Which topic from your OW class...

[beejw]

I wish they covered gas management a little better. I still dont know what SAC really is

other then that i was totally happy with my instructor.

b.

 

[ClayJar]

I'll throw another paper in the gas management box.

I wasn't the annoying person in my class, as I had my arcane discussions with the instructor after class. I'll give this to him: he seemed to learn a lot from me (as I did from him, of course).

 

[stever2002]

I know the point of the OW class is to focus on recreational non-deco-stop diving, but I would have liked to hear what deco stops are all about. I remember thinking to myself, "well that just sounds like another saftey stop - whats so hard about planning for that?"

...steve...

 

[Scram Bulleggs]

I think OW should be the very basics then go on to learn more after you get past the trivial stuff. As a new diver myself and others are to worried about mask clearing and things to worry about gas planning. I would much prefer to take an advanced class now that some things already make sense to learn the rest.

 

[kidspot]

What's interesting is that the largest response so far has been gas management - Did any of your classes go beyond the "be back with 500 psi" or "at 500 psi start your ascent" I know my class did not, but I also did not know that was important to know until later discussions here on Scubaboard.

 

[ClayJar]

From what I remember, while my OW class did gas laws and such, it never really made it to gas management. The checkout dives were "back with 500 psi" or "start your ascent at 1000 psi", but those didn't even come into play, as they were follow-the-instructor/DM dives.

If we had actually computed an example air consumption value from the pool sessions and used that to do gas management, it would have likely been much more engaging than the arbitrary bucket/balloon gas law problems. As it was, I don't think anyone really cared about the gas laws (other than passing the test) as most of them saw the laws as completely irrelevant to real diving.

I suppose you could even make the argument that by not doing at least the basics of gas management, not only were the students incapable of making informed planning decisions, but they were also turned off by the physics they *were* shown.

 

[TSandM]

Yes -- The reason I didn't list gas management in my answer is that Tim's question asked, "Which topics covered in your OW class do you wish you'd heard more about. Gas management wasn't covered.

 

[Swan1172]

I would have to go along with gas management and tables. We touched on gas management (i.e. make sure you finish your dive at 500psi), but that was about it. Little time was given to tables, as the instructor basically said, "Don't worry about it. This is the last time you will use these things. If you keep diving, you are going to want to get a computer or dive with someone that has one."

 

[piikki]

"Don't worry about it. This is the last time you will use these things. If you keep diving, you are going to want to get a computer or dive with someone that has one."

Our instructor did actually spend quite an adequate time on tables - yet the above is exactly what he kept saying. This only determined me not to buy a computer right off because it annoyed me. So he did me well

What I would have really wanted to hear more was about how different pieces of scuba kit/gear may affect diving and comfort. I received a lot of the good old false information (eg back inflates are not really used in rec diving, they push your face into water or just get yoke because nobody in the USA uses DIN, etc). I was particularly disappointed later that I had not received any clue about how moving ballast or tank around might affect trim. Generally trim was but introduced and emphasis was on buoyancy control. This would have been easily covered without having to do the work with every student which was probably impossible in that class. If any problems, we were taught to add weight - even though it came with the encouragement that we will drop it soon enough when we dive more.

I had a blast in my OW though, and think basics were covered adequately.

 

[Guba]

SAC? Does that have anything to do with the Strategic Air Command?

Obviously, this is one topic that I would probably have liked to have covered a bit more thoroughly in OW.