Challenging a specialty

[Thalassamania]

Slamfire: UBC Diving Safety Program maybe?

 

[rescue15]

I didn't start this thread to provoke arguments. name calling or finger pointing. I really wanted to try to get an answer to the question I posted. With that said...

What OP 'Mr DIY Dive God' lacks though, is the formal training and reaction conditioning to get his ass out of trouble should something go wrong...and you don't learn that from 'getting by' on perfect dives.

Devon diver... Hi, Mr DIY Dive god here...You obviously have many opinions. You don't know me and you shouldn't criticise what you don't know. Part of being a good diver is being able to NOT get yourself into trouble. If you don't put yourself in a bad position you won't have to "get your ass out of trouble". True, you can't predict catastrophic equippment failure but you can plan for it, simulate and practice for it, and deal with it. You have obvoiusly not dove in the North Atlantic. If you have, you would know there is seldom a perfect dive.

I have found that people who say "I won't dive with anyone that doesn't have XYZ card" usually has deficiencies that they don't want to be discovered.

Like Thassalmania, I have been in the room at the initial discussions of "tech diving". I am not a writer, a scientist, or anything else. I dive. In my carreer I live in an environment that like water, will cause you to suffocate if you have an equipment malfunction. I make my living saving the life of those who can't save their own. I know what a plastic card is worth...nothing. It is all experience and if experience is not valid, then I guess the first divers of the Doria should be dead - they obviously didn't know what they were doing, they couldn't have they didn't have tech cards.

Steve

 

[rescue15]

I decided that I should get some training. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to get a refresher after being out of the game for so long. I was OW certified in Jan 2008. Frankly, I was largely disenchanted with the course. It was way too watered down and missed what I considered crucially important basic training elements (e.g. panic management/avoidance, basic decompression tables, etc). Without much effort I got perfect scores in written tests and skills tests. I learned nothing new. Surely there must be something better, so I took AOW. Same story.

Thanks Slamfire, You can understand what you read too.

Amen!

Steve