Rainer
Contributor
Just think how convenient it would be for everyone involved (instructors and students) if NO training was involved! What a brilliant idea!
Making The Scuba Industry Better
- Thread starter offthewall1
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Increase the training, don't decrease it. It is already way low enough. We have been turning out so called "Divers" who are not anywhere near comfortable in open water.
When the SCUBA industry was growing, students often had weeks of class and pool and 3-5 supervised open water dives. They stayed diving, turned on friends to do
the same.
When the SCUBA industry was growing, students often had weeks of class and pool and 3-5 supervised open water dives. They stayed diving, turned on friends to do
the same.
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offthewall1, As an Instructor in MD, I assume you do checkout dives in somwehat cold water at times. Here in NS, except for maybe July through Sept., more than 2 dives per day diving wet would not be advised for most.
I take a totally contrary view. I do believe that diver training is the biggest single problem in the industry. However it needs to take longer and be in greater depth.
People need the elapsed time so they can absorb, reflect, and inquire. It shouldn’t be about memorization and following rules blindly, it should be about understand enough that they don’t go out and kill themselves because there isn’t time to teach fundamentals. Dive shops could offer an intro course for tropical vacation divers and those who aren’t sure they want to dive unsupervised or not. I don’t believe the current market strategy based on selling merit badges serves anyone well in the end.
People need the elapsed time so they can absorb, reflect, and inquire. It shouldn’t be about memorization and following rules blindly, it should be about understand enough that they don’t go out and kill themselves because there isn’t time to teach fundamentals. Dive shops could offer an intro course for tropical vacation divers and those who aren’t sure they want to dive unsupervised or not. I don’t believe the current market strategy based on selling merit badges serves anyone well in the end.
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Bob DBF
Contributor
I'm getting a headache trying to get my head around that business model. The gear and card get sold but without the student, instructor, LDS bond who gets the money?
I learned to dive without the benifit of an instructor, I can read, and the only problem that came up years later was that dive shops started requiring cards to get air. When I did take a class it was 4 Thursdays for 2 hours at night, 3 Saturdays for 2-3 hours in the pool and 4 Sundays at the ocean for a skindive and 7 tank dives but this was long ago and far away.
If all classes now were like that one I doubt that there would be the number of divers needed to support all the dive gear manufacturers operating now.
Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.
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If a person can't commit to a weekend of checkouts, I don't give high odds on their continuing with the sport.
For me, I typically leave the house before 7:00 am and am lucky to be home by 6:00 doing a max of 3 dives a day for each student. The drive sucks, but instructing is a commitment. If you can't manage two days for what should be the most important training a diver receives, I'd rather you take up knitting and not waste my time.
But, it certainly would make it easier for instructors
For me, I typically leave the house before 7:00 am and am lucky to be home by 6:00 doing a max of 3 dives a day for each student. The drive sucks, but instructing is a commitment. If you can't manage two days for what should be the most important training a diver receives, I'd rather you take up knitting and not waste my time.
But, it certainly would make it easier for instructors
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Statistically most new divers never become committed divers. Most take the course, do a vacation or two and never dive again. They have children, they take up golf, etc... Of the few that are left, most dive in nice warm vacation venues once or twice a year.
In some countries, a least a few years ago, it took upwards of six months and many dives at different depths to become fully certified. What the industry has deteriorated to today is all about numbers. Content is down, E training is pushed by the agencies to the detriment of the LDS. You can't get the same student / LDS bond that you got 20 years ago.
I love diving having come to the sport later in life. Teaching is not easy. The drive to the quarry a pain, and with petrol costs high much more expensive than previous. That being said, I would make the OW section of training even more vigorous, not physically, but longer, say 6 or more dives and with deeper dive and time requirements. But this is not practical. My closest quarry is 1 hour away and only 15mfw, (and that in a dark nasty sump hole I won't dive into), and the next with any depth is almost 3 hours away.
With people's schedules and commitments as they are today it is difficult to even schedule the limited time necessary to accomplish the very limited training still required.
OP - Keep I mind that there is no substitute for bottom time. I don't mean 3 or four long shallow dives, but different venues, times and depths. Take cavern and cave training. They require a certain number of different sites.
Safe Diving
Dale
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I'm truly hoping the OP was meant as satire ... 
