Observed an OW class yesterday

[Marie13]

I remember myself as a new diver. I was a mess. It took nearly 100 dives for me to get the confidence to mask clear. On my early dives I hated if the instructor stopped to show us something because I was all over the place. Bicycle kicking, corking to the surface. You name it I was probably guilty of it. Things hanging and dragging was the least of my faux pars.

I applaud @Marie13 for speaking up. I happen to know how much effort she has put in to improve herself, how much advice she sought privately both online and to he instructors and mentors to better herself. She knows her issues and will overcome them - it just needs a bit of practice.

I'd be more than happy to dive with Marie - except she has an affinity to liking cold water so is clearly completely mad, but apart from that...

Clearly completely mad, eh?

 

[KevinNM]

Is that with all tech courses or just GUE?

Just GUE. But if you can't get a tech pass either you are going to be a sloppy tech diver (like you can't hold a deco stop, or keep from silting out a cave) or your instructor is going to spend a lot of expensive time working on your form and precision.

But there are apparently a lot of those kind of tech divers. There was a store promo video someone linked to a few years ago here where they showed this group of a dozen tech divers on a wreck dive. At least half of whom were finning like mad to keep off the bottom. About 2 looked like they had any business being in a tech course. It was very odd. And this was a promotional video, not something a hater had put together to make them look bad.

 

[Neilwood]

Clearly completely mad, eh?

Aren't we all?

I mean who chooses to go down the height of a 6 storey building (for OW, 10 storey for AOW, ??? for tech) underwater???

 

[Doby45]

My 2psi, thicken your skin. Especially around this crew. It is not much different than the AR15 crowd. Forums as you know are a place where people express their opinions and observations. In doing so, others express their opinions and observations. The ebb and flow that is forum surfing.

 

[Marie13]

My 2psi, thicken your skin. Especially around this crew. It is not much different than the AR15 crowd. Forums as you know are a place where people express their opinions and observations. In doing so, others express their opinions and observations. The ebb and flow that is forum surfing.

I've been a member of Arfcom for nearly 6 years and I've got quite a thick skin from GD over there. This was different.

 

[Doby45]

I've been a member of Arfcom for nearly 6 years and I've got quite a thick skin from GD over there. This was different.

Welp, I have been a member for 7 and no, it ain't.

 

[Doby45]

The difference here is people don't flip out about a dust cover being open..

 

[The Chairman]

It is not much different than the AR15 crowd.

I take exception to that. I've been kicked off of a gun forum for voting for Clinton over Trump.

 

[KevinNM]

I take exception to that. I've been kicked off of a gun forum for voting for Clinton over Trump.

You are not going to get many fans on a Christian forum either if you admit to your child sacrificing devil worship. But here split fins are not quite that bad.

 

[2airishuman]

This was different.

I was in trying to compose a longer reply yesterday but had to pay attention to my day job, so I stopped.

Here's the thing.

ScubaBoard is different. Less than 1% of divers participate here and overall it is an elite segment of recreational diving as a whole. It is made up of doctors., instructors, cave divers, captains, industry pioneers and leaders, and other people who write in complete sentences and care deeply about diving.

Outside of ScubaBoard, diving isn't like that. It is an activity that cuts across class lines and, to a considerable degree, demographic groups. The majority of dives are conducted by beginners who have no intention of ever becoming the fully autonomous, streamlined diver with perfect trim and buoyancy that is the ScubaBoard shibboleth. The majority of instructors, in my experience, do not take streamlining seriously and see buoyancy control as an advanced skill that students will learn after completing their OWD class.

You, Marie, are one of the 1%. Your eyes have been opened. You notice things that other divers miss or consider unimportant. The only trouble is that you don't yet realize that you're part of the 1% and that the things you see around you are typical: Larger classes, instructors who have to choose their battles, students who do not pursue excellence, poorly chosen gear, and an enormous amount of bumbling around. You can't change them, of course, and it's not your responsibility to try. For me, the "aha" moment came when I took my AOW class and then came here and wrote a post with remarkable similarity to your opening post in this thread. So, congratulations, you've arrived.

Now what? Go out there and, to paraphrase a variously-attributed trope, be the change you seek in the world. Have fantastic trim, buoyancy, and streamlining. Tell your friends about the fun times you have diving. Pursue excellence, and be a quiet positive example to those around you.

And that class you saw? They probably did fine. One or two of them will muddle through and go on to become pretty good divers eventually. One or two will realize the diving isn't really for them. Sadly, one or two that could have been helped by really excellent instruction will probably give up. C'est la vie. A fact to consider is that the instructor and DM probably saw much of what you did. Most (nearly all) are very good at watching their students and catching problems before they snowball.

And that is the world we live in.