Twiddles:
Read most of the sixteen pages =). Have a couple comments, first off I did the resort course. Spent 3.5 days doing it and enjoyed (well not really) the hell out of it =). I spent the first two nites of the coures reading 250 pages and doing dam quizes. I am a bit disappointed to see so much chest thumping going on about how unprepared I and all the other "short" course divers are going to be. Fact is, it usually the person pointing the finger who is least prepared. I learned the basics of diving ( I havent mastered --it). I learned my tables I learned about bouyancy control and how important it is and I learned how to take my gear off under water and put it back on, I learned all sort of things in those 3.5 days. All that I learned means I can dive safely to 60' not because some instructor who wants to boast about how hard things used to be and how easy I have it now. But because I know my gear, myself and the very finite limits of my ability and experience. I know I NEED a buddy, I know I need MORE DIVES (not just for the experience =). I know I need practice on my bouyancy (certain im spelling this wrong) although I can hover and rise and fall just using my lung capacity, I can even do it with my bcd empty =).
Most of all I know that I have common sense and a belief in what I have been taught. For some people 3.5 days may not be enough, for some people it may be too long (maybee somebody has done 50 rope dives under supervison). The point is the class isnt about making you a diver, its about teaching you what the minimum skills you must have are and about instilling confidence in your abilities with those minimums. Once again as has been chanted on a thousand posts on this forum, its about how well you were taught, how well you retain, how well you perform with what you have been taught. I have seen men with 10 years experience freeze and dam near die, I have seen students with almost no experience do remarkable things (rock climbing). Because you spent 3 months learning to dive means you are a better diver than someone who spent 3.5 days (at least I would hope you are). You could still freeze, you could still make a stupid mistake. Most would say you are less likely to make a mistake and I would agree. How diffrent are you from me? If you spent 3 months learning and you have 4 dives or even 10 dives? If you think you are any diffrent you are wrong and likely on your way to becoming one of those cocky "experienced" divers.
Give people some respect, some of us know our limits and are quite capable of saying no not ready for that yet, or even dam I dont think I have that yet, could we go over it a few more times? Hell if the urge hits me I might even do a refresher before my next dive and I didnt even have some instuctor there to tell me I needed it.
First, non of us are attacking or criticizing you.
We are criticizing the standards to which your instructor was held during his certification and the standards he is held to meet as a minimum training standard.
I hope I can get this out as it makes sense in my head.
The standards are flawed. They allow for a level of certification that accepts less than adequate performance. Not just by newly minted divers, but by instructors also.
I have seen with my own eyes, instructors that bicycle kick and that's the only kick they know. Instructors that have hoorible buoyancy skills, no horizontal trim, create silt outs, crawl across the bottom. I have seen instructors that demo a skill once, have the student perform it once and that's it. Even if the student had difficulties, that one time was acceptable and considered "mastered". The system allows this to be allowable for certification.
I have taught students in AOW that were certified somewhere else a week before, that could not stay off the bottom. The deep dive ended up being the deep crawl. This dive was NOT counted and we went back to the pool to address buoyancy and trim. Come to find out, we had to go back and re-teach mask clearing, mask removal/replacement, air sharing, fin pivot, CESA.
They had done each skill during their OW class, but only once. They had not been tasked with performing any skills after the one time kneeling on the bottom.
Was this the fault of the students? No. Was this the fault of the instructor. No. It is the fault of the agency(ies) that allow this level of of training to result in certification. The instructor met the standards set by the agency. There were no standards violations. The instructor interpretted this level of performance as "mastery".
That is the issue.
) are also good at what they teach!
) who teaches. Sometimes you get lucky and get a teacher who can actually do. But the reality is (have you ever heard the old saw...):
