What if they don't take it?
The comments (
highlighted) in the FB photo shared in
Post #29 seem to indicate that response had occurred - which is possibly one reason why so many chose to make their opinions known about the quality of the training shown in the video.
In that respect, the negative comments, sharing of the video etc... served a purpose in communicating a lack of support for, or objection to, the training philosophies being demonstrated by those concerned. It is a form of protest.
History shows us that positive change occurs when people, in sufficient volume, protest against what they disagree with.
As a prospective student, how do I know if they are any good if nobody will say anything and there is no effective mechanism for ensuring instructional quality?
Maybe there are better ways, IDK. But as a consumer I do not generally feel very well served by the standards I see kept. The current lack of policing is not working IMO.
Sidemount diving is going through it's introductory period in the mainstream market. Many agencies have identified it as a potentially lucrative source of income; as an emerging market in a relatively stagnant and/or contracting industry. This, in turn, has led to attempts to proliferate the market with a vast influx of instructors, instructor-trainers etc. That desire to claim market share often conflicts with quality management.
Sidemount is very new in the mainstream. As such, no global community consensus has been formed to define baseline standards. That consensus is solidifying slowly, but is still generally limited to niche groups of passionate sidemount divers. It is not sufficiently widespread to prevent gross abuse through ignorance or willful manipulation by some minorities who just want to make a fast buck. Quite simply, you can do 'wrong' and excuse it, because no consensus exists to define the outline of what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'.
People who are motivated by a 'fast buck' don't care about "constructive criticism". Giving such criticism relies on the
assumption that they care about what they are doing. It's a nice a fantasy to believe that every dive professional cares about what they do. Sadly, some just care about the money, at the expense of all else. Some are too ego driven to accept that they need to seek knowledge from outside their own sphere - that they are not the font of all knowledge.. that they can't simply 'make it up as they go along'. If these people in the video... the top echelon of an agency... cared, then they would have done some research, taken some courses, established some best practices. They didn't. That was a conscious decision on their behalf. Greed, impatience and ego won out.
We saw similar development of broad community consensus in cave diving, technical diving, then recreational BP&W diving. We'll see it also as CCR becomes more mainstream, especially at 'recreational' levels. Eventually, the community/industry always formulates a broad majority consensus on approach and standards. It is a natural evolution - and
everything we do as scuba divers, everything we take for granted as the 'standardized' norm, at whatever level of training, is a product of that process.
The development of consensus might be seen as a 'narrowing road'. The parameters of 'right' and 'wrong' becoming more defined over time. What was acceptable 1 year before, can become unacceptable by consensus... until a status-quo is achieved. Some continue to tighten their parameters (i.e. 'Doing It Right'), whilst others accept a more loose definition... but all fall within the same broad community consensus.
What we saw with the response to this particular video is a tightening of the parameters in community consensus. The training philosophies, quality and approach to sidemount diving being demonstrated fell significantly outside the community consensus. There was a
protest. Those responsible for the making the video were ignorant of that fact. They are ignorant no longer - they learned a lesson about the developing community consensus.... as have third-party observers.
The people who made that video were trying to imprint their own, minority, parameters on sidemount diving. They were exceptionally loose and sloppy parameters. That suited them, because they did not have the knowledge necessary to effect a tighter, more qualitative, approach... but they wanted to cash-in on the market
right now. They didn't have the patience, or motivation, to gain that knowledge and those skills before starting off. They tried/are trying to excuse that failing under the guise of 'sidemount is whatever you want it to be'. That's based on the decades of evolutionary, 'DIY' pioneering sidemount, when people built their own rigs for specific purposes.. when nothing was sold commercially. That excuse making was disingenuous at best. The acceptable parameters for sidemount diving have evolved way beyond those early days. Even if they hadn't, there never was sidemount that was sloppy through laziness and lack of knowledge... of using unrestrained BP&W, of having tanks hang 8" below the torso, of hose configuration like a bowl of spaghetti... Not ever. That's an
insult to the pioneers.
For many in the sidemount community, that attitude and behavior was simply not acceptable or tolerable. The results speak for themselves.
We define our own community. We do so through expressing our opinions and through protest. It is human nature and applies to all things.
To use an corny cliché: You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
There will be tantrums and tears, I am sure. We are seeing them already. But hey, people got upset when they were told that thinking the world was flat was wrong.. or that owning slaves was wrong... or that apartheid was wrong... The people who raised those issues, who protested for change, were branded as 'trouble-makers'... as ''short-sighted, as 'rude', as 'ignorant', as 'a minority', as 'disruptive'... maybe even the sweet emotional blackmail of "
as unprofessional" etc etc etc.
Sidemount is new. It is 'unformed'. It is evolving daily. We, the community, have the luxury of defining how it will evolve; the broad principles, the accepted practices... and, most importantly,
the standards. Some may choose not to become involved in that process... to view from the sidelines and see how things shape. That, to me, seems like a wasted opportunity... or an abdication of responsibility to the community and future generations of sidemount divers.
It's a lot easier to get things right in the first place, than have to fix problems that we have allowed to become ingrained and widespread. With sidemount diving, we have the unique opportunity to get things right from the offset. With conventional scuba training, we'll probably never fix the problems that exist. It's insurmountable. It is my belief that we should
do our utmost to prevent the problems inherent with conventional scuba from spreading to sidemount like an insidious cancer.
). 
