Attitudes Toward DIR Divers
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eightytwenty
Contributor
Bill Main was never DIR. The Hogarthian system advocated for inflation off the left post, which as I understand was moved to the right post when GI3 took over, much to the chagrin of Main and a few others. We have a lot to thank Bill Main for, but he was never DIR, and frankly seemed to dislike the term.
I think he really respected the hell out of what they did with the WKPP just go read the interview a few post back
eightytwenty
Contributor
GUE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, funded largely through memberships and donations. The individual instructors are independent or work as dive center employees. Students do have to pay a registration and materials fee to GUE, in addition to whatever the instructors charge.
ginti
Contributor
With "at least for instructors" he meant instructors can make profit, at least the way I understood it.
DiveLikeAMuppet
Contributor
GUE itself is a non-profit but GUE instructors and dive centres absolutely are businesses and need to make money off courses - in a limited high value, low volume segment. The only instructors who work for free are CMAS or BSAC and even some of them get paid (in ego boosts
).Nothing wrong with earning money by the way.
What I was pointing at is that PADI ecosystem (McDonalds - cheap consistent product) can’t be the same as GUE ecosystem (upmarket chain steakhouse) because both are trying to earn money in different ways.
Is this different from others? At least with other agencies you don't need to renew a card by paying every 2 year.
But a non profit organization in my country means the organization is not allowed to make profit. But they can have employees like a founder who gets a very very high salary as CEO for example. So the costs can be the salary.
Here I know a diveshop who has a diveclub, the diveclub is a 'stichting', this means non profit. The ceo of the diveclub is the owner of the diveshop and gets also money out of the diveclub as he is an employee. And the diveclub rents the diveshop as teachingplace.
So non profit does not tell my anything about being good or being bad. It just means on paper they don't earn money. There have been here very big discussions about non profit company's that do for example cancer research or help homeless people abroad. And then the CEO earn tons of Euro's and is a millionaire.
Instructors are never paid by agencies, they pay to the agency to teach. And with gue a student pays a registrationfee to the agency, with others the instructor pays it for the student, but of course the student pays. Nothing is for free in this world.
IANTD has HQ in Florida, and then regional managers. Instructors has to become member of the regional part where they teach. They can reside if they want of course. With CMAS you pay to the national member of CMAS. And if you want to be an independent instructor you have to pay more to the national member. If I move to Germany for example, I have to do a crossover to the VDST as that is the German national member of CMAS. But I am already CMAS instructor. TDI has Europe I believe. So all agencies have a slightly different way of paying the fees, but all have a piramid structure and want to sell courses.
And every agency invents new courses if there is an ask for, of if they think there is a need for.
For example, I have been diving already for years with a BO ccr. I have figured out everything myself, talked to others who already where using a BO ccr, etc. Now you can follow a course.
In earlier days, the cave card was a technical wreck diving card too. With a cave card you could do penetrations. You still can do, but now there is a technical cave course 'invented' for the people who don't dive in caves and want to do penetrations.
Around 2010 the CCR cave course came, before you only had an oc full cave course.
Way much earlier there was only 1 trimixcourse. But some people found the steps too big, so then normoxic was invented. And because France has some specific laws about diving (France is one of the few countries with a law about diving), there is a normoxic plus 'invented' so the trimix courses are in line with the law in France. In Spain every recreational diver can go to 40m, so this is why an open water can go to 40m. In some countries nightdiving is officially forbidden, this is the reason you can do an AOW course without nightdiving.
Gue did not have CCR and sidemount, but even GUE or DIR divers looked at others and saw that sidemount and ccr can be an advantage. So also with gue there came a sidemount course and a ccr course. And a dpv (ow and cave) came. Yes, even there the chimney must smoke.
Padi came with a seaslugh specialty for biology lovers. YOu will not learn better diving, but you can have some fun in places with a lot of seaslughs.
And CMAS Netherlands, a country without caves have invented a card with 'cave' on it, even if you don't need to dive in caves: Cavediving techniques in Open Water. And now wow, even if you have never been in a cave you have a card with 'cave' on it. Very great. And sometimes I really get the question of people with this card if they can have a discount on a real cave course. But theoretically you have learned how to use a reel.
SSI has courses where you don't need to dive for and don't need an instructor for. I believe I have something as marine ecology done (was free). And the whole course was completely online. I haven't seen any instructor. The same with 'science of diving' (was also free and I found a mistake in the course material).
This comes also to the discussion about usefull courses and not usefull courses and can be usefull courses. Also how much experience must an instructor have to teach? Do you expect that your instructor knows what a PO2 of 1.6 means? Or if you do a photography specialty that your instructor has used more than a gopro or a tg6 without strobes when he is teaching you? Or a cave instructor who never has been further in a cave than with his own course? Or do you think this instructor is not that important if the agency has good books?
Remember, DIR is not an agency, and you will find within every agency DIR-divers. You will find in every agency divers you don't like, instructors you don't like, standards you don't like, etc.
So I think if you want to do a course somewhere, look at what you want and what you expect to learn. And if you are a lazy person that only need a card and then never practise again, this is also an option and agency independent. Also with the best instructor the students are still individuals. And the best instructor can be a worse one if the personality does not match.
I have had a great time with a bad instructor, but I only needed that card. So I looked for easy, cheap and a nice person. This worked out very well.
I have had a very bad instructor where the instructor told me he dove only 'DIR' and it was a dictator. I have learned things, but also have learned things I will never do myself. The instructor thought he was the best in the world. Yes, he was very very good in backwards finning, and I wanted to learn that. He never explained me, but I started to learn myself. And after a couple of months I could do it too and was faster than he was. Then his attitude changed from friendly to a dictator. He really hated it when people can do things he was the 'God'in. He also needed buddies and divers had to do 3 to 10 times more dives than required according to standards. Never something was good enough. Also there was always something with him. Or the water was too cold and he cancelled a dive, or he flooded his drysuit (I have never seen him coming out dry), or he 'forgot' his analyser (I have never seen an analyser from himself, he allways borrowed) and when borrowing was not possible, we could not dive, etc.
So I have done courses with a lot of agencies. I do a lot of things the same as gue divers do, I do a lot the same as dir divers do, but I also dive solo, have a sidekick and inspiration, and I don't hate diving on air. The clubcompressor gives here 7*24 hours air, just air, and I have to drive 1.5 hour to get oxygen. Also abroad where you cannot get nitrox fills, then I will use air.
And I still have a normal bcd for a single tank.
And am I a cmas diver, padi diver, ssi diver, tdi diver or iantd diver as I have cards from a lot of agencies?This means why I am a real DIR diver, Doing It Relaxed. Diving must be fun and as long as it is safe for the dive you want to do, I don't care if someone uses a longhose or not in open water. There are still no stats that proof that some agencies have less accidents and incidents than others.
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