Commercial Dive Schools issuing SCUBA Certifications to students without meeting the standard SCUBA training requirements for that level of certification
We have both personally observed and been informed by other concerned parties that at least one of the US commercial diving schools is issuing a very high level, (Master Diver Certification), to all students, when in fact these students have not meet the minimum practical training requirements for that level of certification. At least four graduates of this particular school have been questioned and all have stated that they received only 3 actual open water dives during their SCUBA training, far short of the number required for a Master Diver. A Master Diver Certification is considered a very high level of certification and divers trained to that level are expected to have a great amount of inwater SCUBA experience and skills. It's our belief and opinion that given a diver this certification level without the aforementioned training and experience puts all parties: the diver, his dive buddies, and his employer, at great risk and is not an acceptable practice. All recognized SCUBA training agencies, to our knowledge, have published Minimum Standards that detail the amount of class room, pool and more importantly, open water training that each certification level requires. These standards are recognized worldwide and are the primary gauge used by the diving community at large to classify and rate a divers training and experience level.
We acknowledge that the commercial schools do meet and probably exceed most classroom requirements for SCUBA. The issue at hand here is the inwater training. Surface Supplied Diving and SCUBA are two different modes of diving and as such each requires it's own training standards. There is absolutly no way that inwater surface supplied training is a substitute for inwater SCUBA training.
Absolutly no training agency should certify a diver to any level, unless that diver has completed all the minimum requirements and also demonstrated those skills to a qualified instructor.
CDSN has contacted the commercial school, stated our finds, expressed our concerns and is currently awaiting an answer. The school is very cooperative and is presently reviewing it's SCUBA training standards.
We also intend to contact the SCUBA agency that's issuing the certification cards to determine if they are aware of the problem and to see what steps they plan on taking to correct and eliminate this unsafe practice.
Update: Aug. 8th, 2005 -We received a reply from the SCUBA agency stating that they have referred our concerns to their Quality Assurance Dept. for review.
Comments are welcome from all concerned parties and can be emailed to: hankfannin@comcast.net