Mandatory TDA membership

[limbo]

and due to an unfortunate schmelting accident...................

 

[jamiemac]

i assumed you Dutchies were operating from your attics, hiding from the TDA stormtroopers.

glad you still having soapy fun

jamie

 

[katdiver]

Nice to liighten up sometimes on a subject like this. I hear stories of the TDA sending in teams to do equipment checks in our local shops. They are sending in maybe 1* CMAS divers to check up on 5* PADI dive centres. This is of course completely ridiculous. Just a reminder, if you guys get any threats from these teams, report it directly to Hans U at PADI SEA. He is compiling all the evidence if this ever goes to court. What the TDA is doing is illegal as it's against trade practices, but with the "government" in a state of paralysis there's no one to tell the TDA to back off or change its constitution.

 

[Bowmouth]

I hear stories of the TDA sending in teams to do equipment checks in our local shops.

They must be easy to recognize though and are probably wearing camouflage outfits and have bayonet-size dive knives strapped on their legs. I wonder if they dive with booties or use black leather boots instead?

 

[stevenl]

What the TDA is doing is illegal as it's against trade practices.

Maybe back home, but there is nothing illegal about these kind of trade practices here.

 

[trekleader]

Interesting thread.

How does CMAS work? Are the Instructor/Diver certifications issued by each country independently? Could an Instructor from, for example, CMAS Canada (or whatever) teach in Thailand and issue CMAS cards from there, or do they need to be done through TDA?

 

[stevenl]

Yes, that instructor can issue certifications here.

In any case, they would not be issued through TDA but through CMAS Thailand, but TDA is confusing tjhis issue very much by getting mixed up in CMAS Thailand in stead of being the independent organisation they are supposed to be and need to be in order to get support from non CMAS DC's.

 

[smartecosse]

yes but the TDA is being misled / mid guided by someone that has an ulterior motive for CMAS beign madatory

maybe we should just all go round and pay him a nice little "visit"

there's not a lot that a kick in the dogs danglies cant solve

 

[katdiver]

Anyway, so there I was bimbling around Shark Point, as you do, only to find my TDA CMAS 1*s I'm leading have got no buoyancy control whatsoever. It's like they were never taught how to hover. Frightened to use the inflator. Looking at their logbooks and talking to them, they got an 8,000 baht OW course from a local TDA 2* instructor here in Ao Nang. So it seems that if PADI and others have to match the TDA standard, just cut out half your course, that should do it.

 

[muddiver]

This is the same old schit that the Brits pulled back in the '80s with commercial diving and SCUBA. It became illegal for anyone with out a HSE certification to work anywhere outside U.S. teritorial waters because HSE wanted all working divers to go through their training. The fact the most American commercial diver schools provide equal or more extensive training is irrelivant.

When I was in traning back then I was told by an Ausie that if you didn't have a BESAC SCUBA card you couldn't dive outside the U.S. It appears to me that your local (former British) government is sleeping with the European SCUBA agencies and wants to exclude any non-Brit or non-French SCUBA training agency.

Nothing new, enjoy the cost of socal bureaucracy.