Not a question, and not to start a flame but I feel very disturbed about my recent experiences:
I believe I have an open mind and that I believe there is no such thing as too much training or having too much knowledge about a subject, and in this case, diving. After being certified as an Open Water Diver, I continued my education and on this very forum, found out about "Hogarthian", "DIR", "GUE", "UTD". First impressions from fellow board members are that "these group of divers" have a "superior than thou" mentality. That did not stop me to continue my research into it. I cannot help but feel very impressed with their level of skills as seen on youtube.
After making many phone calls and weighing between what is financially feasible and what is convenient, I decided to meet with AG and Jeff of UTD. I was apprehensive about meeting them but I was introduced to a group of the friendliest divers. Contrary to what was being speculated, neither AG nor Jeff has a "superior" mentality. In fact they accepted my level of experience for what it is and provided me far more information than I can handle. I then decided to join UTD in their essentials to improve my diving.
I announced my decisions to take the UTD essentials to my course directors, and what I got was "do what you want, but you have to know its about being comfortable with your own gear and not follow them blindly. They have a very closed mindset..." type of conversation. Another discussion with another instructor from another recreation agency, a MSDT mind you, yields an advice to "stay as far away from them as possible because they are rigid and militant; they take the joy out of diving". And yet another from the same agency tells me "Ha, why would you even bother? If you want to improve your diving, I can teach you and we have many good instructors here...".
Surprising, the very people who are supposed to be open-minded totally disregard another "style" without even trying to understand what it is all about; and yet the supposedly closed-minded group welcomed me with open arms and patiently discussed what I need to do and why I need to do it without once bashing someone else.
I'm not sure why I am even writing this, but I figured its a great place to rant. Seriously people, we need to open our minds and see for yourself instead of just going with hearsays. That said, I am stoked about doing my very first dive, DIR style, in about 2 weeks.
*end of rant
I believe I have an open mind and that I believe there is no such thing as too much training or having too much knowledge about a subject, and in this case, diving. After being certified as an Open Water Diver, I continued my education and on this very forum, found out about "Hogarthian", "DIR", "GUE", "UTD". First impressions from fellow board members are that "these group of divers" have a "superior than thou" mentality. That did not stop me to continue my research into it. I cannot help but feel very impressed with their level of skills as seen on youtube.
After making many phone calls and weighing between what is financially feasible and what is convenient, I decided to meet with AG and Jeff of UTD. I was apprehensive about meeting them but I was introduced to a group of the friendliest divers. Contrary to what was being speculated, neither AG nor Jeff has a "superior" mentality. In fact they accepted my level of experience for what it is and provided me far more information than I can handle. I then decided to join UTD in their essentials to improve my diving.
I announced my decisions to take the UTD essentials to my course directors, and what I got was "do what you want, but you have to know its about being comfortable with your own gear and not follow them blindly. They have a very closed mindset..." type of conversation. Another discussion with another instructor from another recreation agency, a MSDT mind you, yields an advice to "stay as far away from them as possible because they are rigid and militant; they take the joy out of diving". And yet another from the same agency tells me "Ha, why would you even bother? If you want to improve your diving, I can teach you and we have many good instructors here...".
Surprising, the very people who are supposed to be open-minded totally disregard another "style" without even trying to understand what it is all about; and yet the supposedly closed-minded group welcomed me with open arms and patiently discussed what I need to do and why I need to do it without once bashing someone else.
I'm not sure why I am even writing this, but I figured its a great place to rant. Seriously people, we need to open our minds and see for yourself instead of just going with hearsays. That said, I am stoked about doing my very first dive, DIR style, in about 2 weeks.
*end of rant
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