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| Originally Posted by Tazzie I thought one of the requirements was all 4 swim / tread water tests were carried out within a certain timescale? How come people are spreading it out over different days / countries?  Can an instructor who has their standards to hand confirm please or were we had??!! We did all ours in one pool session one after the other (After all it is a stamina / fitness assessment) followed by the stress test / kit exchange |
Nope, they don't have to be done all in one go.
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| Originally Posted by Sooty Stoo Personally I think they're all done at once to get it over with. |
We will get the DIT to have a go. they can decide if they think their timings are good enough to be scored in their paperwork. If they are prepared to gigve it a go, it demonstrates better DM attitude than not even trying.
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| Originally Posted by SeaStar At the risk that others will be given ideas here are some of the things I've seen instructors do to DMs if they think it's all getting a bit too easy on the swim test, kit exchange and rescue assessments:
float - during the last 2 minutes with the hands out of the water they were given a 1kg weight to hold in each hand
Tows - although this is done in CW - they were made to kit up as for OW - extra weight and all the gear
Swims - made them swim around the pool so they couldn't kick off from the ends
Kit exchange
- where there were 4 doing the test, after allowing them 2 minutes to plan, they then swapped the pairs once in the water.
- gave them different kit i.e. school bcds and masks
- made them kit up completely with computers, knives on legs, torches and anything else hanging off that could be found, that would then get in the way
- paired up the tallest/smallest or largest/thinnest (the largest couldn't get the small BCD on and the tallest could fit the small full foot fins)
- marked them down if they do not smile enough
Rescue assessment - selected the heaviest person in the group for everyone to rescue and lift out of the pool (poor women was really upset that she had to be rescued by 6 other DM who nearly all dropped her). |
PADI standards are just that... standard. To add additional, unneccessary things to make life more difficult is a violation of standards. Nowhere does it say that the final part of the float is to hold weights.
The idea is to test stamina, not see if they have superhuman strength.
If you treat trainee divemasters with respect, and help them through the course rather than make it, quite frankly, like a boot camp, they will enjoy it more and be more likely to become better divemasters.
i have to say that adding things on to make life difficult pisses me right off. You wouldn't do it to an open water student, so why to someone you are training to be a pro.