Even before I broke my hip I had decided to get out of teaching SCUBA. Covid wasn't the only reason with the corresponding drop in students. But it was a factor in that during that time I found other things I also enjoyed that were way less expensive.
I took up cycling and now that I've gotten the ok from PT, I'll be getting back into that.
The other thing that really had a hand was the increases in insurance. For an independent instructor that very few segments of the industry support (one or two brands) the increase due to shoddy instruction and instructors killing people was just so much BS.
And with that, entities like the WRSTC, RSTC, and DEMA doing abso-freaking-lutely nothing except sending worthless thoughts and prayers, along with closing ranks around shoddy, insufficient, and low standards and entities more concerned with profit than diver's safety.
I look around and see good, ethical, and thorough instructors getting laughed at and pushed out by cut-rate, quick-buck operations that do the bare minimum in the pool and classroom.
I see the way they are reacting to the Linnea Mills case and it's sickening.
The dive industry should be on life-support. It's been trying to commit suicide for years.
Settle rather than change standards.
Close ranks rather than call out the shite operations.
Tell instructors and DMs they can't talk bad about other agencies and crap instructors, regulate how they appear in advertising, tell them what PROPRIETARY materials they can use, tell them how they can advertise, yet insist with all these restrictions that they are not agents representing the agency. The hell they aren't.
If they weren't agents they could do what they wanted.
I'd actually like to see government oversight at this point. There sure as hell isn't any from the industry itself and with the internet, it's easy to see that this activity, no matter how much the industry denies it, is an extreme one that can and does kill people.
I took up cycling and now that I've gotten the ok from PT, I'll be getting back into that.
The other thing that really had a hand was the increases in insurance. For an independent instructor that very few segments of the industry support (one or two brands) the increase due to shoddy instruction and instructors killing people was just so much BS.
And with that, entities like the WRSTC, RSTC, and DEMA doing abso-freaking-lutely nothing except sending worthless thoughts and prayers, along with closing ranks around shoddy, insufficient, and low standards and entities more concerned with profit than diver's safety.
I look around and see good, ethical, and thorough instructors getting laughed at and pushed out by cut-rate, quick-buck operations that do the bare minimum in the pool and classroom.
I see the way they are reacting to the Linnea Mills case and it's sickening.
The dive industry should be on life-support. It's been trying to commit suicide for years.
Settle rather than change standards.
Close ranks rather than call out the shite operations.
Tell instructors and DMs they can't talk bad about other agencies and crap instructors, regulate how they appear in advertising, tell them what PROPRIETARY materials they can use, tell them how they can advertise, yet insist with all these restrictions that they are not agents representing the agency. The hell they aren't.
If they weren't agents they could do what they wanted.
I'd actually like to see government oversight at this point. There sure as hell isn't any from the industry itself and with the internet, it's easy to see that this activity, no matter how much the industry denies it, is an extreme one that can and does kill people.
