Help!!! Questions!!!

[Thalassamania]

I was certified in 1982 and had just over 300 dives before stepping away from the sport for 10 years. After taking the OW course again, and really getting excited about it, I have added close to 300 more logged dives.

Maybe 600 dives and being at least familiar with the sport for 25 years and becoming an Instructor isn't enough experience to compare to you, but its a tad more than Sparticlebrain's 40 dives.

A few of those 40 dives may be with the nice doubles rig that daddy bought. Which is nice.
But "helping out in the pool," without the credentials to help out, is no pass to be critical of someone who is expressing their excitement about pursuing con - ed.

I don't know Sparticlebrain except for the board here, but I've found his insights and suggestions to go far beyond and be much more highly developed than one would expect of an individual with 40 dives. He's either sandbagging us or is really on to something and will be real dynamite when he has our seasoning under his weight belt.

 

[Divedoggie]

Just because I don't put credentials and qualifications in my profile doesn't mean I don't have them. And yes I buy all my own gear, thanks. :shakehead

edit: If someone's advice is sound, does the breadth of experience or qualifications matter? A little humility goes a long way...

You have been following Thalassamania, MikeFerrera, and others who have been on a crusade against agencies. Their collective experience over the years has formed their opinions. Hopefully, you will meet and dive with some excellent divers, good people, and competent people from a number of agencies, and with an open mind, form your own opinions.

A short time ago, you removed your number of dives which is fine, and doesn't matter. Some of your advise is sound. Your response at the beginning of this thread, was not advise.
I only posed the question to you because you posed it to the original poster. In fact it was his first response.

You could try heeding your own advice about a little humility before jumping on an anti-agency platform, or questioning someone's experience(with an agenda) when they are merely asking an innocent question.

Sorry for being abrasive. Sorry to those of you who haven't been following some of the heated threads where Sparticlebrain pops in and makes an inflammatory comment, my comment to him must have looked far out of context, but he understands.

 

[Divedoggie]

Ferris Buller, you're my hero. :shakehead
I think I have relegate all further comments from you to the dust-bin with all the other trash.

If you saw the other posts, you wouldn't be so quick to judge. Since you have a PADI cert, he would rip you one as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

If you think my comments belong in the dust-bin, you might want to remove the report on Blue Mesa Resevoir in Colorado, that I wrote for your LakeDiver website a couple of years ago.

If you do some research and find my comments actually make sense, then please keep the report.

 

[SparticleBrane]

You are correct, I removed my birthdate and number of dives, specifically for the reason above. I was tired of people treating my advice based on my age and experience. As I said above, if the advice is sound, the age or experience of the person giving advice shouldn't matter. A friend of mine has a nice quote regarding this--"No matter the experience we can all learn, and no matter the experience we can all teach."

I was trained in a university scuba program two years ago and have been volunteering with that program ever since. If anyone cares, I count for ratios (but I'm not an instructor) and that's all I'll say on that. The people from whom I am still training are of the caliber of Mike and Thal...my current instructor has 40+ years of experience teaching and cave diving...You'd be surprised how much you can learn from just watching an experienced teacher do their thing. Working with classes that are a semester long, you tend to learn a lot.

Yes, my first post in this thread was not advice, it was a question meant to get the OP thinking--are they truly experienced enough to be an OW instructor? I know I'm not that experienced yet (and won't be for a loooong time), but you don't have to be hugely experienced to recognize 'too far too fast' syndrome.

 

[Thalassamania]

You are correct, I removed my birthdate and number of dives, specifically for the reason above. I was tired of people treating my advice based on my age and experience. As I said above, if the advice is sound, the age or experience of the person giving advice shouldn't matter. A friend of mine has a nice quote regarding this--"No matter the experience we can all learn, and no matter the experience we can all teach."

I was trained in a university scuba program two years ago and have been volunteering with that program ever since. If anyone cares, I count for ratios (but I'm not an instructor) and that's all I'll say on that. The people from whom I am still training are of the caliber of Mike and Thal...my current instructor has 40+ years of experience teaching and cave diving...You'd be surprised how much you can learn from just watching an experienced teacher do their thing. Working with classes that are a semester long, you tend to learn a lot.

Yes, my first post in this thread was not advice, it was a question meant to get the OP thinking--are they truly experienced enough to be an OW instructor? I know I'm not that experienced yet (and won't be for a loooong time), but you don't have to be hugely experienced to recognize 'too far too fast' syndrome.

Again I do not know SparticleBrane from anything but this board, but I recognize what's going on. He's standing on the shoulders of his instructor and by doing so has advanced far beyond his dives and years would have you believe. I've had the same thing happen with numerous staff that came up though my program and went on to do fabulous things in the world of diving that were way, way, beyond their dives and years. I always took staff development seriously, and by that I mean getting staff ready for a place on the national scene (if that's what they want) and evidently SparticleBrane's DSO (and I don't even know who that is, what with all the mystery going on) sees things the same way. Sparticlebrane may be a bit brash and abrasive, but don't think he got there in a vacuum.

 

[Divedoggie]

Thanks SparticleBrane. I am sorry for being a d***!

I am sure that we would get along and have a good time if we met in person. People tend to say a little more than they should online. Or even say things that they would never say in person.

I am sure that with your obvious passion for diving and great training and mentorship, you are already a really capable diver. I would dive with you any day, and I hope that regardless of my agency affiliation, you would dive with me. We would probably positively suprise each other!

See you around!

 

[ScubaKris]

If you plan to be an instructor. Find out if the shop will actually let you teach. Many people get an instructors and never teach a class. Often the only classes you can teach through a shop are the students you bring to the shop.

If you have a shop that will let you teach. They will want you to have the gear that they sell. The students will want to buy what the instructor is using.

Some shops will require that you use the gear that they sell ehen you teach.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I freely admit that many times I can be...well...a jerk, especially online. I'm actually quite nice in person (even to PADI divers).

 

[sambolino44]

SparticleBrane, I've read more than a few of your posts all over this board, and you seem to me to be someone who's more on the "seems to know what he's talking about" side vs. the "this guy sounds like a nut" side. And considering the apparent emotion of some of the previous posts on this thread, I want to make sure you take this observation in the spirit it's meant: not negative criticism, simply pointing out an apparent logical error. To wit:

... if the advice is sound, the age or experience of the person giving advice shouldn't matter. A friend of mine has a nice quote regarding this--"No matter the experience we can all learn, and no matter the experience we can all teach."

and then...

...my first post in this thread... was a question meant to get the OP thinking--are they truly experienced enough to be an OW instructor? I know I'm not that experienced yet (and won't be for a loooong time), but you don't have to be hugely experienced to recognize 'too far too fast' syndrome.

I just couldn't help but notice the apparent contradiction.

That being said, I have to say that I get the feeling that you and I would agree that there's something about the tone of the OP, the attitude, if you will, which indicates that the OP should dive more, at least, and possibly gain more life experience, and certainly humility, before becoming an instructor.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I'm not disagreeing...just curious--where is the contradiction? Not being a jerk this time (really!) I'm just not seeing it.

My point in the first quote was that you don't have to be Mr. Super Ultra Instructor to make good points. I have <100 dives and have only been diving for 2 years (and am not an instructor) but I would hope that I can make good points here on Scubaboard. I'll also point out that I learn a good deal from the students in the classes I work with.

My point in the second quote is that you don't have to be very experienced to see that someone might be stepping a bit over their bounds.


If anything I'd say they're kinda the same idea (ie, the first quote makes the second quote make sense), but I might not have phrased it as well as I could have.