Will Shops & Instructors like this, or hate this?

[PfcAJ]

Someone sounds like a recent fundies student...

 

[danvolker]

Someone sounds like a recent fundies student...

Yeah, like a student that did many hundreds of intense tech dives in the last 2 decades, and who was pretty sure he knew everything he needed to know...and had all the skills there were to be had....Fundies has a way of altering this kind of perception

 

[Martini]

I applaud your desire to improve the over all skill of divers on the market, but I really can't see this being received very well from a majority of the shops out there. Many shops will be closed minded to something like this and see it as an attempt to steal business. Shops that are willing to embrace this probably already have in some manner or another. The shop I teach for has created clinics to address this already. We have finning clinics and an advanced bouyancy class that includes video feed back that adddresses many of the things you are proposing to offer. Because of this many shops and some boat captains in the NE think we take all this stuff too seriously.

 

[Thalassamania]

It will be taken as competition no matter how it is couched, so accept that and work with it. Do the videos with comparison shots, asking the question, "does your instructor look like this (show average trim and buoyancy) or this (show GUE style trim and buoyancy)." Do both examples in "conventional" recreational gear. Work in stuff about team diving, buddy systems, etc., without ever mentioning DIR, GUE, or Tech. Show kneeling classes vs. neutral and in control classes. Suggest at the end that if people want to master trim and buoyancy there are many alternate ways to do it, PPD, Fundies, Essentials, NAUI, SEI, LACnty, etc., but that is will not happen unless the instructor looks like: THIS! Put the video up on youtube and such. Be a great public service and something that competent instructors could use as a great sales tool.

 

[jar546]

I think it will be perceived as a threat, especially when it is a competing agency that the instructor does not teach for.

It may be a good idea but the reality of the perception will be negative. Sort of a slap in the face, telling your students there was a better way but you did not teach it.

 

[Thalassamania]

I think it will be perceived as a threat, especially when it is a competing agency that the instructor does not teach for.

It may be a good idea but the reality of the perception will be negative. Sort of a slap in the face, telling your students there was a better way but you did not teach it.

That's quite the point, tell the truth and give student's an obobjective way to rate their would-be instructors. I'd use individuals who are certified as mainstream instructors, PADI, NAUI, SSI, SDI, complete with clearly identifiable agency artifacts (e.g., cue cards) and regalia (e.g., patches). At the end I'd have a sort of appendix that shows the same instructors, with them same regalia, in Hogathian geam, diving as a team on a really neat wreck dive ... something to shoot for and a voice over that for the first time mentions GUE, DIR, UTD, etc.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I like it! I am always looking to improve my skills and those of my students. I use the 5thdx videos now in the classroom to show them how mask clearing, reg recovery, etc should be done. Then demo them the same way in the pool. And try to have students do them back in the same manner and position. They do start with fin tips on the slope of the pool but they know what the goal is and they do their best to emulate it.

 

[RonFrank]

What is your end game? I'm hearing a bunch of ideas that may or may not be DIR, and may or may not require divers standardize their gear. What are you attempting to do as it's rather fuzzy?

Is this class for an average diver that shows up with an octo inflater on their jacket style BC with their purge valve on the mask swimming with their split fins? Or does it require BP's and jet fins?

If the end game is DIR without saying it's DIR, that agency has a training program that works well for those that are into it. If the end game is something different an explanation is needed.

 

[Thalassamania]

I think that the end game is to get would-be students to select courses. on an objective basis, that present (and stress) buoyancy and trim.

 

[TSandM]

I'm sure Dan will come back and clarify, but I think what he'd like to do is pass along some good ideas about in-water stability and the ability to move through a silty dive site without disturbing it.

If I could round up the entire diving population of Puget Sound and teach them two things, that's what they would be. Equipment and philosophy agnostic.