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Guy,
I've been teaching recreational scuba for seven years (pays the bills for my
tech diving). In the open water level I require 200m swim and 10 minute tread
water. In advanced 500m swim and 15 minute tread water. Classes above
advanced, 500m under 10 minutes, 15 minute tread, 2 minutes with a 15lb rescue
brick (from life guard training), 800m snorkel in under 18 minutes, and a
variety of other increased stress confidence building skills. This is well
beyond the minimums of all agencies, including the one I certify for. If a
student cant make it they don't get certified. I am always more than happy to
help a student get in shape to pass the requirements and have actually had very
few that didn't make it. The point here is that it not the agency but the
instructors who need to make sure their students are ready fore the diving that
they are being trained for.
Dive safe, Dive fun, Jimbo
Guy Wittig wrote:
> Dan / Tom
>
> When I did my first Open Water course in '75 we had to endure all sorts of
> what would be considered macho stuff to get certified.
>
> My wife did her course a couple of years ago. She had to do a 200m swim in a
> pool. An overweight student was unable to complete this swim. He stopped
> every length of the pool for a few minutes, and only covered about 1/2 the
> required distance. The PADI instructor overlooked this as they now tend to
> focus on being kind and sensitive and ensuring everyone passes. I am sure
> this diver is diving happily, probably passed his PADI advanced by now.
>
> Apart from dodgey open water tests like this I have never really seen any
> systematic fitness assessments being carried out.
>
> Would it be unreasonable for IANTD or TDI to put some focus on a reasonable
> level of fitness assessment as part of more advanced dive courses like
> Extended Range, Trimix. E.G. (pulling this out of the air here) a 400 to
> 800m swim geared up with a time limit (You could even do a gas consumption
> calculation.) Or a medical with an ultrasound for PFO ?
>
> I think if we ever want to learn from accidents and improve training we have
> to cut all the rhetoric and ego "stroking", which is getting a little
> sickening here, do some objective analysis of root causes, and see if the
> training can reasonably be improved.
>
> Tom - does IANTD systematically analyse dive accidents for root cause and
> feed this back to training development ?
>
> Guy Wittig
> Sydney
> Australia
>
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