Chasing paper? Or competence?

[victorzamora]

There are people in places that don't have access to highly skilled and motivated amateurs that are willing to donate their time for th cause. What you're talking about is a "mentorship" thing, which has been mentioned before. However, not all of us have access to mentors. Also, mentors are only "allowed" to teach within your certification limits. Want to go deeper? Gotta get a pro. Want Nitrox? Gotta get a pro. Cave? Pro. Deco? Pro. Backfinning? Mentor....or Pro if you don't have one.

I truly don't believe that *most* instructors are worth paying for in terms of quality of training, but have stumbled across a few REALLY good ones.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

The original post here strike me as being alot like the guy who wants to learn how to turn on the airplane, fly in a circle, and then do a landing. You can pay a few dollars, and with an instructor pilot, go that, but thereafter you are not going to do is on your own, unless you go through pilot training to the point of being licensed. I think the same attitude should be taken with any level of decompression diving. Learn and train for all contingencies. If you stay "simple" in your diving, fine. It's still better to know the theory, the safety, and the process for such dives. Frankly, you can learn a lot about diving other than in a classs. Diving with others who have the knowedlge and skills you don't will stretch your limits and then expand them. But when you gert into technical and deco stuff, do you really want to be exposed just to the bare minimum, or to a casual experience? I would not follow that path.
DIvemasterDennis