When did the breakdown in training occur?

[Walter]

padi dropped the swimming requirement????

Yep, swimming is optional with PADI and a few other agencies, a student can snorkel 300 yds instead.

 

[Diver0001]

padi dropped the swimming requirement????

No. For a while there was an optional snorkel test but at least where I live we're not allowed to give them the snorkel test.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

I got OW through PADI in 1985, and it was a 4 week course meeting twice a week for a 90 minute class and 90 minute pool session. We learned a lot of stuff that is no longer part of the curriculum, like emergency deco procedures and buddy breathing.

I got certed in 1984 and the only thing I can recall learning that isn't in the course today was buddy breathing.

The advanced course, on the other hand, was a lot different, at least how I was taught it. It wasn't 5 dives, it was 5 specialties IIRC.

R..

 

[Notso_Ken]

I disagree on a few points.

While many changes did take place at that time, changes continue to take place, PADI's swimming requirement wasn't dropped until 2000.

I got my PADI OW cert in 2001, and I had to do a swim test. Was the instructor being harder than PADI HQ required at that time? can't ask the ninstructor, shop went out of business . . . .

Ken

 

[Walter]

No. For a while there was an optional snorkel test but at least where I live we're not allowed to give them the snorkel test.

R..

Yes, a student can opt to snorkel instead of swim. That option is not allowed in Europe, because of government regulations, not PADI standards.

I got my PADI OW cert in 2001, and I had to do a swim test.

As of January 2000, students must either swim 200 yds or snorkel 300. Be thankful your instructor didn't offer the option. Prior to that, there was a 200 yd swimming requirement.

 

[JohnQPS122]

The original poster asked when the "breakdown in training" occured and how the training got "watered down" without explaining what that means, specifically.

ZKY, can you be more specific? It's hard to talk meaningfully about when something happened if we don't know what that something is, exactly.

 

[sabbath999]

As of January 2000, students must either swim 200 yds or snorkel 300. Be thankful your instructor didn't offer the option. Prior to that, there was a 200 yd swimming requirement.

To paraphrase my open water instructor: If you want to do the 300 yard snorkel instead of the 200 yard swim, then I am not the instructor for you. My students do the 200 yard swim. Period. If you can't swim 200 yards with no time limit, then I am not going to certify you.

I personally have seen many people fail their swim tests both with my original instructor and also at other times when I was in the pool with beginning students in another shop's training sessions.

 

[Garrobo]

It's not that complicated. If an old fart like me can grasp the idea, four years ago when I was 66 and now with almost 200 dives and many of them deep wreck dives, I don't see the problem.

 

[sea nmf]

I was certified in 1989. I think it must have been somewhat watered down at that point. But we still had to do the swim, the breath-hold swim, buddy breathing, and tread water for 8 minutes. The course was 3 weeks long (twice a week for 3 hours), plus the OW dives and skill demonstration.

However, I really did not feel confident to dive without further instruction. (I was certified in Puget Sound). So I took the AOW, Deep, and Rescue right away. Then, I did a bunch of rec dives with my instructor. After about 50 dives, I felt I had enough experience to plan and do dives without my instructor or dms with me. Your mileage may vary.

Rescue was the most helpful of the classes because it taught me self-rescue skills and what-if scenarios.

 

[tfsails]

in 1971 I took a book The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving copyrighted 1962 and proceeded to teach myself how to dive. At the time I was a student pilot and could barely afford to learn to fly, and certainly couldn't afford to get myself certified as a diver back then. Oh--I was 21 and indestructible. I made one or two open-water dives off Key Largo in Pennykamp and didn't touch scuba for 29 years. When I finally took a course and got certified, I was sort of taken aback by how much the course requirements had been scaled back. I went from nothing to AOW in two weeks.

When I got home and sat down and thought about the quality of my scuba education, I wondered if I'd received good training or not. Later on, I took Nitrox, Rescue, and Divemaster/AI. I am happy to say that the quality of training I got for OW and AOW was really pretty good. However, I did not feel like I really knew the subject until I was well into my Ass't Instructor training. I decided to go to DM because I wanted to really know about scuba. The shop talked me into becoming an AI and I don't regret it. However, I do not want to be an instructor, so I'm as high as I'm gonna go now.

Bottom line to me is that back in the day, the certification process was exclusive. These days it's inclusive. Just as there are good pilots and not-so-good pilots, so are there divers. I think diving is easier nowadays, but divers are the same.