Experience w/ U of MN Dive Program?

[beeger]

I can offer some first hand experience on this. I’ve been involved with helping teach the U of MN SCUBA course for almost 10 years. Bob Karl, who owns a company called Superior Expeditions, formally teaches the course and is on staff at the U of MN. He’s been doing this for over twenty years.

Check out:
Go to Education > Open Water Diver > Classroom & Pool
-and-


The course runs on a 7-week schedule, with classes meeting once a week, four hours a night. Each night is roughly two hours of classroom and one and a half hours in the pool. Students are free to do their open water dives through Superior Expeditions or get a referral to any other Universal Referral agency. My personal opinion is that this is the best way to learn how to dive in the Twin Cities. Due to the large amount of staff employed by Superior Expeditions, students almost always get a 4-to-1 student to instructor ratio in the pool, often 2-to-1, and students needing extra attention get a 1-to-1 ratio. The pool utilized is beyond equal in the Twin Cities: we use the huge ~16 foot deep from wall to wall diving well (as in high diving) that better simulates a real environment than does a ~10 foot pool with limited space to move in the deep area. The course format gives students get far more practice than what they likely would with a typical course, and therefore they go into their open water dives much more confident and prepared. The extra time in the classroom means that there can actually be meaningful discussions that go beyond what typical SCUBA courses cover these days. The extra pool time gives students more time to practice AND play (i.e. become more comfortable underwater) as well as learn skills they might not otherwise have time to cover.