I didn't use the word agency. You have also taken this out of its context which is that an instructor uses a syllabus or syllabae and that a mentor who is not an instructor, by definition, does not.
Who's to say that a mentor does not have a syllabus?
During 2009 I am personally aware of five people who have been suspended.
I wasn't saying that no one ever got disciplined, I was saying that the standard that they are enforcing is so low as to be almost meaningless.
Thank you, I tke that as a compliment. If I am, I would like to think I am not the only exception.
I doubt that you are the only one, but you're clearly not in the majority.
In this instance, I was speaking as a Scuba Instructor not as a PADI Instructor. I am aware of PADI's reticence to embrace new things. With regards to cutting edge, I was particularly thinking of equipment such as the Datamask/Compumask and the OC1, which I was aware of quite some time before they came out on the market. From a scientific point of view, I got interested in the pros and cons of deep stops within recreational diving limits before it became a topic of discussion within the non professional diving community.
I'm sure that I saw them in various adds and reports about the same time you did, and I don't get any of the PADI pubs that you mention. I likely found out about them at one of the dive show where lots of non-instructors also found out about them.
I'm not sure what "tea bagging" means but I agree that the card on its own doesn't mean very much.
Tea bagging is going out and making the bare minimum dive in terms of depth and time with no objective other than raising your count to meet the requirements of a standard.
Glad we agree on this one
Yup.
Well, actually
I think it does, since you go on to post later on that you would be a great NFL quarterback coach...
I never said
"the card was evidence".
In fact I didn't mention the card at all! What I was saying is that if you think you can do the same job as an instructor and are going to teach people to dive, then it's more intellectally honest to go and get your card, than to mentor without actually measuring yourself. This is just my opinion but I stand by it. I'm not anyone's Dad. So I would say if you want the best instruction within a reasonable time frame and cost
(this would be college football) then train with me. When you are ready for the Superbowl, go with Thal and DCBC.
You are misinterpreting what I tried to say. Let me try again:
You wrote: "7. In many walks of life there are people that think they know it better than the pros. I don't know one single guy who isn't a better football (or whatever sport you are into) coach than the guy on the field. So my take is that
if someone really thinks that, why don't they train as a coach and start coaching high school footbll or the Little Leagues or whatever? That's more intellectually honest. Can your Dad take you to the park? Sure. Is he going to turn you into an NFL quaterback if you don't move on and get the right training and education?"
Maybe I'm the only guy you know who isn't a better football coach than the guy on the field; maybe I'm the only guy you know doesn't even know the rules of basketball, or hockey or soccer, or rugby, etc.; maybe I'm the only guy you know whose only real interest in baseball is statistical, but I know plenty of guys who are similar and make no pretense of expertise that they do not possess. But ... I am quite capable of coaching at rather a high level, in several other areas that do have extensive experience in. I was a nationally ranked fencer in college, I have taught my son to fence, for anything that he is going to encounter (below intercollegiate and Olympic fencing) there is little or nothing that a "real" coach will be able to do for him, my basics are strong and I can teach him the footwork and blade-work and conditioning drills that he needs (or for that matter everything that he should be concentrating on) up through the varsity high school or youth club levels. Now if he were some phenom, a nationally "A" rated fencer at 13, I would have to find him better coaching (which might be hard here on Hawaii). So why don't I go to all the coaching clinics on the mainland and open a studio? I'm not really that committed to it, that doesn't mean I could not do it, but making my living as a fencing master just isn't my gig. Similarly I've know (hell, I've trained) many, many fine divers who are also great diving mentors, far better than most instructors that you'd ever meet. But they have no interest in the BS of the field or paying dues, or carrying insurance, etc. They want to dive, and sometimes to be able to turn a relative or a friend on to diving and they do a fine job (I know because I often certified these "friends and family" under the experienced diver standards).
True but as you sad
"True", that you get a wider student base that gives you more experience. I'm not GUE
(yet?) but I've been around.
The only experienced gained is pounding many pegs into slightly off-sized holes. The primary lesson learned is how to wield a slightly larger hammer.
Driving automobiles/motorcycles, recreational boating, skydiving, hunting, use of internet...
Except for the internet (and I didn't know I needed a license there) all the things that you mentioned are licensed so as to protect the public from the participants, not the participants from harm that they might do themselves by participating in the activity, that's quite different.
I would still charge more to examine an OWD trained by somebody else than I charge for training and certifying OR NOT certifying my own student. Let's say that by losing the satisfaction of teaching, it becomes a "In God We Trust" job.
I guess that you don't really understand the concept of a good checkout. Please reread my write up of my experience with Walt Hendrick the U of Puerto Rico.
