Yes. Your thread is all about Brian unfairly bashing PADI. I'll even concede that Brian should not have bashed PADI in the way he did, but it sure brought the real issue to the table, which *may* have been his intention all along. I have spoken to Brian numerous times before, during, after DEMA and even recently. Have you spoken to him since you wrote your missive? Have you investigated the underlying causes? BoulderJohn brought it up yesterday. He hit the nail exactly. His question (and I'm paraphrasing because I'm lazy) is "what should PADI have done?" and he hits the subject exactly.
Have you spoken to Peter Mayer lately? I have done that, too, but I also spoke to him as this was happening. I spoke to him at least every couple of months. Peter made a bold statement. His statement was that he wasn't going to settle frivolous lawsuits anymore, because it encourages more frivolous lawsuits. I applauded that stand, I applauded it then, and I applaud it today. Now, perhaps this particular lawsuit isn't frivolous. I'm not a lawyer, and I slept on a boat last night. But maybe it is. We've heard lots to blame the instructor for, and rightly so. We've heard lots to blame the parents for, and rightly so. We've heard lots to blame the pediatrician and his PA for, and rightly so. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but I feel that a skilled attorney could make a case that the parents and the physician (and his staff) were major at fault. Yes, the physician was dismissed because of jurisdictional reasons, but maybe that would work in a skilled attorneys favor, shovel blame on someone with no liability to protect his client.
But PADI wouldn't play that game. I'm sure they had their reasons. As Hornsby said in one letter, the attorney (Concannon) was setting up to attack the standards PADI was using. Then I read the letter that Hornsby wrote to the court outlined earlier in this thread. What I read was: "We follow all RSTC and ISO standards. Everyone else does too." I don't find that an affirmative defense. It would be the same as "I follow the standards set by my scuba shop. All of the other instructors in this shop do too". That's great if the shop's standards are high, but what if the shops standards suck? So it boils down to (in my boat captain's mind) the RSTC and ISO standards suck, but we're going to follow them, because everyone else does.
Now, Peter Meyer didn't have a seat at the RSTC table, but I'd bet that Willis insured 1/3 of the world's instructors. And Willis couldn't effect the RSTC, except through Brian Carney. But Willis (in the form of Peter Meyer) said "I think the DSD ratios suck, and we're not going to allow 1/3 of the instructors in the world to follow them any more."
BOOM!! That's bold. Even Hornsby says that conducting DSD is more dangerous (folks are more likely to be hurt participating) than other scuba programs. /BOOM!!
So now, PADI and their lawyers and underwriters aren't welcome at the table. That's got to throw them in a tizzy. Concannon (being paid by Willis) is going after the ratios. For some reason PADI is hanging on to those ratios with both hands and a foot, and refuse to drop them to 2:1. I'm sure they have their reasons that make sense to them. But you know, I remember a letter from Richardson stating that PADI would never ever ever (with a little foot stamp) support solo diving. If you don't remember it, I'll dig it out. I'll even wave it in your face, along with my self reliant diver card.
So, to answer BoulderJohn's question, When PADI expelled their instructor, then wouldn't stand with Willis to defend the instructor they had just kicked out, when they had (what Willis felt) was a winnable case, you are correct, they had to come in on the side of the plaintiffs to defend the standard.
Now I'll toss one back. What makes PADI so in love with the 4:1 student to teacher ratio for the most admittedly dangerous thing we can teach? Why will they not reduce it to 2:1 as Willis imposed on 1/3 of the dive instructors on the planet? And forgive me if I'm wrong, I assume 1/3 because 90% of the liveaboard dive boats, all of the SDI shops, and PADI Australasia all use Willis. If I made an assumption that's out of line, I apologize. But the question remains. Why wouldn't PADI (the 800 lb gorilla of certification agencies) stand with Willis (the 800 lb gorilla of insurance companies) to a) fight this lawsuit, which I believe is winnable and b) reduce the ratios of the program which is most likely to result in a student casualty?
Pete, I challenge you to speak to Carney. I'm betting you haven't since this letter and thread was started. I'm betting he will speak to you. I challenge you to speak to Concannon. He may speak to you. His loss if he doesn't. I also challenge you to speak to Peter Mayer. What he has to say will open your eyes to a lot of things that you don't know. As far as I can tell, the only person you have spoken to that is intimate with this case is Hornsby. I suspect he's biased.
---------- Post added January 5th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ----------
I seem to be out of likes for the day. But I like both of these.