Before I say anything else I'll first say that there are good teams and good divers doing this kind of work. By nature it's a nasty and often dangerous job especially when politics or the personal agendas of decission makers prevent it from being done correctly. But...Here's one for you
Last year, after the last death on the Indy FD I placed an add in some of the local papers offering FREE training to public safety divers. I don't teach any psd specific courses but I teach people to dive and could provide training in dry suit, search and recovery, full face mask, nitrox, advanced nitrox and bunches of other stuff that would be useful to them especially if they only have OW training. I had two phone calls. One was from the head of a fire department team (not Indy) who complained the team had no money AND that he doubted the divers would participate without being paid. I never saw any of his divers.
I got another call from a team who asked for descriptions of the classes I could offer and the normal cost of those classes. He was going to try to get funding and if he couldn't was going to take me up on my offer. I never heard from that team either.
The reason I offered the free classes was so the divers themselves would have accesss to training without needing the permishon or funding of the department. I tried to take away all the excusses. Not one taker.
The reason I bothered to do anything at all is because some of the things I've seen, not to mention the two Indy deaths, make me sick. Actually sick isn't a strong enough word. I dont give a you know what about the politicians running things but I don't think the divers know what they are getting into sometimes. Well, they would after spending time with me because the first thing I would attempt to teach them is that if the training and the equipment isn't appropriate for the dive you just don't get in the water and how to know the difference. Half the problem is these guys, many of which are new divers who learn to dive just to get on the team, trust their higher ups.
Well that's my rant on the subject.
Last year, after the last death on the Indy FD I placed an add in some of the local papers offering FREE training to public safety divers. I don't teach any psd specific courses but I teach people to dive and could provide training in dry suit, search and recovery, full face mask, nitrox, advanced nitrox and bunches of other stuff that would be useful to them especially if they only have OW training. I had two phone calls. One was from the head of a fire department team (not Indy) who complained the team had no money AND that he doubted the divers would participate without being paid. I never saw any of his divers.
I got another call from a team who asked for descriptions of the classes I could offer and the normal cost of those classes. He was going to try to get funding and if he couldn't was going to take me up on my offer. I never heard from that team either.
The reason I offered the free classes was so the divers themselves would have accesss to training without needing the permishon or funding of the department. I tried to take away all the excusses. Not one taker.
The reason I bothered to do anything at all is because some of the things I've seen, not to mention the two Indy deaths, make me sick. Actually sick isn't a strong enough word. I dont give a you know what about the politicians running things but I don't think the divers know what they are getting into sometimes. Well, they would after spending time with me because the first thing I would attempt to teach them is that if the training and the equipment isn't appropriate for the dive you just don't get in the water and how to know the difference. Half the problem is these guys, many of which are new divers who learn to dive just to get on the team, trust their higher ups.
Well that's my rant on the subject.