"Correct Weighting" Identified as #1 Needed Improvement in SCUBA Diving

[tilikum]

So maybe the barrier to entry to scuba needs to be so strict that only the elite or wealthy can participate.

 

[The Chairman]

So maybe the barrier to entry to scuba needs to be so strict that only the elite or wealthy can participate.

I was thinking the very same thing.

Respect, I don't always get it, but I always give it.

 

[boulderjohn]

Maybe if we had to pass a rigorous selection like BUDS to get a C-card, all of the agency bashing and personal attacks would be replaced by mutual respect and people would be drawn to the tribe rather than get fed up and take up another activity within 5 years.

If we made the standards so rigorous that only 12 people could pass the OW course, then those 12 people would respect each other, provided they ever met.

For most of the scuba diving world, such rigorous standards are not remotely necessary--why keep them out of the water?

 

[Bob DBF]

So maybe the barrier to entry to scuba needs to be so strict that only the elite or wealthy can participate.

Seems like that to me already, especially the wealthy part.

 

[soggybadger]

@soggybadger : Via PM, I've tried multiple times to get clarification on where I have used a lot of big words out of context.


It's been a week now with no response. Does this lack of response simply mean that your comment was a diversion to justify your publicly labeling me as "ignorante" [SIC]? If so, I don't appreciate it. Others may find it offensive as well.

If I have, in fact, made errors using words out of context, and especially in any articles I have written, I'd like to have the opportunity to correct the mistake. We can never avoid all mistakes, be we can always strive to do better. For example, you should spell ignorant without the extra 'e' unless you are writing in the spanish language.

Sorry for the spelling error. Predicta text and all that. It didn't seem to like me typing bellend.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I always find it funny that that if you mention any physical training associated with diving you get branded as an elitist. Yet, DAN tells us to exercise and runs articles about fitness in just about every issue of Alert Diver. If you ask your average family physician about an exercise program you can almost bet they'll suggest swimming. The PDIC OW training I had was so much fun and looked the same as a US Navy training video.

I am one of the poorest guys you'll meet. I grew up in an upper middle class home, but unfortunately, I developed a passion for diving at a young age and grew up at PDIC HQ when it was in Pennsylvania. With the exception of my first set of scuba gear my parents bought me as a kid all my gear, trips, courses, etc., were funded by lifeguard, DM and instructor jobs with occasional short-term side gigs in farming, ranching, lumber, construction, and writing.

But, this made a huge difference in my diving evolution. When others could afford to go deep and the tech craze hit. I was freediving way before it became popular in the USA. I'd teach recreational diving and venture deep solo freediving alone. We now know how risky that is today.

When I became a cave diver, I couldn't just buy a scooter or rebreather. I had to learn to swim in caves. While everyone else seemed to do Ginnie in drysuits, steel tanks, and scooters, I found out that wearing a 3mm, getting rid of everything you do not 100% need, and actually working on fin strokes the same way I'd have to do it on swim team made for success. Now, I can swim high flow without touching or pull and glide without evidence left on rocks or my fingers.

What I enjoyed most in the past 35 years was the inward exploration of self and turning the body into a diving machine as much as the outward exploration. I think divers are being told the orgasm is everything and foreplay is too much work.

 

[The Chairman]

I always find it funny that that if you mention any physical training associated with diving you get branded as an elitist.

Not from me. I need physical training, but I don't think you need to be a stellar athlete to scuba dive or even cave dive.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

How did we move from "physical training" to "stellar athlete?" And, why does John think only 12 people would pass? Even 20 - 30% of SEAL candidates make it. We wouldn't have to create a 70% attrition rate, but it would be nice if we could create a GUE style sense of accomplishment in scuba across the board.

@SeaCobra ... you know what to do.

 

[tilikum]

I have long contended the world needs fewer divers, not more. We are the problem, not the solution. It's like some of the heavily hiked trails where I live that are showing signs of deterioration and may possibly be closed this summer. Popularity of an activity is not necessarily a good thing.

 

[The Chairman]

How did we move from "physical training" to "stellar athlete?"

You said "elite". That speaks of being a "stellar athlete" to me. Like I said, I think physical training is important, but I think that most people, whatever their physical state, can scuba dive. In fact, anything to get them out of the house is a good thing.