Unfortunately I take issue with many things in the dive industry. The problem is there isnt much that I dont take issue with. If I thought I it had any chance of succeeding I would start my own agency today. There are some things that will never change though. The dive industry is an industry that exists for one reason and one reason only. It exists to make money. There are thousands of resorts/charters, tens of thousands of dive shops and hundreds of thousands or instructors and DMs. Equipment manufacturers, hotels and restaurants are all raking in the bucks. Even the nonprofits make money they just put in a different column on their balance sheet. Maybe agencies like the Y are nonprofit but the y-affiliated shops sure are for profit.
In a perfect world I would expect that everyone who wanted to go underwater would receive good thorough training and pay a fair price for it. I would call that diving. However is diving what we sell most people? I dont think so. Most divers pay to participate in what I call underwater tourism. The resort course has been around for a very long time. The idea is you dont need to know much to be taken by the hand and shown a fish. Do I agree with it? NO. Do I like the idea of a pre-entry-level course like the Scuba Diver cert? No. OTOH, I think its better than 90% of the OW certs that are being issued because it requires supervision. Most OW divers need supervision but they get a card that says they dont. Again the SD cert includes far more training than a resort course and the diver gets the same level of supervision on a dive that has the same restrictions. Left up to me I would first eliminate the resort course. BTW the PADI resort course is called a Discover Scuba Diving program. It consists of essentially the first CF water training session, and the first OW dive. It qualifies (in theory) a person to dive under supervision for ONE YEAR (it used to be 2 weeks) and requires registration with PADI. Why should PADI not charge for that service? Everyone else involved is charging for the service they provide. I think the person with SD cert is better prepared for the dive than the resort course participant and it isnt even close.
As far as taking issue with the agencies over things I dont agree with, my first priority is OW training. And this includes all agencies. I know Walter is fond of the Y but I have seen a few Y instructors and their classes were as bad as any others. I will say the same for NAUI and the rest. So first there is the general poor application or even violation of standards and then there is the possible opportunity to improve standards.
It seems to me that the question with the SD cert is the same as with the resort course and that is Is it ok to take someone sight seeing underwater before they learn to dive? None of the agencies have asked me and they arent going to either. I think we should just rename the industry from The Dive Industry to The Underwater Tourism Industry and call it good. Then we could start a new dive industry and we wouldnt have so many running around thinking theyre divers when they arent.
In a perfect world I would expect that everyone who wanted to go underwater would receive good thorough training and pay a fair price for it. I would call that diving. However is diving what we sell most people? I dont think so. Most divers pay to participate in what I call underwater tourism. The resort course has been around for a very long time. The idea is you dont need to know much to be taken by the hand and shown a fish. Do I agree with it? NO. Do I like the idea of a pre-entry-level course like the Scuba Diver cert? No. OTOH, I think its better than 90% of the OW certs that are being issued because it requires supervision. Most OW divers need supervision but they get a card that says they dont. Again the SD cert includes far more training than a resort course and the diver gets the same level of supervision on a dive that has the same restrictions. Left up to me I would first eliminate the resort course. BTW the PADI resort course is called a Discover Scuba Diving program. It consists of essentially the first CF water training session, and the first OW dive. It qualifies (in theory) a person to dive under supervision for ONE YEAR (it used to be 2 weeks) and requires registration with PADI. Why should PADI not charge for that service? Everyone else involved is charging for the service they provide. I think the person with SD cert is better prepared for the dive than the resort course participant and it isnt even close.
As far as taking issue with the agencies over things I dont agree with, my first priority is OW training. And this includes all agencies. I know Walter is fond of the Y but I have seen a few Y instructors and their classes were as bad as any others. I will say the same for NAUI and the rest. So first there is the general poor application or even violation of standards and then there is the possible opportunity to improve standards.
It seems to me that the question with the SD cert is the same as with the resort course and that is Is it ok to take someone sight seeing underwater before they learn to dive? None of the agencies have asked me and they arent going to either. I think we should just rename the industry from The Dive Industry to The Underwater Tourism Industry and call it good. Then we could start a new dive industry and we wouldnt have so many running around thinking theyre divers when they arent.
