This whole thread brought up an interesting philosophical discussion between my husband and I. I don't know the answer but maybe someone here does.
When you pay for OW at a dive shop, are you paying for
- "Open Water Certification" (in which case they are responsible for teaching you until you have adequate skills to pass or even excel)
- "Open Water Instruction" (where they are teaching you the skills and you get a cert regardless of whether or not you are competent)
- Or "Open Water Testing" (with no responsibility to spend time teaching you but will pass/fail you depending on how you did).
I'm not trying to start a war. I'm honestly just curious.
That is a legitimate question. But I feel there is a fourth option: the operation/instructor has the responsibility (and fulfills) of teaching you, whether one passes and thus are certified is purely up to that individuals ability. There is no time for remedial training, at least with confined water.
I think that a disconnect often exists where students think they are paying for the first, but many dive ops are actually offering the second, third, or fourth.
So the first one tends to be much more expensive, are either private or small group. People shop often on price alone, thinking that the services rendered are the same. But they are not, not even close. I wish this was the norm, but it isn't.
The second is often where the instructors livelihood depends on the number of certifications they can generated. So as long as a student didn't drown during the course, they get a card.
The third, I can't really see a scenario where this exists, honestly. Someone may chime in with one.
I think the fourth that I describe is most common, as in some locations access/cost to a pool is an issue. Sometimes students who don't make the cut, may or may not pay a nominal fee to do the same class again in the future (depending on room on existing scheduled courses). Now there can be times where a student drops from the open water dives for some reason (could be an emergency, could be the Puget Sound is too darn cold and they decide on a dry suit upgrade or wait until the weather improves and water warms up) where they wind up having a (semi-)private class. It is then up to the individual instructor on how much effort they wish to place in a student. And that varies a lot.