Not "technically oriented" enough for Advanced Scuba?

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DaleC

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This discussion has been split off from a thread in Advanced Scuba Discussions regarding the positioning of the SPG in a Hogarthian set-up, but some reference to issues brought up there remain in the posts that have been moved. To respond to those issues, go to this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/365989-spg-position-left-why.html



If there is a DIR forum for discussing DIR oriented options

and a DIR Practitioners forum (where non DIR divers cannot post)

a whole set of technical specialties forums

and a whole new set of Tek to Tek forums that one can't access unless they have a certain level of certification...

Where again do recreational divers discuss concepts that are beyond those encountered in basic scuba???

I dive in ways that are not within the "currently accepted" technical model yet are perfectly functional in the advanced recreational arena. Where can I discuss those ideas without being criticized for not being "technically oriented" enough?

It seems to me there are plenty of other forums where the tech community can discuss their environmentally induced narrow range of options without slumming it and having to insist others do likewise here.
 
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Advanced rec diving is not quite the same as multi stage diving (that is, unless you like carrying stages around just for the fun of it), actually, besides being underwater & hopefully breathing while at it, they have very little in common. It's a brutal simplification, but pretty much there.

During the past several pages examples of where to place the SPG were given, and in the rec world, it's pretty much a moot debate, just put it wherever you like it in the end should you like to do so. Nobody got the chair for doing it wrong.

However, in the tech world, as you said environmentally narrow, there's a pretty good reason to do something in a certain & defined manner. And if people ask why these things are done in certain way & get the answer with an explanation - which they don't like/accept, who's to blame? Them or people executing tech dives and living to write about them here?

The internet is a nasty place. If somebody gives you an honest advice in your best interest, no matter how it is written, I would appreciate it.

Anyway, there's also a saying about arguing on the internet, but I'll not go into that... :D
 
Dale, wouldn't you agree that someone who is carrying double stages and bottles on a leash is well into the technical diving realm? You'll notice nobody eviscerated the original poster over his question . . . it's just this guy with the double stages who says he can't check his spg if it's on the left.
 
Where again do recreational divers discuss concepts that are beyond those encountered in basic scuba???

Question asked back:

Why or What do recreational divers have to discuss that isn't recreational/basic?

The only thing I can think of is: "Can you tell me more about tech diving?"...which can be posted in the Tech forum....

Basic scuba covers most recreational topics. The advanced (as you can see from the sticky) provides a cross-over between advanced rec and tech levels. Note: I said levels, not certifications.
 
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I think the premise that everybody is moving in a linear path down the OW AOW Tech path is false. Not everybody wants to wind up in a south Florida cave somewhere. There are some of us who just intend to be advanced recreational divers and enjoy the wide variety of equipment configuration options this allows.

With the proliferation of tech only sub forums now available on SB I would argue that this should be a place where strictly technical solutions should be moved out of.
 
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Question asked back:

Why or What do recreational divers have to discuss that isn't recreational/basic?

The only thing I can think of is: "Can you tell me more about tech diving?"...which can be posted in the Tech forum....

Basic scuba covers most recreational topics. The advanced (as you can see from the sticky) provides a cross-over between advanced rec and tech levels. Note: I said levels, not certifications.

You need to reread the description of this forum Andy:

Have a Scuba question that's beyond a 'basic' one but not really 'technical?' Get it answered here.

and... if you can't think of any questions other than the one you posed perhaps your technical bias is showing. I can think of lots. Advanced recreational is not synonymous with "can't wait to turn DIR/ Hogarthian technical".

Again, aren't there enough technically oriented subforums on the board already? If you guys want to complain about the 5 minute tech wonders perhaps its because there is no other alternative presented. You're either basic recreational or turning technical, right? We want people to spend some time at the advanced recreational level but we minimize the whole concept and see it only as a transition from A to B.
 
Dale: Advanced Recreational Diving...is still recreational diving.
Advanced Diving is a different beast entirely.

A recreational wreck diver, goes down, looks at wrecks, comes up before his NDL is reached.
A recreational photo diver, goes down, takes some snaps, comes up before his NDL is reached.
A recreational reef diver, goes down, looks at fish, comes up before his NDL is reached.
A recreational nitrox diver, goes down, looks at fish/wrecks whatever, comes up before his NDL is reached.

In this case... being an 'advanced' recreational diver just seems like snobbery. Really...OW to MSD is all pretty much the same... with pretty much the same issues. Buoyancy, trim, propulsion and kit. With the kit... configuration isn't critical... so it's down to personal preference.

I think the term 'Advanced Recreational' doesn't or cannot apply to most recreational divers. Nothing in the PADI system even remotely approaches it. BSAC, and some other agencies, do actually go into 'advanced diving'... but the line is very blurred between that and tech...as it normally involves advanced wreck skills and non-accelerated deco.
 
With this being a point that comes up I have to wonder if the forum names themselves aren't the problem.


"new divers and those considering diving" is a very nice descriptive name. But then we have "basic" -- which seems to be pretty much the same thing, and "advanced" and in the practical sense of delineating which topics go where, there doesn't seem to be much difference.

If recreational diving is recreational diving, then the delineation between basic and advanced seems to be very artificial and without a more clear break between them there's always going to be people posting in the "wrong" forum on that basis. The move to "technical" diving is pretty straight forward -- are you moving into doing planned decompression stops? Then you're doing technical diving. Simple, clean easy definition.

So is the "issue" here just having one too many forums for general recreational diving questions and discussions?
 
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