Posted by brianc on August 01, 2001 at 16:16:31:
In Reply to: Training standards posted by Kendall Raine on August 01, 2001 at 10:22:33:
Well, I'm just a DM, but I work with 2-3x more classes than any one instructor associated with the shop I work through (A 5-star PADI IDC in Sonoma Co. - that should narrow it down!) I typically work with two OW classes a month with several different instructors.
For OW our typical class ranges from 4 to 8 students. The largest class that I have worked with had 12 students.
The typical Instructor/DM to student ratio in the ocean is 1:2 or 3, the highest I have worked with (1 class) was 1:4.
We sometimes have larger classes in the pool with some students planning on referals in warm water. An extra instructor is always added for these larger sessions. The students are urged to do cold water class work before diving here.
Over the past year, I can recall about a half dozen or more students who we required to do extra pool work before going to the ocean. One student we refused to even give a referal after six pool sessions. I can clearly recall four specific instances of refusing to allow students to go on a second ocean dive after dive 1 was aborted. There may have been more that I cannot recall. I would estimate that at least one student dropped out without completing certification in 70-80% of the classes I've worked with. It happens so often that it doesn't even phase me any more.
At the last PADI member forum that I attended, the PADI regional manager said "'Diving is for eveyone' is a great marketing slogan, but it doesn't apply up here. Not everyone should be certified to dive in the north." Heresy???
We had two deaths in Northern and Central CA this year. One was an abalone rock picker. A guy with no training, who was in the water for the first time. He was in 49F water with a 3mm shorty, no fins and stayed in when his buddies left due to cold. There was a death of an experienced diver who had not been diving for some time. I believe she was a fire fighter who had inhaled smoke just days before.
I am shocked at what I've been reading about classes in SoCal. I suspect that part of the difference is that we do not have a beach culture in the north comparable to SoCal. (I grew up a few miles from the Manhattan Beach pier - was a Jr. Lifeguard there...). The ocean up here is cold, rough, and low viz. Access is not easy. People who get certified here need to really want to do this.