Al Mialkovsky:
Pretty dangerous Mike. Consider that when you say things like this you might very well be encouraging someone who isn't strong and comfortable in the water to train themselves, or have a novice buddy train them.
After all guys all think they're strong.
Be careful not to take what I said too far out of context. Never did I suggest that one should seek training from a novice. Unfortunately many agency certified instructors fit my definition of novice perfectly so I would include those novices in that warning.
Also note that I didn't suggest diving without training or preperation but I did say that one might do very well outside the programs offered by agencies and the tourist dive industry. I also pointed out some of the things that were indicated as essential to diving and how the agencies do a poor job of teaching it or don't teach it at all...ok that's my opinion but I gave examples of what's commonly done to illustrate how I define poor.
I've had to educate myself or guid my own education in lots of things and most a good deal more complex than the diving that most people will ever do. One of the first things to be done is to identify one or more experts or other authoritative sources and tap into them. Unfortunately when it comes to diving, I think there is a high probability that when a prospective diver walks into a dive shop and plops down their money and blindly trusts his/her education to them that they have not found an expert or even a good diver. While the "party line" may have this as the prefered way to begine diving, I view it as being pretty reckless.
Are we recommending training and preperation or certification? Certifications can be purchased at any dive shop and there are lots of them. Knowing what's actually in the training standards and how it's often applied, I'm not able to automatically tie them together the way some of you do.
If I was trying to encourage a prospective diver to do anything at all, it would be to think about what they are being told and not to take anything for granted. For instance, I would not assume that because some one or some agency is in the dive business that they are, in fact, experts on diving. Certainly after having been an instructor with two different agencies, taking a full range of classes from entry level to the highest in existance and doing a bunch of diving, I certainly don't assume any such thing...though I may have accepted that assumption in the beginning before experience taught me different.
So again, I think training and preperation is a great idea but what does that have to do with certification? An unconditional recommendation for certification only has meaning if we make the assumption that certifiation = training and preperation. I don't accept that assumption. We train and prepare so that we can survive and enjoy. We purchase certification to gain access. It would be great if one automatically gained for you the other but it doesn't.
