OW - how long in water?

[Phoenix]

I saw this written by an OWSI on another thread, it seems to indicate that these students qualify with under 2 hours in water time. What happened to the tour portion of these dives, yes there are skills to be practiced but you should take the students for a dive afterwards, I can't see this happening in 14 or 17 minute dives. Does anyone else do this to their students?

Dive 1 - short
Dive 2 - brief
Dive 3 - short
Dive 4 - short
Dive 5 - brief

I see little likelihood of anyone learning adequate buoyancy control in this timeframe, with 2-3 students there would seem little time for anything beyond the required skills.

Ian

[Ferg3333]

If I remember correctly although I may be wrong you are only required to do 80minutes in water time. Again I may be wrong, although I am sure each dive myst be a minimum of 15 or is it 20 minutes long

[endoman]

I did 4 dives for OW, did most of the skills on dive 2, there were only 2 of us being taught and it was in warm water, ( Barbados)

Dive times were,

45, 40, 43, 40 mins.

These were done over 3 days, and I just felt like I'd been diving and not rushed through skills. The skills were part of the dive. CESA was up an anchor chain on a moored boat IIRC. Deepest was dive 3 at 50 feet,

3 were from boats and one a shore dive, did a gentle swim through a wreck as well, that was one on one with the instructor.

I've no idea if this is what happens elsewhere, but I learned a lot from those dives. I'd love to go back and dive there again.

[B]

B

[stewbie]

I think this may have been in relation to the instructors profile for the day when they do CESAs, and the computer lumps all the CESA dives into one.

PADI standards basically look for a 20 min dive time as a minimum on OW dives.

My current school insist on maxing the dive times for students as much as possible. At Capernwray over the weekend, my students did 4 dives, 40 mins, 45 mins, 35 mins and 45 mins.

As you quite rightly state - gives them a chance to practice buoyancy.

You do have to adapt this obviously in terms of air consumption, conditions and student capabilities. In the middle of winter when people are getting cold, get the skills done, quick explore and up. Remember, I'm not breathing as hard as they are, and I'm not taking my mask off. In cold water, that can stress them too much.

My previous dive school was much more an in, 20 mins, and out operation. As it was more of an out the back of a car operation, I have a sneaking suspicion this was to save on instructors air fills, but I could be wrong. That operation also pass people that i wouldn't.

One aside - if buoyancy is bad (but not abysmal) you can always sign them off as a scuba diver, and get them to come back for some more dives before you sign them off as an open water diver.

[nigelH]

My OW course was done in November in the UK in fresh water in wet suits.
Minimising the dive time and still doing all the skills was an important consideration.

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by B

<snip more garbage/excuses>

Have you considered how the author of the other thread, which was actually quite a serious issue might feel that you are taking things to use for your own thread to slate the system??

B

I think you'll find my OWSI cert was issued a few years before your madam, I'm not trying to slate the system, rather your interpretation of it. If you really feel that taking 2-3 students on a 14 minute dive meets the requirements then we'll have to agree to differ.

Ian

[IanDennis]

Minimum dive time is 20mins- its clearly in the standards and is the absolute mimimum time you can spend in the water.

Students should be given the chance to coduct a pleasure dive where possible and to practice buoyancy control. My school teaches everybody in drysuits so there is a real need for them to experience diving beyond sitting on a platform and doing skills. The drysuits do have the advantage of enabling year round training but I would admit in the middle of winter the last thing you want is to be sitting around waiting for other students to complete their skills.

Dives completed on my last ow course were all in the region of 40/45mins.

IanD

[yazzyfooty]

I just checked my log book and my first OW dive at Capernwray was 28 minutes and the 2nd one in the afternoon was 26 minutes what a gas guzzler I was in those days. Log entry states "Felt really excited swimming with the fish, this is what diving is about" Awww @ the naivety of me! It was good to have so much time in the water with 1-1 instructor, great confidence booster. One of the many joys of BSAC

[Barbel]

Completed my OW a couple of weeks ago with Canary divers at capenray. There were 2 students the instructor and a dive master.

day 1
Dive 1 morning 37min walked in and stayed shallow varying depths to 9mtrs with a swim over a drop off. This was to get us acclimatised to swimming in open water and did help on the other dives that followed.
Dive 2 afternoon 38min first half of dive was taken up with skills then a pleasant swim down to 16mtrs

Day2
Dive3 morning 37min started with a few skills then had the swim in the middle before doing surface skills. Weight belt and BCD removal/re-fitting.
Dive4 aftrenoon 40min started with surface skills snorkilling on a compass heading then completed bottom skills went for a swim the completed compass skill before leaving

I felt the swims really helped as they gave you time to practice boyancy control and keeping in sync with your buddy. The other thing i soon learnt was how people air consumtion varies so keep checking with your buddy.