A Plante
Registered
Divers,
I took padi open water over 30 years ago, in Okinawa, Japan, great course, very demanding, a week of classes, 2-3 hours a night, 5 consecutive days in the pool, swimming length after length, equipment fam's, emergency drills etc.. then 2 days swimming around in the ocean with full gear , horse collar bc's for some and Mae Wests for the rest, just to get our legs in shape, practice some entrance and exit drills and learn respect for the water, first 2 dives were to 40', with an emergency ascent from that depth, tank ditch etc.... 3rd and 4th dives were to 80', with a ditch at 65' for those who wanted to give it a shot, (all did). Next dives were to 120', 100' and 100' (really not much to see at that depth) prior to our check out day, which consisted of 3 repetitive day dives first to a max 120', 80' then 60' feet and culminating with a midnight dive, What I remember was that open water allowed us to dive to the sport limit which was 130' so at the time we had no need to get an advanced open water cert. This type of training was standard in Okinawa, seems that today's open water is more of a familiarization, and AOW is more on par with how we were trained, don't know but it most likely relates to cash, having to pay each and everytime we advance or they change the rules, it's the color of money I suspect. I do have to agree, that constant training and knowledge is paramount, and it bodes well for us to keep sharp, but with close to 500 dives, I'm more than capable of diving to the sport limit, no computer, just good old dive tables, training and common sense. I don't mind paying for valuable information and certs, like nitrox, cave, rescue, divemaster, etc... but I can't see paying someone for an additonal AOW cert for something I already know and have a demonstrated proficency with, might be an outdated veiw but it just my view and I'm sticking to it, if padi decides to change the cert regs then, it might be time to look elsewhere for training, frankly there should be just one cert for everyone, YMCA, NAUI PADI, IND, NASDS, MILSPEC, it still just SCUBA. End of Rant:14:
I took padi open water over 30 years ago, in Okinawa, Japan, great course, very demanding, a week of classes, 2-3 hours a night, 5 consecutive days in the pool, swimming length after length, equipment fam's, emergency drills etc.. then 2 days swimming around in the ocean with full gear , horse collar bc's for some and Mae Wests for the rest, just to get our legs in shape, practice some entrance and exit drills and learn respect for the water, first 2 dives were to 40', with an emergency ascent from that depth, tank ditch etc.... 3rd and 4th dives were to 80', with a ditch at 65' for those who wanted to give it a shot, (all did). Next dives were to 120', 100' and 100' (really not much to see at that depth) prior to our check out day, which consisted of 3 repetitive day dives first to a max 120', 80' then 60' feet and culminating with a midnight dive, What I remember was that open water allowed us to dive to the sport limit which was 130' so at the time we had no need to get an advanced open water cert. This type of training was standard in Okinawa, seems that today's open water is more of a familiarization, and AOW is more on par with how we were trained, don't know but it most likely relates to cash, having to pay each and everytime we advance or they change the rules, it's the color of money I suspect. I do have to agree, that constant training and knowledge is paramount, and it bodes well for us to keep sharp, but with close to 500 dives, I'm more than capable of diving to the sport limit, no computer, just good old dive tables, training and common sense. I don't mind paying for valuable information and certs, like nitrox, cave, rescue, divemaster, etc... but I can't see paying someone for an additonal AOW cert for something I already know and have a demonstrated proficency with, might be an outdated veiw but it just my view and I'm sticking to it, if padi decides to change the cert regs then, it might be time to look elsewhere for training, frankly there should be just one cert for everyone, YMCA, NAUI PADI, IND, NASDS, MILSPEC, it still just SCUBA. End of Rant:14:
