Attitudes Toward DIR Divers

[Mike_4635]

At the end of a dive came across this Asian PADI instructor teaching whatever this is... sorry you hear my laughing

I don’t know what to make of this. I have never seen anything like this.

 

[eightytwenty]

At the end of a dive came across this Asian PADI instructor teaching whatever this is... sorry you hear my laughing

I can (almost) understand the first exercise, but what's the purpose of putting the fins together like that? To look like Darth Maul?

 

[Blackcrusader]

I can (almost) understand the first exercise, but what's the purpose of putting the fins together like that? To look like Darth Maul?

My first thought with the fins was he was replicating Michael J Fox skateboard scene from back to the future lol

 

[The Chairman]

I don’t know what to make of this. I have never seen anything like this.

Think how over-weighted they have to be to stand on the bottom like that.

It's as about as useful as the Buddha pose to show neutral buoyancy.

 

[crofrog]

Think how over-weighted they have to be to stand on the bottom like that.

It's as about as useful as the Buddha pose to show neutral buoyancy.

 

[LFMarm]

Want something more than a guess?

In 2010, I put together a group to discuss neutral buoyancy instruction. We discussed it in the I2I section of the web forum Dive Matrix to avoid opposition we expected on ScubaBoard. When we were done, I wrote a draft of an article and got everyone to agree to it. Marcia Fisk Ong (Quero on ScubaBoard) helped me tremendously with the wording. I submitted it to PADI, and that was the start to months of discussion. At one point, Peter Rothschild (Peter Guy on ScubaBoard) told me that there was not a single picture or video in the OW course of divers swimming in horizontal trim while neutrally buoyant. I pointed that out in our discussions, and the PADI training director gave (literally) an OMG! response and promised they would start working on that immediately. Karl Shreeves, the technical director of PADI, was assigned to work with me on the article.

After not all that long, there was a sudden and dramatic change in the tone of the discussions. We went from a promise that the final draft would be published sometime in the vague future to it would be published in a few months. It was obvious to me what had happened. They were mildly intrigued with the idea at first, but then they went out and tried it themselves, with their instructors learning it as they did it, and they had a "Holy Sh!t! This really works!" experience. The article (greatly shortened) was published in 2011.

The next year I attended the annual regional meeting, and the agenda included the regional director telling the instructors there how well that neutrally buoyant approach to instruction worked and urging them all to try it.

When the new standards were written two years later with a significant increase in neutral buoyancy instruction, I was contacted and told I would be very happy with many of the changes. I was indeed happy with some of it, but I was disappointed not to see a push for neutral buoyancy instruction. I am still disappointed that more has not been done over the years.

One sign of progress was a few years ago, when a huge IDC center in Utila replaced all of its training videos on the knees with videos neutrally buoyant. It's been painfully slow, but it's happening.

I think a good reason for this delay can be illustrated in the response it all got on ScubaBoard. There was horrendous pushback against it from several people, including especially Andy Davis (DevonDiver on ScubaBoard and Scuba Tech Philippines). Andy's crusade against neutral buoyancy instruction was simply Herculean. He wrote over and over and over again that using this approach was a violation of PADI standards, and anyone doing it would be expelled. When we quoted PADI leaders, including the CEO and President, to refute him, he said those people only spoke their own opinions, and they were all wrong. (Seriously--he specifically said that any instructor who did what the PADI CEO and President said to do would be expelled.) I believe Andy's fervid opposition represents opposition from others around the world who have fought tooth and nail to impede progress.

Do you happen to have the link to either the long/original or short/published article?

 

[boulderjohn]

Do you happen to have the link to either the long/original or short/published article?

Here is the published version, from the second quarter of 2011 issue of Undersea Journal. which is much shorter than the original one submitted. The part about it being OK to start teaching on the knees as long as the same skills are then taught whole horizontal came at the insistence of PADI and probably explains why they haven't made more progress on this--they are reluctant to say that the traditional approach is specifically wrong because they want to be inclusive of a variety of instructional approaches.

Another obvious problem is in the pictures. They were given explicit instructions on how pictures were to be done and what captions were to be used--those instructions were ignored. The pictures were supposed to be paired showing the difference between on the knees and horizontal, and the explanation were to explain the difference. Without the explanations, the pictures are worthless. Then they put in a random picture of a traditional class without any explanation. As a former journalist, I know what happened. The last person to work with the project is the layout editor, who may have no understanding of the point of the article whatsoever--his or her job is to make everything fit neatly on the page in a pleasant arrangement.

 

[crofrog]

Then they put in a random picture of a traditional class without any explanation

I'm pretty sure that dude on the knees is getting back handed for doing a skill wrong too...