Scubado, finally, we have a post which describes a truly dangerous situation. The business about the tables, NITROX and drysuit was pretty bad.
Blacknet thinks that complaining to a cert agency will have some effect? Yes, the agency will probably give the offending instructor an "attaboy".
By way of background, I started diving before SCUBA certification was available. There were a few fellows at the YMCA and LA County who were pushing to form "agencies" but that's about it. In my teenage years, I knew approximately 15 divers besides myself. None had taken a course or even heard of such a thing. Many years later, I took a basic course, an instructor course and subsequently taught for a while.
The early instructors were an idealistic lot. They often learned instructional skills by teaching informally at dive clubs and training in the military. The majority were self taught from books and from personal experience. Some had backgrounds in physics, engineering or medicine.
These folks were extremely idealistic and believed in their responsibilities. Diving equipment was rudimentary; there were no BCD's or any of the sophisticated ancilliary equipment taken for granted today. Their approach to proficiency and safety had to do with physical fitness, strenuous drills of water proficiency, various rules and gas theory. A diving class had a certain bootcamp feel. It did not have much to do with selling dive gear, hardly at all.
By the early 70's, there emerged a certification agency which took an entirely different approach. Instead of idealism, it was based on commercialism and profits. This was the NASDS which was controlled by Scubapro. Eventually, for competitive reasons, this incestuous relationship was adopted by others such as PADI/USD and the curtain between teaching and sales was torn away, never to return. Meanwhile, at least as far as I could determine, course instruction was still responsible however much the hidden agenda. It was different though; to pass through as many as possible, the physical requirements demanded by some agencies were drastically reduced. The technicals or science background remained intact. Course tutorials still included considerable water work but the emphasis was changing to include new equipment now available on the market. Instructors were pressured to sell this equipment.
The experiences related by scubado are the most egregious I have heard of. Competition has been increasing and it's still hard to turn a profit at a dive shop. More than that, I don't know.
Being a maverick who has his own compressor and boat I don't hang around dive shops or even know many other divers. That is, unless you want to count the old timers such as those mentioned in Carlos Eyles book and the film "Blue Water Hunters". So, you could say I'm "out of it". Partly, for that reason, I've been having a good time reading this board and hearing about the regimentation of diving and the path that commercialism has taken in lockstep with certain "authorities". I'm putting the pieces together one might say.
The whole idea of independent agencies was to teach, and later, to forestall regulation. There were (and are) good reasons for their existence. However, as deregulation of the airlines, etc has produced some unintended results, so has our original plan. The upshot is that there probably is no agency board or ombudsman with a portfolio of the sort that blacknet refers to. Does anybody know anything different? That is, is there any legitimate self policing of the agencies/industry?
Getting answers from insiders to questions of a controversial nature is difficult at best. My experience has been that everything is fine and "we've never had a complaint"
That's really, really sad. I've already decided that I'm going to be an instructor soon, but I will not work at a dive shop. I'm going to be an instructor only because I want to be a better diver. I'll teach my friends, and my friends will (hopefully) recommend me to others. I intend on providing a real education to my students, because what I really want are dive buddies!
