Article: Zero-to-Hero… there are no winners in training shortcuts

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I couldn't agree more. It took me 2 yrs to attain my Adv. Nitrox/ DP certification. The first night in the pool, I realized I was nowhere near ready to do the OW portion, even with over 150 dives under my belt. The step from recreational to technical diving is huge,... & needs to be. It rquires the utmost seriousness & motivation. During that 2 yrs, I was introduced to diving in double cylinder (for me, was like lerning to dive all over again). It worked on the needed skills, until I felt reasonably sure of myself. When I finally went through the OW portion, I was able to do the required skills, though not pretty, I did them,... including handling a real life free flowing regulator incident with calm & composure. When I went through my Cave diving training, it took me another 2 yrs to go from Intro level to Full Cave. I failed the Full Cave portion no less than 4 times. Each time I failed, I took the lessons learned home & practiced & perfected the necessary skills, each time I attempted the course, I got a little closer. My instructor was very hard on me, but by doing so, it taught me the awareness, skills & respect a diver should have for that kind of environment. Looking back, it was tough, heart wrenching & frustrating at times. I'm so very glad I had to go through that. It prepared & toughened me mentally for what is needed to survive in a cave environment. Since becoming an OW Instructor, I even understand that concept even more. I NEED to know my students can handle themselves, once they out from under my wings in the great wide world. My technical instructor was just doing the same thing for me in a much bigger realm.
 
I disagree in some cases. Why? Nobody had a problem with a zero-to-hero driving license course. But thats the same. After getting you driving license, you will have to learn driving a car. And that's accepted.
It all depends on the person himself. I'm an autodidact. I learned diving myself en got in 8 months (120 dives) ow-aow-rescue-DM. Now I'm following a advanced nitrox/decompression diving course, 'on the slow' way. It's horrible for me. It takes 5 months at the moment and all it's depending on the instructor. I dived 100+ dives in 5 months and train serious (but I never dive alone), to test some things, I use the pool of my club. Most people forget that there are serious divers who want to train to improve their skills very fast. I dive 2-3 times a week, so I can go faster than someone who dives only 1-2 times a month. But instuctors forget these difference. And if I dive, I allways try to do some skills. The problem is again in the diving world that everybody has a finger to say: 'you are going to fast, you only use doubles for only a couple of months, etc'. but they all forget that no person is the same (diving doubles is not rocket science, it's the same as diving a single tank for me). I know I'm more serious than most other divers, if I want something, I will go and fight for it.
So: For some people a zero-to-hero course is not a good idea, but for some people it is the best way.
 
I agree that time, experience and proper training are critical to move from rec diving to tech level. In fact, once I complete my advanced PADI courses and reach Dive Master level even after 300 dives, I will take the GUE training courses and patience to learn rebreathers safely and correctly. I read the DAN magazine and see a lot of even experienced tech divers who get DCS and live to write about how painful it is all caused by even these seasoned tech divers making stupid mistakes.
 
A Course Director (on Koh Tao) signed off a colleague of mine to teach the Dolphin Rebreather Specialty a few years back. At the time my colleague had all of 3 dives on the unit (one of those dive he bailed out). I fear the push for rebreathers will only intensify this problem.
 
The problem is not with zero-to-hero training per se, but with the student that runs right out and dives dives that are far beyond the 'experience' part of 'training and experience'.

Having / getting the knowledge is just that - having it. One must then carefully practice the skills and gain the experience with those well experienced. To go through the apprentice, journeyman, and master levels, if you will.

One might say, "You don't know what you don't know." A dive well beyond one's experience level is a supremely stupid place to find out.
 
I disagree in some cases. Why? Nobody had a problem with a zero-to-hero driving license course. But thats the same. After getting you driving license, you will have to learn driving a car. And that's accepted.
It all depends on the person himself. I'm an autodidact. I learned diving myself en got in 8 months (120 dives) ow-aow-rescue-DM. Now I'm following a advanced nitrox/decompression diving course, 'on the slow' way. It's horrible for me. It takes 5 months at the moment and all it's depending on the instructor. I dived 100+ dives in 5 months and train serious (but I never dive alone), to test some things, I use the pool of my club. Most people forget that there are serious divers who want to train to improve their skills very fast. I dive 2-3 times a week, so I can go faster than someone who dives only 1-2 times a month. But instuctors forget these difference. And if I dive, I allways try to do some skills. The problem is again in the diving world that everybody has a finger to say: 'you are going to fast, you only use doubles for only a couple of months, etc'. but they all forget that no person is the same (diving doubles is not rocket science, it's the same as diving a single tank for me). I know I'm more serious than most other divers, if I want something, I will go and fight for it.
So: For some people a zero-to-hero course is not a good idea, but for some people it is the best way.



I agree, it all depends on how much you practice and the learning curve is different for each person. I obtained full cave in a little over a year after I started open water and my instructor claims that I have better buoyancy than the other guy in our class that has been diving for 6 years. So why wait years just to say you have been diving a longtime.
 
Because with 150 dives or a "whole year" <snicker> of diving you have no clue what you don't know. Modern equipment makes it really easy to get yourself in a situation where only the muscle memory and instincts of thousands of dives and years of diving will get you out. The kinds of diving the big boys do over and over successfully is based on the hundreds of hours spent in the water diving. Not in the pool doing s-drills and practicing line handling skills, but diving. Being in real situations where diaphragms blow out of regulators and hoses rupture, necessitating post shutdowns and when real roll offs happen and you run out of gas 1000 feet back.

Don't take my word for it, go ahead and justify your thoughts and diving skills by telling yourself it won't happen to you. Don't take the word of us folks with thousands of dives and hundreds of students who have dragged more than one stinking dead body up on the shore or on the swim step. We obviously don't realize how special you all are, and how different you are. We're too stupid to understand how you all are so much smarter than we were. You might ask some of the grieving mothers, wives, buddies, and children, though. Maybe you'll listen to them.
 
I disagree in some cases. Why? Nobody had a problem with a zero-to-hero driving license course. But thats the same...

I must be a piss-poor writer since you seem to have become defensive about something I did not mention. The essay is not about a driver, but -- to continue your analogy -- the people who issue driver's licenses.

Let me frame this in the simplest terms I can... given that we accept that rebreathers, while offering many options to the trained, prepared user in the event of something going pear-shaped, are totally unforgiving of people who make mistakes.

So here's the question: Would you want someone you care about to be trained to dive a CCR by someone who has bent the rules somehow and shortcut his or her way to instructor status?

If your answer is yes, then OK.

I agree, it all depends on how much you practice and the learning curve is different for each person. I obtained full cave in a little over a year after I started open water...

Good for you. However, your buoyancy control is not the issue... I really don't give a rat's ass about punters who move "up the experience ladder" faster than the norm... whatever that may be. Some people work harder and apply themselves more completely.

The issue and what I wrote about is not divers... not you... not your mate who is full trimix certified after a couple of months diving... it's about CCR instructors.
 
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