You have touched on one of the main controversies that has developed
over time in this sport.  This month's issue of "Dive Training"
Addresses this selfsame question very briefly.  It has been my personal
experience, over the course of twenty five years as a certified diver,
that the new trend in education has been to teach SCUBA in a modular
format.  Before it was believed that an instructor may only get one shot
to educate a diver and they had to make the most of the opportunity.
Introductory classes were more in depth with respect to theory and the
range of specialty areas given class coverage.  These classes could be
both physically and academically intimidating and were designed to
prepare the student for most of the situations that they would
theoretically wish to pursue.  It should be noted that the attitude of
the divers was different though.  Basically the water was there and the
diver set out into the world to seek, explore and conquer.
   The practice of recreational diving has changed over the years and
the practical limits for people diving recreationally has been more
clearly defined and separated from the limits of commercial, scientific
and technical divers.  For someone wishing to dive recreationally the
practical need for an intimate and deep knowledge of theory and physical
conditioning required for a diving professional are not deemed as
pre-requisite for safe diving practices within the recreational diving
limits.  Thus, the entry level classes have been designed with a lower
threshold of exit requirements which are less intimidating.
    As people gain experience they generally gravitate to those areas of
specialty that interest them.  The advanced courses are more area
specific and can be tailored to accomidate these interests in a more
focussed fashion.  The key to this issue is the recreational diver has
different needs than someone who is seeking out becoming an underwater
or diving professional, whose requirements are much more stringent.
   Anyway that's the idea.  I'm not yet convinced of the overall merit,
however, as long as people know what they're getting for preparation and
dive within the limits of that training it works.  As for one agency
offering a better entry level course I would tend to believe that
differences are more individual instructors based rather than agency
requirement based.  The advanced courses as they are called certainly
are nothing more than a bit more experience in basic diving in my
opinion, however, for the PDIC class to exactly compare with the two
course PADI setup you would have had to complete 11 or 12 open water
dives 1Øy[ÕW
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