Posted by kelphead on September 07, 2000 at 11:08:00:
In Reply to: Rescue in OW versus seperate Rescue class posted by Wayne on September 07, 2000 at 01:09:29:
"Do not blame the certifying agency or instructor. Blame the diver. They know how, and they
demonstrated neutral buoyancy with breathing controling their ascent/decent in class."
hi, wayne. i read your post and do understand it,
but i also wanted to speak to this one above quote.
i know from personal 1st hand experience that a diver
in an open water course was NOT, i repeat, was NOT
tested for their skills in their open water dives.
i'm not exaggerating when i say this. this particular
diver on the 2nd open water dive ended up at ~70ft
w/the instructor just a few feet above, but not
motioning for the student to rise up (the instructor
did not seem concerned by this). also, the student
diver did not demonstrate any doff and don skills or
mask clearing skills in the open water dives.
the student diver got their c-card w/o proving
their skills AND on top of that this particular diver
received an 'advanced diver' patch b/c according to
the instructor he "ran out of the basic patch".
my point that i wanted to make was that sometimes
it really is bad instruction by the instructor who
doesn't seem to care himself if his own students
know their skills or not.
i'm sure there are wonderful gems of instructors
out there, but there are also those who have been
instructing for YEARS! who just don't seem to give
a damn if their students have mastered very important skills.
i do hope this changes.
kelphead.