What is Avanced Buoyancy Class?

[loosebits]

I'd spend 8 hours a week in the pool dialing things in. All too often I hear on this board about how bad the instructor is, or how bad the class is. You know what? Maybe so, but its YOUR butt there in the water. Work on it until you get it right. For some it comes quickly, for others it takes months. Not everyone learns at the same rate. Fact of life.

People choose not to educate themselves about instructors. They choose not to educate themselves about the environment they are about to enter. They choose a SCUBA class out of a magazine and are suprised when they have substandard skills. Want to learn buoyancy and skill down cold? Come take a week long O/W class from a good cave instructor. Class will be harder. You might have someone tell you the TRUTH about your diving. Suck it up and improve.

With the advent of the internet and sites like this, some people may enter OW knowing what they should learn. They know proper buoyancy control should be covered and they've also heard that it takes more than a weekend to learn it.

However, others may not know of sites like this prior to OW and they have no idea this is even an issue. They are going to go take a class that teaches them to dive. They have no idea how to pick an instructor and they have no idea how long it takes to become competent. The come out of the class not even knowing what competent means. They simply go down to the LDS closest to them and just sign up. At the OW level, the bulk of the blame rests with those responsible for the brevity of the classes, not the clueless student who has no idea what to expect from an OW class.

 

[PerroneFord]

Sorry, I don't buy it. That's like saying the first time car buyer is at the mercy of the local dealer. A lazy, uninformed customer has no one to blame but themselves. Breathing underwater is a risky, potentially lethal endeavor. If someone won't take a few hours to learn about it in advance, they get what they deserve. I say that as someone who did EXACTLY that 12 years ago, much to my detriment. However, there was no www, no scubaboard, no easy way to get vital information.

People today spend more time grilling their 10 year old's baseball coach than their SCUBA instructor.

What I find TRULY heinous, is the student who FINDS a good instructor, often through sheer luck, and complains that his/her class is too challenging because they have to do real skills. Mind you this is different than having a poor instructor who is making things hard just because they can't teach.

 

[loosebits]

I don't agree. Some people who are internet savy or have diving friends have a good chance of knowing what questions to ask but I don't think others do. I don't think your car analogy fits here. We've all be exposed to cars before learning to drive and we've all been exposed to drivers before taking driver's ed... we'd be suspicious if driver's ed didn't cover reverse or the car had tires as an option.

Let's turn it around, why should there be OW classes that don't cover what it takes to be an OW diver?

 

[Walter]

Let's turn it around, why should their be OW classes that don't cover what it takes to be an OW diver?

Why shouldn't there be? Ethics is the only answer I can come up with, but there are obviously others with a different set of ethics. If someone wants to teach these classes and others want to take them, why shouldn't they exist? I think they are horrible, but I don't object to their existence. I object to lying to consumers. I want to puke every time I see someone say, "The agency doesn't matter." What a bunch of bull! Sell the short, fast and dirty classes, but stop hiding the poor quality while doing it.

 

[PerroneFord]

Let's turn it around, why should there be OW classes that don't cover what it takes to be an OW diver?

Because people want to be certified in a weekend for $350.

 

[loosebits]

So, should driver's ed classes be offered without teaching reverse or lane changes?

 

[PerroneFord]

Doesn't matter. Most people don't signal lane changes, and can't back up worth a hoot anyway.

Back to diving. When we don't strive for proficiency, we get what we deserve. Diving is supposed to be fun. I find I have more fun when I am actually competent at an activity. What fun is struggling your way through the water?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Because people want to be certified in a weekend for $350.

No ... people want to be certified in a weekend for $99.

I worked for a shop that offered 3-week classes for $350. They could not compete with the week-end wonder down the street who was offering the same certification in three days for $99. People would walk in, ask why our class was so much longer and more expensive ... and when we told them, about 90% of them would go down and sign up for the quickie class.

Blame the agencies all you want ... but ultimately it's up to the consumer. People will buy quick and cheap, because no matter how well you explain it to them that's what most of them want to buy.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[loosebits]

My guess is the sidestepping of my question indicates that you think driver's ed classes shouldn't have the option of skipping on certain skills. Why do you think OW classes should have that option?

My point is the guy who decides he wants to learn how to dive can't be blammed if he wasn't magically endowed with the knowledge that perhaps all certification agencies weren't created equally (or he doesn't even know there are multiple agencies) and certianly all instructors aren't created equally or that the differences in what is covered from one class to the next can varry so dramatically and can have such an incredible impact on his diving that taking the wrong class may leave him never to dive again after his first vacation.

Now, the person that runs off and takes AOW from the exact same instructor that failed to teach him buoyancy control in OW is a fool.

 

[PerroneFord]

I believe the other problem is that we, as divers, tend to talk down the potential risk of NOT being well trained. This isn't card playing. Until people evolve, or devolve into a state where we can breathe water, SCUBA will carry risks of the highest order.

As I talk to people about becoming certified, I explain what I think seperates good training from bad, and offer a few instances of accidents and fatalities to put things in proper perspective. We don't talk about this enough.

We should.