The State of Diving

[*dave*]

I put this video together from clips from the DVD we bought after a two tank Cancun dive. I'll be using it in my OW class to demonstrate poor trim, buoyancy control, situational awareness, dangling gear, hand sculling and finning technique.

I don't dive with many groups I'm not familiar with, so I was a bit surprised to find the level of skill displayed in the video to be so common on the dives I did in Mexico. I thought I'd get your input on how the skills displayed in the video compare to your real world experiences with divers you aren't familiar with.

Is this representative of today's state of diving?

 

[fisheater]

Can't get the link to work.

 

[ONESPEED]

Is this representative of today's state of diving?

Sadly, living in an area with a regular influx of vacation divers I've seen the same types of divers as in the video more times than I care to count. It never ceases to amaze me how many C-cards are given to people with the bare minimum dive skills.

Sidenote: I wonder if the clueless girl handling the scorpionfish has any idea how lucky she is?

 

[*dave*]

Sidenote: I wonder if the clueless girl handling the scorpionfish has any idea how lucky she is?

She had no idea what the DM handed her till she was back on the boat.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Yes, it is.

Which is why I created the hand sculling/swimming poll and thread ... and why I believe that video clips like that hurt the sport rather than sell it, because diving ends up looking like a joke rather than a graceful and beautiful art form (I think even the uneducated often can tell when movement of the human body is skilled) ... and why I'm branded as "elitist" because I want entry level divers to have true skills and not just be able to breathe underwater without killing themselves ... and why I believe we should return to 6 - 8 days of classroom AND pool sessions per day followed by 5 open water dives ... and why I think the standards for DM's and instructors need to go back to being higher so that only truly skilled divers are teaching others ... etc., etc., etc.

 

[super7]

Only the guy diving in a BP/W with can light seems decent.
(don't mean to bring up the BP/W vs poodle jacket thing)

 

[Garrobo]

It must be nice to be an experienced diver, perfect in all respects, so as one can criticize and belittle those divers who are just coming on line or only have a few dives under their belt. It must be a really big ego boost for those who are inclined to do so. And: "C-cards are given to people with the bare minimum dive skills"? I guess so, since they are newbies who have only had two days of open water. Get a life.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sadly, yes ... I've seen a lot of that on my tropical trips.

But I'm not convinced it's solely due to poor training ... like most recreational activities, if you only do it once or twice a year, you'll not only never improve ... but you'll actually lose some of what you had acquired when you initially got trained.

Some of those folks were probably better divers on their final day of OW class than they were in the video ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It must be nice to be an experienced diver, perfect in all respects, so as one can criticize and belittle those divers who are just coming on line or only have a few dives under their belt. It must be a really big ego boost for those who are inclined to do so. And: "C-cards are given to people with the bare minimum dive skills"? I guess so, since they are newbies who have only had two days of open water. Get a life.

Sorry to say, but I know people who got certified before I did who dive like that. They don't dive very often ... and they don't see any reason why they should put any effort into improving their skills. And so they will never get any better, no matter how long ago they got certified.

It would be a mistake to assume that those are all new divers ... they might not be.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ScubaSteve]

It must be nice to be an experienced diver, perfect in all respects, so as one can criticize and belittle those divers who are just coming on line or only have a few dives under their belt. It must be a really big ego boost for those who are inclined to do so. And: "C-cards are given to people with the bare minimum dive skills"? I guess so, since they are newbies who have only had two days of open water. Get a life.

While I understand where you are coming from, what would your perspective be if those people were beating the crap out of the reef with their fins? MANY of these divers exist but were simply not in that film.