[Miss Roxy Chablis]

What a lot of people dont understand or even realise is tat the PADI OW course is an introduction to diving and not designed to teach you everything in one hit. There is a huge ammount of flexibility in the course to consider things like sea conditions temperature visibility etc, each individual instructor can also use their own knowledge and experience to teach the"art " of diving in the prevailing conditions, this can include the use of SMB's and boat and shore diving protocols.The only thing PADI stae is that the extra tuition shold be relevant and nessessary and not be seen as task loading. As the use of an SMB is pretty much the norm in he UK this would be an accepted skill under the standards.
Iv'e been a PADI pro for 20 years and a CD for 15 and promote this philosophy to all my guys.

What he says