Posted by Bill Johnson on November 20, 2001 at 13:32:26:
In Reply to: Re: 60ft limit - get real posted by Jason on November 20, 2001 at 13:02:50:
Jason,
I have rephrased what I wrote to Wayne for you. The fact of the matter remains: Open Water training only trains divers to 60' during the day. Does that mean that after 20 dives of experience, the Open Water Diver is reasonably capable of diving to 100'? According to you, "it would be perfectly reasonable for them to do a few dives in the 70s, 90s, 100s, and then 120"; but when does this logic stop? Following your logic, does this mean that after 300 reef dives, the Open Water Diver is now magically capable of a dive to 130' or 200'?
My question to you is how is an Open Water Diver magically transformed into a Matterhorn diver by doing 300 reef dives?
Lets say you taught them. Then lets say they call me up to go on my charter to the Matterhorn. How do I know that this Open Water Diver is Matterhorn qualified?
You wrote, "Gradual increases in depth or difficulty is what they should have learned from their training." There are tons of Open Water Divers that can't even find their open water manual anymore. And even if they could, an Open Water Diver manual does not address advanced diving, or night diving for that matter.
The bottom line is that it is unreasonable to believe that a boatload of Open Water Divers are all experienced, practiced and self-educated enough to steam off to an advanced dive site.
One thing is certain: an Open Water Diver has been at least minimally trained to dive in open water to 60' during the day.
Regards,
Bill