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I have not called you names, and I'd appreciate the same consideration. I could quite easily go in for the cheap kill and go on and on about what kind of idiot thinks that there are more than 20 useful PADI specialty courses, and allude to the unmitigated and unrelenting rapaciousness it takes to attempt to sell them all ... etc., etc., etc. But I didn't, and (except for this explication) I won't (... so are they all, all honorable men!).But you do have credentials, don't you Mr Ego?
Most of my "credentials" have come through being mentored in one way or another, not through what you would recognize as a course. I have carefully selected, courted and been accepted by those whom I wished to have as mentors and I have striven to reflect well on the time and energy they invested in me. That's not a course that you can sign up and pay for, there's no plastic card nor certificate suitable for framing.Lots of credentials in scientific diving etc etc etc. You turn up at a boat...and you have something to validate yourself with.
Similarly, most of what I've "taught" has been part of a formalized mentoring program that only superficiality resembles a course.You taught courses...same as taking them. You understand the programme...
What hogwash, the next element of that syllogism is, I suppose, the classic non sequitur "therefore it follows that the moon is made of green cheese."Anyone can dive...any depth...any time. As long as they get away with it, then they feel they are 'qualified' to do that diving. As long as everything goes perfectly, then they are the perfect diver.
Really? What he said was:What OP 'Mr DIY Dive God' lacks though, is the formal training and reaction conditioning to get his ass out of trouble should something go wrong...and you don't learn that from 'getting by' on perfect dives.
I think you are reading into it things that are not thereSeveral agencies give you credit for experience...( for example you can get SDI Advanced Diver if you have the required number of dives and demonstrate proficiency or equivancy for the required specialties) How come you can't do this for such certifications as the PADI DSAT program, PSAI or other Technical programs?
I have not insulted any professional divers, I may have ruffled the feathers of some puffed up, preening, sports diving instructors who, in true Walter Middy fashion, like to pretend to wear the verdigris of a professional diver and affect the swagger of said same; but then you can judge a man as much by his foes as by his allies and I'll happily take the hit ... pocketa-pocketa-queep-pocketa-queep. That's not my ego boost, I'm just a scientist who helps other scientists to get their underwater work done; I am not and make no pretense of being either a professional diver or one who makes his living flogging dive gear, trips or courses.You have an amazing habit of generalising all instructors, whilst insulting the greater majority of professional divers...just to boost your own ego.
Generalizing always has its pitfalls and there are exceptions to every rule. I must admit that I have, on occasion, been wrong as a result of applying a generalization to an individual, even that almost universal cliche that that the person who takes the greatest offense to a generalization is usually the most egregious example of it. I think it was Machiavelli who observed, "Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations."
Ah ... again the snide innuendo and rapier sharp quip. The clear implication is that anyone who was around, "back in the day," couldn't possibly be "current." That is the most foolish of the base canards that you fling. By and large, people who have reached my level have not done so by luck, nor by overweening ego; they have done so by dent of the hard work that it takes to not only stay "current," but also to stay slightly ahead of the curve. We do tend to be resented by those who, for what ever reason, can not seem, to do the same, despite having taken all the courses and having a wallet full of C-cards to prove it. As a result of their tuition and their endeavors they see themselves as equally or even more qualified; but they can't seem to bask in the acclaim that they feel they justly deserve, it just does not flow their way; and they fail to grasp what it really is that holds them back from similar recognition.The diver must be qualified. Not necessarily 'certified'. However, apart from dinosaurs like yourself (ooops, I meant pioneers),
I can't speak to your generalization, save to recall Alexandre Dumas' statement that, "All generalizations are dangerous, even this one." (later cribbed by Mark Twain as, "All generalizations are false, including this one." In my general (ah, what word again!) experience, it is not the course that makes a tech diver, it is the mentoring after.most modern tech divers are the product of a formal training programme. That gives them qualification...then they gain experience. They qualification shapes their experience - it is the foundation on what they build.
That's what I've been saying. Certifications have grown to be irrelevant, when someone shows me a card I make nice noises, but my next question is, "Who did you train with? Whom do you dive with?" That's what counts.Without 'qualification' then those divers (the op) may have pretty rotten 'foundations' at best. Who knows? Who cares? Only those stupid enough to trust their lives to him on a dive......
I'm hardly a "major name," yet I have never had any problem buying helium anywhere that it was available. All one need do is talk to the people respectfully and knowledgeably, and they know. What you are advocating is something that I find anathema, courses not as training per se, but solely as barriers to entry, the same crap about having an "Advanced" card to go on a boat.Really? Well, they must love living in their own little cliques then. Aside from a few 'major names' in the game... I am sure most of us need to show some credentials when buying helium away from home turf....
As I mentioned earlier, its more of a formalized mentoring program, a preceptor program if you will, than what current scuba instructional courses have become (it's a Shakespeare kind of day, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks.").So...of the thousands of divers you taught (as stated above)...none of them demonstrated the right stuff?
Why do you train people....when you are not an advocate of training?
Hypocritical surely??
Thalassamania:With luck and hard work sometimes a course will develop a diver to the point that they can then secure a quality mentor, but it is not the course that made them a tech diver, the course just opened the door.
That was my entire basic point. So why are you nattering on to the point of going so far as to try to personally insult me?On this we do not disagree.
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