This is the instructor's at-a-glance pass/fail summary for the open water dives. It consolidates the per-dive performance requirements into the critical, observable behaviours a candidate must demonstrate to certify. Each item is met by the candidate independently, without prompting; a failure on any critical item is remediated and re-assessed before certification.
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Buddy contact. Maintains within-reach contact and the buddy-pair discipline throughout; no diver alone or beyond reach of a buddy at any point.
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No-contact discipline. No planned touch of the reef; holds station by buoyancy, with no marker placed on live substrate.
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Calibration. Establishes K and r correctly by the marked-line and marker-fade methods, in kick cycles, and derives R = 2r.
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Navigation. Runs the heading sequence — out 000°, +60° at each stop — from a fixed hub and a fixed north, without prompting.
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Ring completion. Completes the six-station ring, or calls a gas turn-around correctly and records the partial ring as partial.
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Captures. Produces six usable full-surround captures (seam and nadir clear, no motion blur), re-shooting or excluding any unusable frame.
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Reconciliation. Reconciles the two observer counts (N₁ in water, N₂ from the image) and reports the spread.
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Limitations statement. Completes the accuracy-and-limitations statement for the survey.
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Understands the product. Explains why the result is a relative index, not an absolute population or density.
The capstone (Dive 4) is where these are assessed under fully independent execution; the earlier dives build them. An instructor who prompts a candidate through a forgotten step has converted assessment into instruction, and that item is not yet met.