Question about Instruction

[medic_diver45]

If the plane tickets to Guam weren't so dang much I would take you up on your offer I hear there's great diving there.

I managed 200-some-odd posts by asking a lot of questions and getting involved in medical discussions (since that is what I do for a living).

 

[Walter]

SSI is the only agency requiring shop affiliation.

You want speed rather than quality? Not to worry, there's no shortage of those classes available. Good luck.

 

[DandyDon]

SSI is the only agency requiring shop affiliation.

You want speed rather than quality? Not to worry, there's no shortage of those classes available. Good luck.

I was anxious to go when I did my OW, thinking: "Aw, come on. I did 100 feet on my Resort course. I know how to dive. Let's get this card thing done." I'm dangerous like that.

I did learn in in OW, of course, then soon learn how little I knew. Eager people like me and the original poster can be the most dangerous. Maybe he's better at self control? I'm more of a "Take the hill, consider losses vs gains later."

Now that I've survived a couple of hundred dives, I wish the agencies would require a DM for OW cards with less than 50 dives. It's a very sophomoric phase.

 

[Bubble Blower 479]

I don't agree that speed means a lack of quality. I know many instructors that can teach you to dive very well without having to wait several days between class periods. Private lessons are very effective but you have to pay the instructor well enough to be worth his time. If you get with a good private instructor he/she can evaluate if you truly qualify for your C-card. A bad instructor will whip you thru everything fast and not care how much your learn. I think it's the abiltiy of the student and the quality of the instructor that makes the difference, not how long it takes to learn it that indicates quality.

 

[medic_diver45]

Very well said Spider, I think Walter is mistakenly assuming that the length of training equates to approximate value of the training. That is akin to saying that someone who completes a bachelor degree in 4 years (or 5) is better trained than someone who does it in 3 years. It's all a matter of how much effort you want to put into it and the quality of the person training you. I will give the class 110% and make every effort to perfect my skills. I want to be the best OW diver out there, because later on that will make me a better AOW diver, divemaster, etc. I know my life depends on my skills when I dive as much as they do when I go into a burning building with the fire department.

If anyone has the mistaken idea that I am getting into diving for some sort of misguided adrenaline fix, think again: I have long since outgrown the need to put my life on the line every chance I get just to ramp up my heart rate and get the giddy feeling that a good adrenaline fix gives you; I still enjoy them, but I get that whenever I fight fire, work complex medical or rescue cases, etc. I have no interest in "extreme" diving- pushing some macho BS limit that others have set. I don't want to do caves (I think you'd have to have lost your mind to go into one), I am hesitating at the idea of whether to learn Nitrox....I want to dive because of an interest in marine biology and the history behind wrecks. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[DandyDon]

If you are lucky enough to get to know Walter, you'll find that he is rarely wrong. It took me a year, and that one minor example wasn't about diving.

Here is a thread you might want to print out and read before every dive day?

http://scubaboard.com/t70505-.html

 

[simbrooks]

Steve/Medic Diver,

i think what most people are concerned about is that generally the courses that are done over a weekend are very poor, they hardly have time to cover the material (if at all), the instructor shows you the skill and you repeat once - not mastering it, barely accomplishing anything and certainly not preparing you to be a diver - i know i had one of those courses. Only practice, diving with good folks off here and such activity made me a more proficient diver.

I think so far with this line of questions you have asked has been viewed by many as a little aggressive, seeming to want to fly through this as if not wanting to learn as much as get the card - which is a common fear amongst experienced divers about the current trend of divers coming out (i do not classify myself in their experience, but can see that already as i look around, even at myself sometimes). Again i can understand how you might feel not being able to complete something due to an outside influence (broken leg in this case) and just wanting to get back into it all. As always you have to know what you are getting yourself into, my above example of how some of these weekend courses are run is not uncommon, particulary in popular places like FL and some of the islands - there are however good instructor and those that will either take their time with you or make sure you have got the skills down solidly even if taking only a long weekend - solely teaching you for a decent fee, but those are harder to find and most seem to want to have a small class rather than a single student, and to take time to let the info settle in and for you to think through the info and skills so you are more able to learn. Being crammed over a weekend is less like doing a bachelors in 3 years, more like 1 year - i did mine in 3 years, but that is the system where i come from, you work all day everyday on it - you are a student and that is all, not this half day here and there or night school type deal where you can afford to pay your way through with what you earn at a full time job! But i digress.

Please understand that people want you to get a good education and become a good diver, i think most people on this board want all those who get in the water to dive well and often. Dont take their comments as attacks, just concern (as near parental as you can get i guess).

BTW, i would much rather find myself a few hundred feet into the cave in the right equipment with the right training than running into a burning building, hats off to you for that - i just hope and doubt you arent like my old roommate, who was a fireman, but a total d*ck too.

 

[medic_diver45]

Firefighters are simply controlled pyromaniacs....we've just found a different, productive way to experience that which fascinates us (kind of like a diving junkie who goes on to become a dive shop operator). Yes, we tend to be bullheaded at times (d-cks is putting it politely for some of the FF's I know) but I try not to be (I do get on my soapbox from time to time though). I don't consider myself a very experienced firefighter- despite doing this for the better part of 6 1/2 years, approximately 250 house fires (and several large factory and warehouse fires, two light plane crashes, and numerous car fires) and having obtained the rank of lieutenant on the local volunteer fire department. These things I have learned:
1. I will never have seen it all, there is always someone who is smarter, faster, or more experienced than myself (but that just gives me a reason to improve myself),
2. There is something I can (and) should learn from every call; if I don't learn something from a call, I wasn't paying close enough attention.
3. No fire is routine.
4. Every call could be my last.

The same principles hold true in diving from what I have learned.

I don't mean to come across as aggressive....I am a little bit more forward than most, but it's simply because of my upbringing (personally and professionally). I don't think I will learn the ins and outs of diving in a weekend, and I wouldn't dare take a weekend class if it weren't for my prior experience in taking the full length class. As for my fiancee taking the class....well she chickened out of diving altogether for the time being.

 

[medic_diver45]

Walter, I hope you harbor no hard feelings towards me....I don't mean to be rude to you and if I offended you you have my sincerest apologies.

 

[rustyscubatool]

Ok, big guy. So just WHEN are you going to actually DO something about diving? Lotsa posts, but not a lot of action.