what are your thoughts on instructors using the ability to guide one level above a person's training. For example an intro diver being taken on a full cave dive with an instructor. I am seeing where guided dives are being paid for with sole purpose of doing a particular dive above their level but not having to get the training to do that dive. Where this was something that was being used as an opportunity to see if you wanted to go to the next level, and perhaps for the instructor to see if the individual was ready,but now it is a paid for guided dive that has a premise based on a goal driven dive.
The dive you cite is guiding two levels up, not one. It also involves going from a single tank to double tanks; by definition.
The CDS program allows guiding one level up and is written in the standards as follows:
Active NSS-CDS instructors are permitted to take students on dives one (1) level beyond the students current level of training in the course of instructional or guided dives. The NSS-CDS instructor conducting any such dives shall be authorized to teach the next level of training. The minimum equipment requirements for the next level of training are required on any and all such dives.
When these dives are conducted it is expected that the instructor uses sound judgment. For example the instructor will be using good judgment if he guides a basic cave diver on a dive to a maximum of 1/3 gas supply and one jump if the Basic cave diver has very recent cave dives AND if the instructor has experience diving with this person.
Good judgment comes from two things: Mentorship and experience. The CDS program involves a LOT of mentorship and with that comes experience. There is no proper substitute. Some programs have fast track substitutes and the cave diving community is suffering from this.
Kelly you state that the person doing this dive is not getting the training for this dive. If this dive is conducted properly it will involve topside preparation such as a dive plan, equipment review and a discussion about the difference between the Basic cave dives the person has been conducting, namely up and down the Gold Line with a maximum of 1/6 air supply usage and 1/3 air supply usage and those implications. There must be a discussion of proper techniques/procedures for installing a jump line and properly configuring the lines, arrows and cookies for the navigational decision that must be made upon negotiating that jump during the exit.
These dives must NOT be Trust-Me Dives. They should also not just be sightseeing dives. There must be mentorship and learning.
If this guided dive does not involve proper planning and preparation then it is not conducted within the spirit of the standard.
As an aside and something I plan to address later I think the lines between cave diver education and cave diving as an activity have been blurred, and in some cases obliterated. A good cave instructor is an educator, a good cave instructor can not only, for example run a reel in high flow with
demonstration quality, but he can also relate with words
HOW to do do it and relay
WHY be able to do it, and be able to teach his students to do it. Leaving a reel in all weekend does nothing to teach students
HOW to do it.
A good cave instructor has stories to tell that highlight
WHY things are taught the way they are taught.
A good cave instructor understands the ratio of 60/40 mental/physical mix for cave divers and is able to have a serious philosophical discussion with students about this. I fully believe the 60/40 ratio is accurate and I fully believe that we must relay this ratio to our students.