I am happy with today's level of Diver Training!

[Papa_Bear]

Well some how I got banned from the other thread for expressing my opinion and being attacked by a favorite son of the board! So it proves its not what you know it's who you blow bubbles with!

Anyway we have more trained divers making more safe dives than anytime in history! So how can you not be satisfied with the level of Instructor out there? That is what we are saying isn't it? Are instructors doing their job? How do you quantify success in the dive industry or world? Wouldn't the number of accidents be a way to rate it over historical records? Per thousand? If you where following the other thread you know how I feel!

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Snappy Banter from the Hall of Fire

See what this guy has to say. He drives a big dive boat out of Key largo.

DC

 

[oly5050user]

I have to agree with you..Yes the watermanship of divers-instructors included-has diminished from the times we were originally certified (late 60's early 70's0 But a much more real world needs are being taught in the typical ow class today.Students have no need to know how to breath off a tank uw without a regulator,no real need to buddy breathe(alt air sources required),none of this gear removal and swim to the surface stuff and then swim back down and put it on, no harrassment type skills conducted in pool or ow...The skills being taught today are more real world skills that you may actually use on a dive.As for these people that say you need those old time skills,when was the last time you had to remove your gear and surface and then go back for it? Why waste time on such things?
The real need for todays diver is to get their buoyancy correct and not wear more lead than what is need (that is 90% of the battle)and everything else will be so much easier. What and how I taught back in the early 70's (1971) and what /how I teach now are light years apart.
As for the quality of todays instructor vs old school ones,there is a difference I am sorry to say.The techniques used today to measure a prospective instructor measure how they perform in a classroom and pool setting I feel are more valid than it was in the past ..Measurements how they perform at a training site that they may have themselves been trained at for their ow certifications are also supposed to be conducted in a fair impartial way by a examiner(PADI)-not a "good buddy"handing over a card as a favor or for $ as other agency's may do.
Problem is that there are instructors that did all their dives in a local quarry from entry level to their IE..No real dive experience as in the old days.Todays instructor is what the industry asked for. I am not saying that they cannot do their job though.
I try to remedy some holes in their experience level by offering to the new instructors at the facility I teach at to sit in or assist me in classes.I also take them diving -no classes- on my boat. I guess you can call it a mentoring thing.
Just a couple of weeks ago (Oct 1 ) I took a couple of the instructors out to get some fish off a local wreck for dinner.They Never did this before and thought that local diving (LI Sound) is not any good.Granted vis can be poor,but guess what,they had a ball in the 10'-15' vis and I could'nt shut them up on the way back to the dock.They now ask when I can take them out again.I even had to show them how to filet a blackfish properly.They are the future of dive training and its up to us "old mossbacks" to show them how to have fun at it.Hopefully their enthusiasm will show in their classes.

 

[Aquaventurewhitetip]

I think that no agency or Instructor is perfect, or as good as somebody else might think they should be.
Guess we all have to try to be the best we can and as I have said before, as Instructors we hold a privileged position and are able to give so much to so many. So we should always do it as safely and fully as we can.
TRY TEACHING EVERYBODY YOU TEACH TO THE SAME LEVEL YOU WOULD WANT SOMEONE ELSE TO TEACH ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN.
I think if you do that then the quality of Instruction and Instructors would improve..

 

[ptyx]

From a DAN report:

Dive Fatalities
[...]
The initial triggering event that began the sequence leading to death was most often insufficient gas (14 percent), followed by rough seas and strong current (10 percent), heart disease (9 percent), entrapment (9 percent), and equipment problems (8 percent). The equipment problems may have been procedural or hardware related. The triggering event could not be established for 20 percent of the cases.

OOA deaths are something which just should not happen outside of an overhead environment. Despite those numbers, mainstream agencies don't teach gas planning any more at the OW level.

And a diver can be an environmental rototiller and still be 'safe'.

PADI and other mainstream agencies deserve a lot of credit for bringing more people to the sport, but that and dollars shouldn't be the only measures of success either.

 

[Papa_Bear]

I agree, but once the love of diving kicks in then the learning really begins! A good vacation location DM can handle keeping the "Newbies" off the reef! But sometimes you have to break some eggs to make an omelet as long as the eggs don't belong to you!

Overall I think the industry deserves a "B" grade, there is always room for improvement, but the reality of where the rubber meets the road! That reality is without a large number of divers no new equipment, no new resorts, no new Boats, and a complete different look to the shape of diving!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I couldn't make a living as a dive guide/instructor/photographer if not for the exact level of training all those tourist divers are diving with, so count me as one of the "happy with the way things are" divers.

And there are perks; my better than average skills look astonishingly good and so do my better than average OW divers

 

[Papa_Bear]

We forget some are happy with the Bunny Hill and don't need the Half Pipe! And the last thing the industry needs is a bully running people off the Hill completely! The world is full of Can't People, sure glad I'm a Can kinda guy!

 

[Aquaventurewhitetip]

Gas management to a degree, and entry and exit tank pressures are constantly gone over in my OW courses. As to is UW communication resulting in students leading portions of the dive and their own dive planning is gone over as part of logging there OW dives as part of the course.
You need to remember our students are supposed to leave us and be able to book up a dive on there own, and be completely able to dive without direct supervision to level there obtain from you. Remember there next dive could be in an unfamiliar place to there teaching environment and not all Guides or Dm's check cert divers as fully or as often as they should throughout the dive.
Orientation, Navigation, Communication and Gas Management are as important in my class as Bouyancy. You made need all the skills above if you get separated on a fun dive on holiday, we all know how often this happens sometimes resulting in loss of life.
Diving is for everybody but everybody needs to be trained to a good standard so they can help themselves if a DivePro is not there immediate buddy.

 

[ianr33]

So how can you not be satisfied with the level of Instructor out there?

I have seen the videos of you Cave Diving.

'Nuff Said