Two Day Certification Course (PADI) ?

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Is that often people need a sleep cycle or two to get the information (mostly skills) wired into their brains.

I find that many skills just don't come together in the first session but after a good night sleep I can do the skill just fine.

Some people will do well in the fast course and some people will do much better with training spread over several days.

Remember, the OW card is just license to start learning.
 
Lead_carrier once bubbled...


Mech, I am assuming this is an opinion. Do I teach the weekend course? Occasionally. Does everyone know it will be fast paced, they better have their study and homework done and be ready for the water work? Yes. Will I NOT pass them if they do not meet all standards? Absolutely.

Lead,
Are you saying you occasionally teach the full OW program, all academic, all CW and all OW in one weekend, (two days?) Or are you saying you teach it in two weekends, (four days?)
 
Walter once bubbled...

OTOH, there's not all that much difference in a 2 day PADI class and any other PADI class that follows minimum standards.

Ya know, I'm not really a PADI cheerleader, but the broken record bit is really gottin' old Walter. How about giving it a break. Geez.
 
Walter once bubbled...
Interesting discussion.

With a quick and dirty course, students don't get enough practice setting up and breaking down gear (not that they do in 5 modules either) and they have no time to moved learned skills from short term to long term memory. Even if they do learn all the skills & material (not something I'm willing to conceed) they will not retain what they've learned.

OTOH, there's not all that much difference in a 2 day PADI class and any other PADI class that follows minimum standards.


Walter, its interesting that you know everyone learns the same way and has the same retention capability. Now i'm wondering why every bell curve i was ever part of in school was shaped like a bell and not a straight line.

Long story, shortened, IMO, the short term/ long term memory thing you keep bringing up is true for some, not for all. We all have different abilities and more importantly desires to learn.

And yes, there is a large difference between a two day PADI/NAUI/YMCA/etc course and a four day PADI/NAUI/YMCA/etc course.

The main difference ... two days!
 
gedunk,

I never said everyone learns in the same way. I also never said everyone has the same retention capability.

The long term/short term memory point is not valid for that extremely small percentage of folks who were lucky enough to be born with eidetic memory. For the rest of us, it is valid. Personally, I've never met anyone with such a memory and I've certainly never trained one.

MechDiver,

If you are tired of it, why call attention to it? It was a small part of a larger post, now it's also your entire post.
 
Walter once bubbled...

DB,

I'm pleasantly surprised at your attitude and opinion.

hey bud, I think you know me better by now ... btw crappy california conditions all year have kept me out of the water and out of scuba .. got spoiled doing the 12 island tours last winter LOL .. [sorry to the author of this thread for the hijack]
 
gedunk once bubbled...


... (Y)es, there is a large difference between a two day PADI/NAUI/YMCA/etc course and a four day PADI/NAUI/YMCA/etc course.

The main difference ... two days!


So the 4-day courses are actually twice as good as something!
 
Boring Anecdote Part: Spring 1999
I had a very good YMCA/CMAS instructor who spread the course out over 8 Mondays with a lot of pool training. He was also an intense dive-fiend.

The first day was intro to dangers and an in-water physical test (25 m on a breath, swim a bunch of laps non-stop, swim in place for a while, ya know). The next 6 weeks were 2 hours classroom with a test, 2 hours in the pool. The final week was in water emergency practice including jump in the water, get your gear and put it on at 15'. It doesn't seem like much, but it's good anti-panic practice. Finally, I spent 2 days repeating the training in 30 fsw, before being certified. That should have prepared me for my first dive right? Oh, hell no. It took me over 30 dives to even LIKE diving. Of course, now I love it.


My Point:
The extra time to read, recall, and practice adds greatly to learning. It simply can't be done in 2 days (or even 4 days IMO). There is also a post-mortem to the in-water practice where you can combine the classroom learning with the practice and have little neurotic mind games like -- If your beloved wife kicks you in the face at 60 feet, dislodging your mask, regulator, and senses, instinctively recover.

The process of moving information to the long term memory takes weeks; diving should be instinctive and that takes much longer. Based on personal reflection, I'd like sound, well-rehearsed fundamentals before ever diving. Eventually, I'd like rock-solid fundamentals and instincts. Until then, my naturally high level of anxiety makes me practice emergency procedures my first dive of a trip (kind of a waste, huh?).

EDIT: Legal disclaimer. The post was more or less what I'd like to hear before I took OW training. Kind of noobie-to-noobie. Read Diverbouy's comments to follow. My experience is only OW and I am likely to be wrong, but willing to learn. Intincts seems to me to refer to equipment loss, recovery, OOA and emergency surfacing in OW conditions as covered in OW training.
 
Walter once bubbled...

MechDiver,

If you are tired of it, why call attention to it? It was a small part of a larger post, now it's also your entire post.

Maybe because my long term memory is more sensitive than yours?

Why did you have to call attention to it? Again. and Again, and...well.
 
"Why did you have to call attention to it?"

Just trying to save lives.

DB,

I dived Casino Point on Santa Catalina about 2 weeks ago - I loved it!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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