Reasons to take a propulsion/trim/buoyancy class...

[boulderjohn]

I think there needs to be an Eco-Diver rating. It would be industry wide and would have stringent standards and if those standards are not met you do not get the rating. The rating would be required to dive any ecologically sensitive area such as a reef system.

People are all over the bottom because nobody has ever told them to get off the bottom. It is ignorance as much as skill or lack of I should say. Frankly, I think some of it it on purpose, they simply do not care. They are the most important thing in the universe. The diver culture needs to strongly discourage and essentially censor divers who damage reef or touch bottom more than a finger or who are always vertical in the water. People are social animals, social pressure is the solution to correcting bad behavoir.

N

I call that OW. This is a remediation class for those who did not get it during their OW classes. My OW students will never have to take this kind of class. I would rather see all the instructors set the bar a bit more neutral for their students. It's just not that hard to do.

The new PADI OW standards being implemented in 2014 emphasize this. Even in the pool sessions, students are to do an exercise where they pretend the bottom of the pool is an environmentally sensitive area. They must descend to and dive over that bottom without touching.

 

[The Chairman]

The new PADI OW standards being implemented in 2014 emphasize this. Even in the pool sessions, students are to do an exercise where they pretend the bottom of the pool is an environmentally sensitive area. They must descend to and dive over that bottom without touching.

Thank you John and others for leading that charge. We often think that these discussions produce nothing and that is far from the case. PADI has initiated a huge shift because of these sort of public discourses.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, the goal of all of us who participate in teaching should be to make classes like Pete's obsolete!

 

[The Chairman]

Yes, the goal of all of us who participate in teaching should be to make classes like Pete's obsolete!

I see classes like this and PPB as being suitable for refreshers not as the "next step". Not only is this my OW class, it's also my refresher class as well. Control: it's what is really important to a diver.

 

[TSandM]

I just so chronically wish that we could somehow convey to people how much more FUN diving is, when you are not spending so much of your energy defeating physics!

 

[boulderjohn]

I just so chronically wish that we could somehow convey to people how much more FUN diving is, when you are not spending so much of your energy defeating physics!

I remember a dive in Key Largo a number of years ago. I saw a woman literally walking on her knees on the sandy bottom, struggling to get her grossly overweighted body off the bottom. I saw a look of pain on her face. I thought "This person is not having any fun at all. This will probably be her last dive trip. She is gong to look for a more enjoyable way to spend a vacation." I was doing a portion of my IDC at the time, so I naturally thought of the kind of instruction she must have received prior to that. That look on her face troubles my memory and drives my instruction.

Now, I have tried at times to convince some local dive shops that they are going to have a lot more returning customers if they were able to send them out with the skills needed to enjoy the dives, but I have trouble doing that. They tend to think only of the amount of money they have to spend for pool rental, and how much extra time that might have to pay for to have students leave the class with good diving skills.

 

[LowDrag]

I did a dive in the Sound this past August. I was asked by our shop owner if I would take these two guys up north for a dive or two. I accepted because they paid my way and the shop owner provided all my air. The first of the two divers was an instructor so he was good to go but the other diver....WHOAA!!! I have never seen someone fin on their toes and swim with their hands like this guy did. I told myself that no one would ever look at me like I was looking at him and wonder why I was calling myself a diver. I just want to go out dive and have fun and not hurt anyone or anything.

 

[TSandM]

I look at someone like that and feel SO sorry for them . . . whether they were shorted by their original training, or whether they have ignored it, they certainly aren't having as much fun as diving can offer.

 

[The Chairman]

I look at someone like that and feel SO sorry for them . . .

I think there, but for the grace of ScubaBoard, go I.

 

[Nemrod]

I call that OW. This is a remediation class for those who did not get it during their OW classes. My OW students will never have to take this kind of class. I would rather see all the instructors set the bar a bit more neutral for their students. It's just not that hard to do.

I would call that mistaken if you think anything like any current open water is anything like what I mean.

N