The best way to improve the scuba industry would be to address why there's such a high drop-out rate among those who are currently receiving training. Something like 3 out of every 4 divers who get certified in a given year are not diving a year later. Why is that?
My take is that it's because their training wasn't adequate to teach them how to be comfortable being underwater ... and nobody's going to pay big bucks to go do something that makes them uncomfortable. So they go off and find something else to do.
Quick and easy seems like a good idea to the retailers and scuba instructors ... and for sure cutting yet another day out of the class will mean more money for the people providing them. But it's a disservice to your customers.
As an instructor, you should understand why the 3-dive limit exists. There are several good reasons for it ... in my area, a student in a wetsuit is going to run out of thermal units long before they could manage four dives. But whatever the environment, the biggest concern is retention. New divers get tired after a couple of dives ... and a tired diver isn't going to be learning much. Sure, you can probably coax them through the required "skills" ... but what they'll be doing at that point is mimicking, not learning ... and put them in the same situation a week later and they won't remember what to do.
That isn't how to improve the scuba industry ... that's a great way to make it sicker than it already is.
Someone mentioned that if a student cannot commit to two days of checkout dives, they shouldn't be doing this activity. I think that applies even moreso to the instructor. If an instructor cannot be bothered with the expense and inconvenience of a mere two days of in-water training at the OW level, then perhaps they shouldn't be instructing.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
The best way to improve the scuba industry would be to address why there's such a high drop-out rate among those who are currently receiving training. Something like 3 out of every 4 divers who get certified in a given year are not diving a year later. Why is that?
My take is that it's because their training wasn't adequate to teach them how to be comfortable being underwater ... and nobody's going to pay big bucks to go do something that makes them uncomfortable. So they go off and find something else to do.
Quick and easy seems like a good idea to the retailers and scuba instructors ... and for sure cutting yet another day out of the class will mean more money for the people providing them. But it's a disservice to your customers.
As an instructor, you should understand why the 3-dive limit exists. There are several good reasons for it ... in my area, a student in a wetsuit is going to run out of thermal units long before they could manage four dives. But whatever the environment, the biggest concern is retention. New divers get tired after a couple of dives ... and a tired diver isn't going to be learning much. Sure, you can probably coax them through the required "skills" ... but what they'll be doing at that point is mimicking, not learning ... and put them in the same situation a week later and they won't remember what to do.
That isn't how to improve the scuba industry ... that's a great way to make it sicker than it already is.
Someone mentioned that if a student cannot commit to two days of checkout dives, they shouldn't be doing this activity. I think that applies even moreso to the instructor. If an instructor cannot be bothered with the expense and inconvenience of a mere two days of in-water training at the OW level, then perhaps they shouldn't be instructing.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
captain
Contributor
I'm truly hoping the OP was meant as satire ...
The best way to improve the scuba industry would be to address why there's such a high drop-out rate among those who are currently receiving training. Something like 3 out of every 4 divers who get certified in a given year are not diving a year later. Why is that?
My take is that it's because their training wasn't adequate to teach them how to be comfortable being underwater ... and nobody's going to pay big bucks to go do something that makes them uncomfortable. So they go off and find something else to do.
Quick and easy seems like a good idea to the retailers and scuba instructors ... and for sure cutting yet another day out of the class will mean more money for the people providing them. But it's a disservice to your customers.
As an instructor, you should understand why the 3-dive limit exists. There are several good reasons for it ... in my area, a student in a wetsuit is going to run out of thermal units long before they could manage four dives. But whatever the environment, the biggest concern is retention. New divers get tired after a couple of dives ... and a tired diver isn't going to be learning much. Sure, you can probably coax them through the required "skills" ... but what they'll be doing at that point is mimicking, not learning ... and put them in the same situation a week later and they won't remember what to do.
That isn't how to improve the scuba industry ... that's a great way to make it sicker than it already is.
Someone mentioned that if a student cannot commit to two days of checkout dives, they shouldn't be doing this activity. I think that applies even moreso to the instructor. If an instructor cannot be bothered with the expense and inconvenience of a mere two days of in-water training at the OW level, then perhaps they shouldn't be instructing.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Although I agree with your lack of sufficient training as a possible cause of the high drop out rate I also feel the cheap and easy training attracts people who are just looking to add another one time experience to scratch off their bucket list and really do not have the motivation to become life time divers. It's just like there are many more gun owners than there are proficient shooters.
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