PADI has recently revised its Open Water (OW) course, and while the new curriculum’s implementation is an ongoing initiative that could take some time to come into global effect, it’s worth knowing what the changes entail. PADI professionals can peruse the course alterations online in the 4th Quarter Training Bulletin for 2013, and also in the Undersea Journal for the same time period. For those potential students without access to these publications, however, this article is designed to explain a little bit about what these changes really mean. The OW course acts as a gateway into the world of diving for hundreds of thousands of new divers each year; these revisions are the result of two years of evaluation, and seek to make the course as effective as possible. The old version of the course is still valid, giving instructors time to use up old course materials and get comfortable with the changes before implementing them. So don’t worry if you enroll in PADI’s entry-level course over the next few months and don’t recognize the following revisions.
Changes to Terminology
Some of the most obvious differences between the old version and the new are ones of changed terminology. For example, what was once called “nitrogen narcosis” will now be known as “gas narcosis,” which is a more accurate description since several gases can exert the same effects as nitrogen on the body at depth. Other terminology changes include using “no stop” instead of “no decompression,” and “deep-stomach breathing” instead of “hyperventilation” as it relates to skin diving. The revised course also formally introduces several new terms, including “mini-dive,” which refers to a new performance requirement whereby student divers must plan and execute a dive that simulates a real life open-water experience during confined-water sessions. Other new terms include “trim,” which describes the placement of weights on a diver’s body to help swimming position and buoyancy, “air management,” which describes a new course requirement whereby students will be required to know their air supply at all times, “good surface habits,” which incorporates maintaining positive buoyancy and keeping the mask in place on the surface, and finally, “proper lifting techniques,” used to describe how to lift and move heavy equipment in such a way as to minimize the risk of injury.
Changes to Knowledge Development
Practical changes have been introduced into the knowledge development, confined water and open water sections of the course. For example, where knowledge development is concerned, it’s now assumed that student divers are using computers, and information regarding choosing them, using them and maintaining them will be integrated into learning both in the classroom and at home. New divers will also be taught air-management concepts, including the planning of reserves for safety stops, and the correct point at which to turn around during a dive. There have also been some changes to the order in which new concepts are taught: the relationship between pressure, volume and density, for example, will now be introduced before learning about buoyancy. Similarly, in order to avoid confusion between gas narcosis and more threatening conditions like oxygen toxicity and decompression sickness, the former will now be taught separately in section five of the OW manual.
Changes to Confined Water Dives
Some of the revisions to the confined-water section of the course are designed to make learning easier, with a less rigid approach to the order in which skills are taught. The removal and replacement of the weight system at the surface and the low-pressure inflator disconnection skills have both been made dive flexible, meaning they can be taught at any point throughout the course at the instructor’s discretion, depending on student capability and allowing more time for mastery. A new step in the mask-clearing skill has also been added for the same reasons, and will see students perform a fully-flooded mask clear as an intermediate step between partial clearing and mask removal and replacement. When it comes to the swimming alternate air-source use skill, buddies will now be required to ascend together to the surface, where the out-of-air diver will need to establish positive buoyancy via oral inflation. Additionally, several new skills have been added to the confined-water section to help student divers learn how to react to an emergency, including the adjustment and tightening of a loose cylinder band, and an emergency weight-drop skill (to be completed either in confined or open water). The mini-dive will see students plan and execute a simulated open-water dive. Other new focus areas include buoyancy, how to ascend and descend without impacting sensitive seafloors, proper lifting techniques, staying within reach of your buddy, good surface habits, air management and correct trim.
Changes to Open Water Dives
Many of these focus areas are reinforced during the revised open-water section of the course, which formalizes previously understood concepts like environmental awareness, trim checks and good surface habits into performance requirements. The biggest changes to the open-water section are evident in dives one and four. Whereas dive one was previously free of staged skills, it now includes hand-signal recognition, partially flooded mask clearing, and regulator recovery and clearing. Providing that all dive-flexible skills have already been completed, dive four is now free of staged skills, and provides an opportunity for student divers to practice planning and executing a dive under the supervision of their instructor, allowing them to experience the reality of self-sufficient diving after qualification. Other changes make the safety stop compulsory on dive four and recommended for all other open-water dives; make the tired-diver tow no longer necessary for those students achieving their PADI scuba diver certification; and introduce a skill that requires divers to respond to an audible signal underwater. To further increase diver safety after qualification, the revised OW course also includes a new dive-flexible skill whereby student divers learn to employ an SMB or DSMB (safety sausage) during training.
Updated course materials will accompany the new course, including the open-water manual in three versions: print, online, and an app for tablets, referred to as Open Water Diver Touch. Currently, the new materials (including the PADI Open Water Diver video and crew packs) are available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish, with other languages available soon. As the old course is phased out in favor of the new, those considering learning to dive with PADI should be excited to be the first to reap the benefits of a curriculum designed to make diving safer, easier to understand and more rewarding than ever.
