perhaps a good course of action would be to contact NAUI and ask what the responsibilities are for the instructor and what NAUI considers within the scope of an instructors position. If the instructor is out of line with respect to a doctors sign off then a complaint should be lodged with NAUI for an instructor feeling he is more qualified to make medical judgements. There is a chance however slight that extended stress evaluation might cause the mature candidate to have a damned heart attack. Is the instructor ready to accept the responsibility for that decision and of course the following course of litigation that would follow? I hear an amount of defense of the instructors choices and I'm not sure if he is qualified to set himself above that of a physician .
The answer you would get from NAUI is that it's the instructor's discretion.
NAUI and PADI have totally different mindsets when it comes to instructor discretion. You cannot really use the mindset of one to evaluate the other. Both have upsides and downsides.
The downside to the NAUI approach is that sometimes you get an instructor who makes expectations a student is not willing to reasonably try to meet. The remedy in that case is to find a different instructor.
The upside is that NAUI not only trusts us, but expects us, to act in what we believe is the best interest of our students. Unless it is an issue of an instructor doing something that puts the diver at risk, NAUI will not interfere with an instructor's discretion.
In this particular case, you have only one perspective on the issue ... and that's a very limited perspective. Without knowing the instructor's reasons, you cannot really make a rational judgement about whether or not his expectations are warranted.
I recently had a student who had ear problems that were serious enough, in my mind, that I stopped the class and told her she needed clearance from an ENT before I would continue the class. She got that clearance and returned to class. Two dives later she was displaying the same symptoms. I stopped the class again, and informed her that she needed to see a specialist. Did I override the evaluation of the first doctor? Damn right I did. I felt it was in the best interest of the student that I do so before she does something to permanently damage herself. And I make no apologies for that decision, despite the fact that I have no medical training ... because it's not the doctor's name that would be on that person's C-card, it would be mine.
Likewise, I have excused students from a class because I felt they were not taking it seriously enough. They didn't violate any agency standards ... they just gave me the impression that they would, through stupidity, put themselves in a situation to injure themselves or others ... and I will not certify people who display that attitude. It's within my rights to do so, and I make no apology for removing those people from my class.
Without hearing from the NAUI instructor in this case you have no way of knowing what the "other side" of this issue is ... and therefore no way of knowing why he established the fitness criteria he did. Perhaps he had valid reasons ... perhaps not. But this is, really, an issue that needs to be resolved between student and instructor ... not through the Internet.
As NAUI instructors, we have a lot of freedom to teach. With that freedom comes the responsibility to use it in what we feel is the best interest of our students. And while there are always exceptions, I think there is some benefit in placing the responsibility for judging fitness to dive with the instructor ... who is there, interacting with the student ... rather than with some nameless bureaucrat in an office somewhere far away who applies the same written rules to everybody.
To the OP ... if you feel this instructor is treating you unfairly, by all means lodge a complaint with NAUI headquarters (you can do so through their website at
HTTP://WWW.NAUI.ORG) ... and then go find yourself an instructor who is more to your liking.
That is the most reasonable course of action in this case.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
