PADI or NAUI

[MXGratefulDiver]

Would be interesting I'm sure. Thank you for the invitation. And no, there are not very many opportunities to dive in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Got upset because I felt that I was being bashed by an individual about the number of dives I have partcipated in when all I was asking was which organization people would recommend.

I suspect it was a well-intentioned question, Robert ... just perhaps not very relevent to what you were asking for.

Intent often gets lost on the Internet, and it's easy to take things the wrong way.

Stay safe, and if you ever find yourself in the Seattle area, I'd enjoy showing you some of our local dive sites ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[StreetDoctor]

Street doctor, I guess if you read my previous posts about my current job, you would understand that I've been kinda busy. Iraq and Afghanistan kind of take precedence over diving, wouldn't you agree?? But it's nice to know while some of us are overseas that you have the time to dive and make comments about how many dives someone has. Didn't ask if you thought I should make it a career path

easy there tiger! We all have our priorities. IMO I would take the little time (that you obviously have, you're here afterall) and worry about actually logging some dives not which agency you're going to become an instructor with. There's enough ****ty instructors out there as it is. How are you going to teach someone how to dive when you haven't completely figured it out for yourself yet? Again IMO you should have at least 500 dives before thinking about teaching others. Sure diving is relatively easy but you need the real world experience.

 

[StreetDoctor]

For what it's worth, the profile question / answer is for logged dives. I have personally dived ~26 times with a 13 year old girl who only has 8 logged dives. The next time I see her will be wrapping up her AOW, but she was a better physical diver at age 12, before her OW certification, than the majority of AOW divers I have ever dived with.

I went to my Instructor Factory with 8 logged dives, to start my AOW through MSDT Prep; but as a child I did over 100 J-valve dives with my dad and I had thousands of free dives under my weight belt, most into caverns and caves. If one answers the profile dive question truthfully; how many logged dives do you really have?

I have 140 dives, your entire post has nothing to do with my comment unless the OP also went diving with his father when he was a child

 

[StreetDoctor]

Would be interesting I'm sure. Thank you for the invitation. And no, there are not very many opportunities to dive in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Got upset because I felt that I was being bashed by an individual about the number of dives I have partcipated in when all I was asking was which organization people would recommend.

No one was "bashing" you. The scuba industry as a whole just doesn't need anymore clueless instructors (again I'm not bashing you, just that you lack experience to teach others with 0-24 dives). If you're bored and just asking about for the future then you should agree with me

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

No one was "bashing" you. The scuba industry as a whole just doesn't need anymore clueless instructors (again I'm not bashing you, just that you lack experience to teach others with 0-24 dives). If you're bored and just asking about for the future then you should agree with me

Perhaps you don't realize how your comment came across ... but although I tend to agree with your sentiments, it did cause me to wonder where that came from. I didn't get the impression that Robert was looking to become an instructor next month, but was just wanting to see a path that would eventually get him there.

I don't really agree with your comment about instructors requiring 500 dives first. The major problem with assigning any minimum number of dives to a certification level is that it tends to make people focus on the quantity, rather than the quality, of their in-water time. I have known a few people who did short, shallow, meaningless dives just to "get their numbers up" so they could attain a certification. That kind've defeats the whole point of requiring that much experience, as they learned nothing in the process.

I think it really depends on the individual, their ability to assimilate skills and knowledge, their ability to teach those skills and knowledge to others, their willingness to put in effort out of the water to expand their skills and knowledge, and their general overall attitude.

I know some kick-ass divers with thousands of dives who should never attempt to teach anybody how to dive. Conversely I know some people with less than 100 dives who I can already see will make fantastic instructors. We are all different, and there's simply no way to tell over the internet who will be good or bad at it.

Asking good questions, however, is a sign of a thinking diver. In this respect I think Robert's on the right track, and I think we should be encouraging him and others who are new at diving to ask away. I'll leave it up to him and his instructors to determine when he's ready to move to the next level. They're in a much better position to know than you or I ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Robert00]

Street Doctor, while I appreciate that you are a senior member of the diving community, you are again showing the prototypical diver attitude. Which is why ask if you don't have the experience. Another in a long line of "this is how it's always been done." I can assure you that I am not "Bored" but I am actively researching which part of the industry is best. Not that I owe you an explanation. If you were out of the industry for a decade or so, wouldn't you think it wise to consult with those who are SME's?? Kind of difficult to begin planning a career path (more dives) if you do not know which organization would best suit you or presents the most complete path. Just my opinion

 

[Walter]

I am actively researching which part of the industry is best.

How do you define best?

 

[Thalassamania]

I am very gratified to see an "inexperienced" diver like Robert with the foresight to know that he wants to do more and the insight to understand that he needs to ask a lot of questions. Whatever decisions he make I will predict that he will do well.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I have 140 dives, your entire post has nothing to do with my comment unless the OP also went diving with his father when he was a child

That's your opinion, but I know SB members who did many discover dives before certification, yet since they were not logged dives the profile dive number which is labeled logged dives does not clearly reflect how many dives they have done

If I were to answer the logged dive question it would be somewhere around 215, due to the fact that I have not logged a dive since my Intro to Cave cert. That was well over 3,000 dives ago. The question in the profile give us all a number of options to respond truthfully.

I do have hundreds of gigabytes of dated underwater photo folders

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Lots of people don't log dives at all.

And 140 dives doesn't make anybody a senior anything ... that's a few months worth of diving for some of us ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)