What Was Your OW Like?

[Marie13]

Local in the Midwest in September/October in a low viz quarry with green water. I got OW/drysuit at the same time so I wasn’t cold. Spread out over three weekends. Pool time was one evening and a full weekend day. Did eLearning. Great instructors. SDI.

Let’s just say I was afraid of the deep end of the pool at the time and just kept going out of sheer stubbornness. That was five years ago.

 

[Degenerate]

3 day OW class...?
That sounds extremely rushed

Mine was through PADI and we had 2 long evenings with theoretical work, 3 evenings with pool sessions and two full days of open water diving (2 + 3 dives), in total the class took about a month to finish.
In hindsight I still feel like we could have benefited from at least a day or two more of open water sessions, but from what I've heard from others around here my class was a lot more thorough than most.
It was a bit more expensive than our nearest LDS but the extra time we got was well worth it.

 

[hawkdoc60]

Overall, I had good instruction. Both the theory and the pool portions were adequately handled. The only problem with the OW dive (Dutch Springs) was that we were delayed because another diver (not part of any class, as far as any of us know) who entered into the water before we could had a mishap and was drug onto the dock where CPR commenced. (He didn't make it, and we were never told what exactly happened). After the initial OW dive, after seeing that and dealing with a little anxiety, all went well. The subsequent OW dives were fine and the reinforcement of the drills on the platform underneath went smooth.

 

[Jafo19D]

3 day OW class...?
That sounds extremely rushed

Mine was through PADI and we had 2 long evenings with theoretical work, 3 evenings with pool sessions and two full days of open water diving (2 + 3 dives), in total the class took about a month to finish.
In hindsight I still feel like we could have benefited from at least a day or two more of open water sessions, but from what I've heard from others around here my class was a lot more thorough than most.
It was a bit more expensive than our nearest LDS but the extra time we got was well worth it.

I definitely felt rushed but I was used to it from the military. Three days is nothing but this also got me thinking about my motorcycle training class. This was done on a weekend and although I had previous motorcycle experience (rode one for over a couple of years without a proper license); some guys in the class had never touched one yet by the end of the weekend we were all licensed.

 

[Belzelbub]

Didn’t even see a pool during my entire OW all of it was in ocean. Yeah the first two were in confined water but it was choppy and we got the experience of diving off a boat and getting back on, stuff you miss in a pool and less challenging than in fresh water so I feel that this was a plus over my daughter’s experience who I believe did her check dives at Blue Grotto.

I’m not an instructor, but have been along on 4 OW certifications. Two were for my two daughters, and two were for me.

First, my daughters’ classes as they were fairly typical. Both had several pool sessions. Both actually had extra. Oldest daughter completed her pool sessions in private lessons, then weather cancelled the dives. So, they added her to the next classes roster. So she did the pool sessions again. Checkout dives were at Blue Grotto and Devil’s Den. Devil’s Den was not part of the original plan, but the Gulf was not cooperating that week.

Youngest daughter was similar, all though the cause of her rescheduling was due to her nervousness. She did the pool sessions twice, then did checkouts at DD.

Both are very comfortable on boats, and both have been diving off my boat since, so I’m not really concerned about that not being part of their checkouts.

Now for mine. I have 2 OW certs, and neither was what I would call typical.

First OW cert was done without any pool sessions. We were shown how to setup the gear in the shop, and worked through the academics. OW dives were planned for two days. First day was a shore dive in the sand. Max depth was maybe 8’. I’m fairly certain it was just one dive that day, but possibly two. We just did the skills and that’s it. The next weekend was planned for Rainbow River, again very shallow. I couldn’t make that due to schedule, and the instructor did not require me to make it up. I got my card after just that one day in the water.

The second OW was quite different. Course was over 6 weeks. We met 3 times each week. 1 was for academics, and the other 2 (3 hours each) were for doing a bit of planning and spending the rest of the time in the pool. Pool was at least 15’ deep, so much deeper than my first dives. After that, we did several boat dives in the Keys. Standards are different today, my deepest dive on that trip was around 80’.

 

[rhwestfall]

After a full college semester of 2 days classroom and pool each week (might have been 3 pool..) and a final exam for academic credit (not "oh, we will go over your answers and correct as a class - everyone passes"), and pool sessions of things that can't be mentioned nowadays, everyone who went to the checkout dives was pretty darn proficient...

My class was through a YMCA instructor who was on staff at the university (now retired). I believe they now have a shop teaching through PADI....

 

[Jafo19D]

After a full college semester of 2 days classroom and pool each week (might have been 3 pool..) and a final exam for academic credit (not "oh, we will go over your answers and correct as a class - everyone passes"), and pool sessions of things that can't be mentioned nowadays, everyone who went to the checkout dives was pretty darn proficient...

My class was through a YMCA instructor who was on staff at the university (now retired). I believe they now have a shop teaching through PADI....

Can’t mention the pool sessions? Was the instructor Larry Flynt?

 

[Rae HalfTheHill]

PADI

By PADI standards, there are a set of confined water dives (containing numerous skills that must be performed in a repeatable manner and meeting a minimum level of mastery) that need to be completed before a certification is issued. These confined water dives must be conducted in a pool, or confined water with "pool like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth," as stated in the PADI Instructor Manual. If your course did not have these sessions, or they were performed in waters that do not meet that criteria, that would be a standards violation and should be reported to PADI for their own quality management.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Got the book, met at a Starbucks on a Friday evening, went to the pool for 4 hours. Saturday/Sunday were open water dives at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. Basically sat (kneeled) next to a rope the entire time, except when doing an out and back with my dive buddy unattended and when I did a CESA breathing the whole way up.

Oh the things that were missed/skipped/not done properly.

I was the president of the Dunning-Kruger club back then. I might still be but how would I know?

 

[Jafo19D]

By PADI standards, there are a set of confined water dives (containing numerous skills that must be performed in a repeatable manner and meeting a minimum level of mastery) that need to be completed before a certification is issued. These confined water dives must be conducted in a pool, or confined water with "pool like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth," as stated in the PADI Instructor Manual. If your course did not have these sessions, or they were performed in waters that do not meet that criteria, that would be a standards violation and should be reported to PADI for their own quality management.

I don’t remember doing the drills over and over again but I could be wrong.