Before you take your open water course

[Thalassamania]

You know you'll get a detailed critique from me.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You do not need advice on what to include until we see it. How can we critique(NOT CRITICIZE) what we do not have access to. You have to realize that there are a number of instructors out there who DO NOT WANT students to be exposed to information that they themselves do not provide. I was told I did not need a long hose, or doubles, or a cannister light. Of course the person who told me that did not sell those things in his shop. He also did not know what GUE was, or that NAUI had a tech program. Worse was he did not care what they were. He could not teach them-they were not important. If you come up with things that are way out in left field we'll tell you. It does not however mean that they are wrong unless safety is compromised. They may just be too much for some people. THere is now an OW class that costs 1200 bucks. Very limited as to who can teach it and probably more limited as to those who will take it. For now. But what may seem as overkill to some is to others what they should be learning. My classes are nothing like the one I was taught. As an instructor, no wrong word, as an educator, I have to pass on the knowledge. Not let my students get it on their own from a book and a video. My classes include things that I did not learn until rescue and some that I did not learn until I went tech( like how to determine a deco obligation on the fly)! But to me I think it's what should be taught. Repost the site. I'll even provide a link from my website to it.

 

[Sas]

Wow, I'm really glad that some people are so supportive. I erased the site because a bunch of instructors were pretty much telling me that I was a hack. Until you guys commented I was beginning to think about not coming back here at all. If some of you more experienced guys want to provide me with some input, I'd be happy to recreate it. I still have the physical standards written down in my notes, and the rest was pretty much exercises from New Science and Basic Scuba but modernized. Maybe we can solidify something together, I could do the leg work for us when I'm not swamped with Joyce or Woolf. Maybe some of Thal's formalized snorkel training would be in order as well. I'm not trying to to be too big for my proverbial dive britches.

Ok, I am not commenting on your website at all as I never saw it. Moving on: If people disagree with you strongly, even going as far as call you names, that is not a reason to hide your opinion If you are going to post your opinion publically though you have to develop a thick skin and not run at the first sign of disagreement at your idea. I think disagreements are always interesting and provide a greater learning experience (as long as things stay respectful and doesn't resort to things like name calling) than when everyone agrees. If I post an opinion I would hope that others would point out any flaws they see in it so I can either respond that I still think I am right or that I have changed my mind or that I think it warrants further thinking about things. Sometimes I find gaps in knowledge that I have or that I am flat out wrong but I would never have discovered that if I didn't voice my opinion in the first place. So I think you should put your website back, ignore the haters and welcome criticism as well as praise.

Anyway, it is never nice to have people knock your ideas so it can be hard not to take things personally when someone disagrees with your idea. But try to remember how tone doesn't come across well online and also that when people criticise your ideas they are not necessarily criticising you as a person.

I hope the site returns soon

 

[Slonda828]

Ok, I am not commenting on your website at all as I never saw it. Moving on: If people disagree with you strongly, even going as far as call you names, that is not a reason to hide your opinion If you are going to post your opinion publically though you have to develop a thick skin and not run at the first sign of disagreement at your idea. I think disagreements are always interesting and provide a greater learning experience (as long as things stay respectful and doesn't resort to things like name calling) than when everyone agrees. If I post an opinion I would hope that others would point out any flaws they see in it so I can either respond that I still think I am right or that I have changed my mind or that I think it warrants further thinking about things. Sometimes I find gaps in knowledge that I have or that I am flat out wrong but I would never have discovered that if I didn't voice my opinion in the first place. So I think you should put your website back, ignore the haters and welcome criticism as well as praise.

Anyway, it is never nice to have people knock your ideas so it can be hard not to take things personally when someone disagrees with your idea. But try to remember how tone doesn't come across well online and also that when people criticise your ideas they are not necessarily criticising you as a person.

I hope the site returns soon

Thanks. I am a big boy, and people usually don't bother me. But accusations about me trying to imply I was an instructor and various other comments just made me feel like it would be in everyone's best interest to take it down.

Of course, I also realize that just because you are a certfied scuba instructor does not make you an intelligent person automatically. I just got tired of being bothered I guess. It's hard to defend yourself when someone says that you simply are not qualified to have an opinion. It is nice that you are being supportive though, I've read many of your comments and (in my OPINION ) I think you're a pretty savvy person.

 

[seaducer]

Thanks. I am a big boy, and people usually don't bother me. But accusations about me trying to imply I was an instructor and various other comments just made me feel like it would be in everyone's best interest to take it down.

You do not need to be an instructor to have an opinion on training. In fact, you don't need to be an instructor to have some pretty darn good ideas to help people in training. So long as you state up front that you are not an instructor then really, you aren't doing anything wrong. Be honest about standards, who you are, and why you feel the way you do, and you readers will be able to make their own choices...

 

[NudeDiver]

If I post an opinion about space travel, should I include a disclaimer that I am not an astronaut?

 

[seaducer]

If I post an opinion about space travel, should I include a disclaimer that I am not an astronaut?

No, that much is obvious

 

[NudeDiver]

No, that much is obvious

But, but...my 8th grade math teacher called me a "space cadet" !!

But in all seriousness - I'd never assume that someone is a scuba instructor, no matter what they said or wrote. If someone is willing to make such assumptions, based off what some guy writes on his website - well, maybe they should suffer whatever the consequences may result from those assumptions.

Even if the guy indicates he is the world's foremost expert in scuba training and super master awesome instructor of all instructors - one should still evaluate the contents of the website with a skeptical eye and verify or validate the information through other sources. If they don't - well, again, maybe they should suffer the consequences for their failure to perform due diligence.

 

[Slonda828]

I thought maybe I would start out small, so I posted my original grad school portion of the site relating to swimming skills. I removed the college specific parts about androgogy and all the stuff that was not relevant. Feel free to check it out, comment, etc. The new site address (I had to kill my old one due to the volume of hate mail) is here:

Scuba Tips.

Let's do the time warp again

 

[Sas]

I thought maybe I would start out small, so I posted my original grad school portion of the site relating to swimming skills. I removed the college specific parts about androgogy and all the stuff that was not relevant. Feel free to check it out, comment, etc. The new site address (I had to kill my old one due to the volume of hate mail) is here:

Scuba Tips.

Let's do the time warp again

Thank you for putting the information back up. I have a few comments about the site:

This skill here is unclear to me "-Be able to survive in the water for 30 minutes.". Do you mean treading water? That was my first guess but to me it should be more specific about the skill.

Also I don't know whether you have any interest or time to expand on it, but you mentioned earlier about snorkelling tips. I am a strong swimmer but have never snorkelled before (well a few times in scuba classes but don't consider this much experience at all) So if you have any tips to add for snorkelling, I think that would be an improvement to the site as well too

Another thing I thought is that a training schedule might be nice. The site has the skills listed but not how to achieve them. Again this might be outside the scope of what you were trying to achieve but just thought it would be handy.

Now I have seen it, I fail to get why there was a fuss in the first place. The skills seem reasonable to me!