chazpraz
Registered
I am returning to recreational diving after a 15+ year hiatus.
The date of my certification is 1967 (I was 15) and there were no certifying agencies, just the individual dive shops. A little later, NASDS came on the scene here in Kansas City and we all took a quick refresher and got the new card (still cardboard at the time). I dove with a local rescue group (Lees Summit Underwater Recovery) that we formed so we could dive in local lakes on our montly training dives in addition to providing an otherwise unavailable service to the community.
After moving to Houston, I started taking trips to "real" scuba venues like Cozumel and Cayman (learned what "visibility" really meant). The hook was firmly set.
Last fall I went to Cozumel with a local dive group and I'm still processing some of the changes that have taken place in the years I've sat out. The biggest change is in the popularization of diving. It reminds me of snow skiing in the 70-80's. So many more people are able to take up diving. It's like freeway driving and the percentage of undertrained and over-equipped divers is a bit unnerving. In the 80's, it seemed that there was one or two nervous newbies on a boat of 20 divers. We usually identified them by their shinny new "stuff" (what is that thing?). Since they were the minority, they received lots of attention from all of us and their progress over a few days was substantial.
More recently, the percentages have reversed. Now it seems that the two in twenty that are noticed are the dinosaurs that don't have the quackers, blinkers and da-glow pouches. However, I have noticed (in my non-color coordinated fashion) that better than half of the divers on the boat have a nervousness about them that isn't anticipation but apprehension. The dives have the thread of this nervousness as the groups of 6 or 8 gather in clumps and change direction often.
It also seems that a 5 minute safety stop has replaced a reasonable (my term) surface interval. I don't think its a reasonable trade off but I'm still trying to gather data about this.
It's interesting to see the cowboys of old have been replaced with new equipment and classroom junkies. I'm sure that most of the classes and new products have enhanced the sport but I don't think the industry or the instructors quite see how much of a distraction they can be.
It's evident from reading the threads of scubaboard that there are still lots of well-trained, experienced divers out there looking out for their brethren. It gives me hope that the sport still has promise. There really are divers who seem to get "it". The basics of dive safety are a bit more difficult to see but it's good to know that they're out there.
I think it's time for me to take a basic course again (or audit one) to get back to the present and better understand my future dive partners better.
Sorry about the long post but I have to add my "worst and best" about diving today. The best is I don't have to waste my batteries in my dive light on night dives as everyone else in the group have so much light I don't have to turn mine on. The worst is that, with so many lights and noisemakers (or whatever those new attention-getters) are called, a night dive is like being abducted by alien ducks.
Glad to be back.
cp
The date of my certification is 1967 (I was 15) and there were no certifying agencies, just the individual dive shops. A little later, NASDS came on the scene here in Kansas City and we all took a quick refresher and got the new card (still cardboard at the time). I dove with a local rescue group (Lees Summit Underwater Recovery) that we formed so we could dive in local lakes on our montly training dives in addition to providing an otherwise unavailable service to the community.
After moving to Houston, I started taking trips to "real" scuba venues like Cozumel and Cayman (learned what "visibility" really meant). The hook was firmly set.
Last fall I went to Cozumel with a local dive group and I'm still processing some of the changes that have taken place in the years I've sat out. The biggest change is in the popularization of diving. It reminds me of snow skiing in the 70-80's. So many more people are able to take up diving. It's like freeway driving and the percentage of undertrained and over-equipped divers is a bit unnerving. In the 80's, it seemed that there was one or two nervous newbies on a boat of 20 divers. We usually identified them by their shinny new "stuff" (what is that thing?). Since they were the minority, they received lots of attention from all of us and their progress over a few days was substantial.
More recently, the percentages have reversed. Now it seems that the two in twenty that are noticed are the dinosaurs that don't have the quackers, blinkers and da-glow pouches. However, I have noticed (in my non-color coordinated fashion) that better than half of the divers on the boat have a nervousness about them that isn't anticipation but apprehension. The dives have the thread of this nervousness as the groups of 6 or 8 gather in clumps and change direction often.
It also seems that a 5 minute safety stop has replaced a reasonable (my term) surface interval. I don't think its a reasonable trade off but I'm still trying to gather data about this.
It's interesting to see the cowboys of old have been replaced with new equipment and classroom junkies. I'm sure that most of the classes and new products have enhanced the sport but I don't think the industry or the instructors quite see how much of a distraction they can be.
It's evident from reading the threads of scubaboard that there are still lots of well-trained, experienced divers out there looking out for their brethren. It gives me hope that the sport still has promise. There really are divers who seem to get "it". The basics of dive safety are a bit more difficult to see but it's good to know that they're out there.
I think it's time for me to take a basic course again (or audit one) to get back to the present and better understand my future dive partners better.
Sorry about the long post but I have to add my "worst and best" about diving today. The best is I don't have to waste my batteries in my dive light on night dives as everyone else in the group have so much light I don't have to turn mine on. The worst is that, with so many lights and noisemakers (or whatever those new attention-getters) are called, a night dive is like being abducted by alien ducks.
Glad to be back.
cp
