Nitrox instruction

[skip]

My OW class was five weeks long and included fifteen hours of pool work and fifteen hours of class work. How many of you instructors teach like that?

(The money was made not in instruction, but in selling me the gear needed to scuba dive.)

My class is 16 hours in the pool, 16 hours in the classroom. Comprehensive written test at end with both multiple choice questions, and essay - plus the dive planning questions (tables). Then we do a weekend of diving, five dives. The last dive I have them do in buddy pairs without an instructor along. The four dives are required for certification, but I figure a fifth dive (third dive of the day) serves as proof of ability (planning as well as buddy diving). I have about a 50% success rate - half either need more pool time, more class time, or another day of diving. I have a 20% failure rate, those I refuse to continue training or working with - I try to convince them they are not and will not be capable divers. Sometimes our parting of ways is not pleasant, but often as not, the person is rather relieved as if a burden has been removed.

The local university teaches diving (I used to assist) and that is 3 hours a week for 14 weeks with midterm exam and final exam. alternate weeks in pool and classroom. Guess that's where I learned to teach! The nitrox class is a full day of classroom, written test, gas analysis (use of o2 analyzer), and a day of diving, two dives minimum, with a third depending on location and circumstance (everyone wants to dive so doing three in a day on nitrox is just more fun than two).

I don't teach many, and the last few years even fewer than normal. I can't make money, I don't sell gear. I take too long. Most who ask me about classes don't ask twice once they here how long it takes. Several other instructors around here get the job done, including check dives, in one weekend. I take 3 weekends minimum and warn them a fourth might be necessary.

I once watched an instructor pass 4 students who spend 4 check dives on the surface snorkeling. True, they had scuba tanks and were breathing through regulators. They just couldn't stay under the water. I watched him the end of the second day shake hands with them and congratulate them one by one and hand out temp cards on the spot. Two of the students were ones I had flunked and told they should never scuba dive.

what you gonna do?

[moose_grunt]

I think Nitrox is a more useful skill for AOW rather than OW.

...I think once you get more comfortable in the water, your SAC rate improves and you're ready for more... then take AOW and get Nitrox along with it then.

+1. I think a nitrox cert isn't very useful to an average OW diver. To my knowledge, most agencies limit an OW certification to 60 ft or less. I'd have to check the standards, but I don't remember seeing a depth extension with the nitrox class--your depth limit is the same as your highest training. This means an OW, nitrox certified diver can dive nitrox, but only to 60 ft. If they're using AL80s, the amount of gas will most likely limit their bottom time, not NDL times. By the time they're ready for an advanced class, though, nitrox would be perfect.

I might have missed it in the arguments about to do dives or not to do dives, but I didn't see anyone mention doing a toxing diver rescue? I make my students do dives if for no other reason than to do the rescue. Granted we aren't teaching them to dive at 1.6 or beyond, but it practicing a rescue sure hammers home the point that the MOD of a gas is not something to be taken lightly....

[kitsap_diver]

I might have missed it in the arguments about to do dives or not to do dives, but I didn't see anyone mention doing a toxing diver rescue? I make my students do dives if for no other reason than to do the rescue. Granted we aren't teaching them to dive at 1.6 or beyond, but it practicing a rescue sure hammers home the point that the MOD of a gas is not something to be taken lightly....

That's an interesting point. I never did a toxing diver rescue until my technical classes, and it's a very tough skill. I agree we're not teachingthem to dive to a 1.6, but it does drive home the idea that Oxygen kills. I changed even the way I approach recreational nitrox in the last few years.

[tursiops]

To my knowledge, most agencies limit an OW certification to 60 ft or less.

Yes, check the standards. The OW certification is good to 130 feet...with an added recommendation to stay within the 60-foot training limit. But you are not doing anything "illegal" or "violating the cert" if you go deeper. And, of course, most go deeper, especially in COZ or T&C or some place where you don't see jack until you get to 70-80 feet.

I might have missed it in the arguments about to do dives or not to do dives, but I didn't see anyone mention doing a toxing diver rescue? I make my students do dives if for no other reason than to do the rescue. Granted we aren't teaching them to dive at 1.6 or beyond, but it practicing a rescue sure hammers home the point that the MOD of a gas is not something to be taken lightly....

Good idea. Thanks. But since the class (at least in the two agencies I'm aware of) doesn't include a toxing rescue, I might actually be violating standards by including it! You are supposed to teach the material that is in the class, and elaborate only slightly. I think a toxing rescue would be a major elaboration, especially if they haven't done a Rescue class yet!

[allen]

Toxing diver rescue wasn't in my nitrox course. It sounds like a good skill to have. Where can I learn it?

[diveongas]

Toxing diver rescue wasn't in my nitrox course. It sounds like a good skill to have. Where can I learn it?

Most agency Rescue courses should defacto cover this (at least PSAI does). The drill involves finding the inert diver on the bottom. Emphasis is on bringing the diver up at slow ascent rate, ensuring that body orientation allows for the airway to allow expanding gas to escape readily, in order to prevent embolism. Pretty much what you would do for a toxed diver.

[kensuf]

Personally, I just think it should all be rolled into OW...

:clap:

But the one weekend open water classes aren't the correct ow course...

[kensuf]

If you are having trouble educating your students to the point of not being able to include other very basic fundamentals... consider lengthening your classes. You may not pop out a group of certified divers every other day, but in the long run you'll probably have better results anyway.

Thank you.

[kensuf]

My OW class was five weeks long and included fifteen hours of pool work and fifteen hours of class work. How many of you instructors teach like that?

(The money was made not in instruction, but in selling me the gear needed to scuba dive.)

I teach a 12 week course at the university of Florida. 12x 90-120 minute pool sessions and 12x lectures.

I also taught two week courses for a local dive shop before they went belly up. 4x 3-4 hour lectures, 2x 4 hour pool sessions, and a weekend in blue grotto/devils den. The dive shop went out of business because they could not make money selling gear due to market pressure from mail order, and they would not change their model of using instruction as a loss leader (they filled each class, and lost money on each one). I felt the academics were fine, but would have liked one more day in the pool.

The dive industry is screwed unless instructors/shops wake up and realize courses need to be longer/more in-depth, but that they also need to charge more for the instruction. We have a shop here that teaches a one weekend course (meet your instructor Friday, get certified by Sunday) -- those students rarely gain the confidence and comfort to keep diving.

At the same time, customers need to realize that without their local shops, they are not going to air fills or servicing of their gear. It's a complex problem that has happened partially because of the modular teaching system, the lowering attention span of people that want a merit badge quickly, and competition from mail order/hobbyist instructors.

I could rant for hours, but dammit it I just ran out of rum.

Lovingly typed from my vacation in the Cayman Islands,

Ken