DIR-F Changes

[sheck33]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


That's just the problem. I can't have the bar where I would like it and pay the rent and sell enough gear to keep the manufacturers happy. I just can't sell it to enough people for enough money. If I was happy with the students I was putting out the world would be great place and I would stay in business.

Good point. I don't think most divers want the high bar. If you want a lot of students the bar MUST come down. If your standards are going to be top notch you need to find the few who want to be top notch divers. Oh, and they'll have to be willing to pay for it. Hell if I could get $300 plus expenses for 4 dives with a student I would be halfway there. We have trouble getting $300 for a class that is MUCH longer, involves pool rental, travel, books, air fills and the use of my equipment. Do the math. Once you comprimise on time and cost you're forced to comprimise on content. Nobody, not even GUE can get around this.

why would you want lots of students? Make the class a little more expensive and teach the few divres that want to be top notch divers, the rest can go elsewhere......

 

[Uncle Pug]

sheck33 once bubbled...
the few divres that want to be top notch divers

Top notch divers?

or

The desire to be a top notch diver?

 

[sheck33]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...

Top notch divers?

or

The desire to be a top notch diver?

probably 'the desire to be top notch divers and working hard to get there'

 

[MikeFerrara]

sheck33 once bubbled...


why would you want lots of students? Make the class a little more expensive and teach the few divres that want to be top notch divers, the rest can go elsewhere......

In the case of GUE...the numbers of instructors are growing and the number of DIR shops are growing. These people are going to need to teach classes and sell gear like anybody else. Where are the student going to come from. A PADI OW card is worth about $250 around here and I don't care what kind of diving god is doing the teaching. What do you think a GUE OW class is worth? I'll tell you...$250. If you turn away the masses and only teach the few who seek a higher level of training you won't pay the rent.

You have to do more than charge a little more because if you rase the price by 10% your volume drops by 90%. Now if the volume only dropped by 10% it would be a wash. If the number of student drops that much what do you think that does to equipment sales? Without that you're dead.

Now once I close the shop and get out from under a few thousand in overhead every month I can do what I want. There will then only be two reasons to teach 1, being the fun of teaching a good student who wants to learn and 2, will be money. I mean real money. I'll only teach private or semi-private and a class will not be $250. Of course without thousands of dollars of bills every month It's ok if nobody wants to pay that much. With the shop and the overhead I need everyone who comes through the door BADLY.

The shop must go.

 

[The Chairman]

for human error?

and diver A stops at 15ft to do a 3 min 'safety stop' because his computer told him so. Meanwhile depriving the victim from oxygen for another 3 min or so.

The computer did not prevent his ascent... he chose to blindly follow instructions (whether by computor or person) and obviously did not understand them completely. Basic training is the issue, and not the use of computers. I have seen divers blow off their safety stop so that they would surface with 500 psi left in their tanks. Do we blame their SPG??? By no means... this is a training issue! Some DM on the boat said you HAD to surface with 500 psi and so they did. No need to get a smarter or dumber spg now is there? A computer is only a tool. It has no sentience to make ANY value judgements... this is and has always been the diver's job.

As for the bar... NAUI allows me to set the bar where I want it, and I like that. Ask any who have dove with my Scuba Ducks, and they will back me up on this. Expect the best and you will get the same.

 

[Uncle Pug]

will the choice become GUE OW ~or~ DIRf ....

will GUE OW teach to the standard of what is now the DIRf....

will DIRf be a remedial course for those rototillers cranked out by other $90 cert mills....

In any case I will no longer tell folks who want to know how to dive without a computer to take a DIRf.

That alone should make some of you jump for joy!

 

[Pez de Diablo]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
If GUE now teaches computer smart vs. computer dumb in the DIR F class it's probably because they feel they don't have time to get into the more advanced stuff. Nonetheless, I'm convinced that the goal is still to do away with the computer.

I did learn how to dive without a computer, that's what PADI taught me 8 years ago - no computer, plan your dive and dive your plan. That doesn't seem to advanced to me

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
To be honest, I don't care. I'll be the last guy decrying the computer crutch if that's what it takes. Computers are no good, learn to dive without them. Be it GUE, DIR or not!

Face facts, computers have there place, just not in a technical aspect.

I would hazard a guess that more people are diving within RDL because of computers compared to the days prior to dive computers. To me computers would make for safer diving.

 

[dad6b]

chrpai once bubbled...


Too bad most computers can't do that though. I know my Suunto Mosquito can't do a "what if" my S.I. was xxx then what would my NDL be for 60'? It'll tell me my NDL for 60' *now* but if I want to know when it will be XX I'll just have to wait until it is.

So you didn't make a very wise purchase. If you're going to get a computer to replace your tables you should make sure it can do everything your tables could.

As someone said, computer dumb vs computer smart.

Drew A. Dunn

 

[Uncle Pug]

Pez de Diablo once bubbled...
I did learn how to dive without a computer, that's what PADI taught me 8 years ago

Mulilevel computerless diving?

 

[sheck33]

NetDoc once bubbled...
for human error?

The computer did not prevent his ascent... he chose to blindly follow instructions (whether by computor or person) and obviously did not understand them completely. Basic training is the issue, and not the use of computers. I have seen divers blow off their safety stop so that they would surface with 500 psi left in their tanks. Do we blame their SPG??? By no means... this is a training issue! Some DM on the boat said you HAD to surface with 500 psi and so they did. No need to get a smarter or dumber spg now is there? A computer is only a tool. It has no sentience to make ANY value judgements... this is and has always been the diver's job.

As for the bar... NAUI allows me to set the bar where I want it, and I like that. Ask any who have dove with my Scuba Ducks, and they will back me up on this. Expect the best and you will get the same.

I was by no means 'blaming' the computer. Obviously the problem here was a computer dumb diver. I was just trying to give an example of computer dumb versus smart. Computers, and this is not just true in diving, are only as smart as their user.

simple pocket calculators are another good example, most people do not think about the results that appear on the screen.