PADI?

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Which ones are ridiculous?
Oh, he will give you some names because he obviously did not read the multiple explanations of the fact that specialties exist to allow divers to take specific classes with standard content that has been approved as safe and instructional sound. He evidently also missed the posts explaining that making individual shops and instructors get approval for a specialty assures a certain level of quality and protects the instructor in terms of liability. Finally, he seems to have missed the challenge to name any agencies that do not have a large variety of classes for specific skills.
 
The irony is that most people
There is something about being attached to a dive shop that puts pressure on doing a good job teaching. Its the do good or find another shop to teach under. If training is considered to be substandard in the view of consumers the shop gives them the boot and gets something better. That is the check and ballance process independant instructors do not have to deal with. There is no consequence for dong a bad job.

For this OT sidebar:

Oh man, I couldn't disagree more. Independent instructors have word of mouth. We live and die by our reputations. When dive shops are mills with on the knees instruction, we have to differentiate ourselves. All my referrals are primarily from people who have gone diving with my students. I think these are the best testaments, as while I get referrals from my former students, the number of people who dive with my former students is a larger number.

Now that I teach independently and for an agency that allows me to add sensible dives/performance requirements, I can provide a better service. @nwgratefuldiver was a NAUI instructor, independent, and well respected for going beyond minimum standards.

For shops, a big part of their sales are mask, fins, and snorkel. Stick 'em on their knees, tell them they are great, entertain them, hope they buy more gear, and move onto the next batch of students. Doesn't matter if they cork and crater post certification.
 
Which ones are ridiculous?

The one which immediately springs to mind, is PADI's Dive Against Debris®, aka "garbage collection," which, apparently, warrants a registered trademark. A friend, who runs a PADI-affiliated shop, refuses even to discuss the subject, with what I imagine, is that same embarrassed manner that the Catholic Church affords, say, the Ritus Romanus.

I don't know anyone, worth his or her salt, who doesn't already retrieve all manner of crap, while diving, on their own, without having to take a specialty course for some virtue signaling patch; who don't require any mawkish recognition; and I typically see those same faces during annual clean-up dives. It was already called common courtesy and good stewardship, before it was processed through the PADI cloaca.

Invasive Lionfish Tracker, is also a contender.

"Learn what action is needed to control the lionfish population and, during two scuba dives, learn practical ways to safely and humanely capture and euthanize these fish."

Really? I have been pronging and cooking them for decades, as a PADI outlaw? I have a couple of cookbooks dedicated to them. To my chagrin, don't have the patch.

Whale Shark Awareness

"Learn about whale shark biology, behavior and distribution. During two scuba dives or snorkeling excursions, practice passively observing these large creatures."

Couldn't crack a f**king book for that one -- catch a David Attenborough documentary? Passive observance now requires classwork -- after seventy years of television?
 
Oh, he will give you some names because he obviously did not read the multiple explanations of the fact that specialties exist to allow divers to take specific classes with standard content that has been approved as safe and instructional sound. He evidently also missed the posts explaining that making individual shops and instructors get approval for a specialty assures a certain level of quality and protects the instructor in terms of liability. Finally, he seems to have missed the challenge to name any agencies that do not have a large variety of classes for specific skills.
I was kind of hoping he would mention Underwater Naturalist, so I could point out that some people want to learn more about the environment in which they dive.
 
The one which immediately springs to mind, is PADI's Dive Against Debris®, aka "garbage collection." A friend, who runs a PADI-affiliated shop, refuses even to discuss the subject, with what I imagine, is that same embarrassed manner that the Catholic Church affords, say, the Ritus Romanus.

I don't know anyone, worth his or her salt, who doesn't already retrieve all manner of crap, while diving, on their own, without having to take a specialty course for some virtue signaling patch; who don't require any mawkish recognition; and I typically see those same faces during annual clean-up dives. It's was already called common courtesy and good stewardship, before it was preocessed through the PADI cloaca.

Invasive Lionfish Tracker, is also a contender.

"Learn what action is needed to control the lionfish population and, during two scuba dives, learn practical ways to safely and humanely capture and euthanize these fish."

Really? I have been pronging and cooking them for decades, as a PADI outlaw? I have a couple of cookbooks dedicated to them. Don't have a patch.

Whale Shark Awareness

Learn about whale shark biology, behavior and distribution. During two scuba dives or snorkeling excursions, practice passively observing these large creatures.

Couldn't crack a f**king book for that one -- catch a David Attenborough documentary?

I don't think there's anything wrong with these courses, if taught properly.

I do believe however, that they should not apply for an MSD rating. I think only skills based courses should apply for that.

I don't teach Fish ID because I don't think I should take money from people with names like "big fish", "shiny fish", "ugly fish", "fish with sharp teeth" (aka shark) and so on.
 
I was kind of hoping he would mention Underwater Naturist, so I could point out that some people want to learn more about the environment in which they dive.

A "naturist" -- as in nudist?
 
Ah! He has answered. So he objects to having more divers collect debris, and he is OK with destroying a reef to kill a lionfish, and he hates whale sharks. OK, fine. He seems to have missed the point that it may not matter to newer divers what HE likes or dislikes, or that what he is good at may not be what others are good at, but they would like to learn about.
 
A "naturist -- as in nudist?
Hmm, maybe I should teach Fish Id, so that divers a naturale' avoid the "fish with sharp teeth"
 

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