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Paul,
There is a difference between "Basic Scuba Diver" (PADI Scuba Diver) " and "Open Water Scuba Diver" (PADI Open Water Diver). The PADI Scuba diver allows you dive only under the supervision of a Divemaster, Assistant Instructoror, Instructor, or higher rated professional. The Open Water course is a more comprehensive course. With this certification, one can dive independant from a professional. I am rather surprised this was not made clear in your courses. Regardless, the quality of the course depends very much on the instructor as the content is fairly standard among the major dive organizations. As Tech Diver mentions, you will get more out of the longer courses than the weekend course, especially for the initial cert.
David
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