and not just the recreational table).

They (PADI} still teach "feet first" descents, for crying out loud! MB worked hard to learn from me good horizontal descents, and also "dive bomb" descents on the Zion, and as you say she excels. She thought AOW would be good to learn navigation, but in one dive with me at BHB she was running squares, triangles, and courses to marker buoys after an hour or so. I know mentoring and experience still count for a lot in most places, but not everywhere, and not for further training.

But, I digress from this excellent thread . . .

 

[danvolker]

Dan, it is absurd beyond belief. But, in my travels, I have come across two shops that will not dive me deeper than 60' without the AOW, even if I have my last 100 logged dives with me. It looks like it is going to become the price of admission at more places, and I don't want to get caught flatfooted if I am in California or somewhere and they demand "the card."

I am NOT thrilled that Maribi and I have to spend $400 between us to get this (at least Scubaworks was running a good deal), which anyone can get with only 8 dives in their life. But, it is also the gateway to rescue diver training and deco procedures training, both of which are in the future for us. I just don't see the point of the AOW course, when everything in it shouild be part of the basic OW (it was when I got OW in 1976, and we even learned "one stop deco" diving and how to use actual decompression tables and not just the recreational table).

They (PADI} still teach "feet first" descents, for crying out loud! MB worked hard to learn from me good horizontal descents, and also "dive bomb" descents on the Zion, and as you say she excels. She thought AOW would be good to learn navigation, but in one dive with me at BHB she was running squares, triangles, and courses to marker buoys after an hour or so. I know mentoring and experience still count for a lot in most places, but not everywhere, and not for further training.

But, I digress from this excellent thread . . .

Personally, I think any dive instructor for PADI that hears about this, has a responsibility to complain to PADI about it.
PADI has effectively set a "Standards" that is based on "skills courses"--- that don't actually teach or test advanced skills, and they then have the gaul to force divers that display better skills than many PADI instructors, to pay for the AOW course to "prove" competence.

I think this should become virally passed around the Internet ( make it a separate post to make this easy), and PADI should be embarrassed publicly for it!!!!
And /Or, some dive instructor with a sense of what is right, should watch you dive, and just GIVE each of you the AOW card.
Shame on Scubaworks for taking your money!!!

---------- Post added May 23rd, 2013 at 12:19 PM ----------

40 seconds into this video, you can see an "Instructor" that PADI would use to "guarantee" that your skills are of AOW level-so that you can do a so-called "advanced dive".

The absolute stupidity of this AOW mandate, becomes obvious when a diver like Guy or Maribi, is far better than "an instructor that is allowed to teach the course" .....Any good instructor that has seen Guy or Maribe on a dive, will attest to this.[video=youtube_share;dgdabfvr2B0]http://youtu.be/dgdabfvr2B0[/video]

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Dan

I don't blame Scubaworks. They know us well and we dive with them quite a bit, and our first "hole in the wall" dive was with them along with many trips to the Zion train and the Juno Ledges. They did not pull the "have to have the card" nonsense. They were offering the best deal we have seen anywhere for the course so we were happy to give them the business, since we had to do it somewhere.

Have seen a lot of that behavior at the bridge, but I think that is OW with the kneeling/standing thing. Our instructor is going to have peak performance buoyancy as part of the course so I think there will be no standing on the bottom.

 

[danvolker]

Dan

Just to be clear, I don't blame Scubaworks. They know us well and we dive with them quite a bit, and our first "hole in the wall" dive was with them along with many trips to the Zion train and the Juno Ledges. They did not pull the "have to have the card" nonsense. They were offering the best deal we have seen anywhere for the course so we were happy to give them the business, since we had to do it somewhere.

I know that this is not a Scubaworks issue..... I just think each of us has a responsibility to try and "Do the Right Thing"...and some shop or Instructor that knows you, should have!!!

If none of us were to "Try to do the Right Thing", then we would deserve politics as a profession A life of lies and expedience.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Maybe we are just an unusual case (me especially with my 1000 dives on "OW" including deco dives on the Wilkes-Barre).

Looking at the materials, I can see this is useful training for a newer diver, especially the extra attention to navigation and buoyancy skills, and the intro to slightly deeper diving (even AOW, theoretically, is only "good" to 100 feet). For someone with 10 or 20 dives, it's a good step. I just think it is very costly and should be included in basic OW, and for experienced divers not necessary.

As for someone giving us the card, I would never ask any instructor to certify if he or she had not actually trained me, no matter how much they respected me (nor would I take bread off their table). The problem is more with the system.

We are going to be up there Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. If you and Sandra want to get together send me a pm. We are staying in Jupiter (your SFDJ hotels were booiked) at the Best Western. Friday 5:30 to 8:00 is the class time. Our bridge dives are Sat. morning, with the afternoon free. Our boat dives are Sunday afternoon with the morning free, but I have a strong hunch those will not go due to the weather.

 

[Onewolf]

My wife and I are scheduled to dive Sunday afternoon/Monday AM. Forecast doesn't look good, but I'll dive if the boat goes out. (My wife is much smarter and not as willing to get beat to death).

NWS Forecast
FZUS52 KMFL 230804
CWFMFL

COASTAL WATERS FORECAST FOR SOUTH FLORIDA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
404 AM EDT THU MAY 23 2013

ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS FROM JUPITER INLET TO OCEAN REEF OUT TO 60
NM AND GULF COASTAL WATERS FROM EAST CAPE SABLE TO CHOKOLOSKEE OUT
20 NM AND CHOKOLOSKEE TO BONITA BEACH OUT 60 NM...INCLUDING THE
WATERS OF BISCAYNE BAY AND LAKE OKEECHOBEE.

SEAS ARE PROVIDED AS A RANGE OF SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHTS...WHICH IS
THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES...ALONG WITH THE
OCCASIONAL HEIGHT OF THE AVERAGE HIGHEST 10 PERCENT OF THE WAVES.

AMZ600-GMZ606-232030-
SYNOPSIS FOR JUPITER INLET TO OCEAN REEF FL OUT TO 60 NM AND FOR EAST
CAPE SABLE TO BONITA BEACH FL OUT TO 60 NM-
404 AM EDT THU MAY 23 2013

SYNOPSIS
A WEAK COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO NORTH FLORIDA ON
FRIDAY THEN DOWN THE STATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY WHILE
DISSIPATING ACROSS THE FLORIDA STRAITS. STRONG SURFACE HIGH
PRESSURE WILL BUILD INTO THE EASTERN STATES THIS WEEKEND. THIS
WILL TURN WINDS NORTHEASTERLY WHILE INCREASING.

SATURDAYNORTHEAST WINDS 14 TO 19 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEETWITH OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 6 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS CHOPPY INEXPOSED AREAS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAYEAST NORTHEAST WINDS 15 TO20 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET WITH OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 6 FEET.INTRACOASTAL WATERS CHOPPY IN EXPOSED AREAS. SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAYEAST NORTHEAST WINDS 14 TO 19 KNOTS.SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET WITH OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 6 FEET. INTRACOASTALWATERS CHOPPY IN EXPOSED AREAS.