couv:
Hello All,
However, I have two boys who will be learning to dive in the next 4 or 5 years which makes me wonder if there is an entry level to DIR or does one have to complete a conventional scuba class first.
Thank you,
couv
Couv,
A couple of comments in response to your question. In the interest of full disclosure since you are new to this forum, I am a GUE instructor and I was involved in setting up the OW program, so it would be natural to assume I'm somewhat biased in that regard, but with that in mind please accept these comments:
1) Part of our motivation in setting up the OW course was to provide the industry with an additional choice. More often then not you'll hear from other agencies that the students want shorter, more relaxed classes. That has lead way to ideas such as remote learning, wherein the student need never meet with an instructor for the academic portion of the class, all academics can be done via internet and/or telephone. Many of the agencies have gone the route of reduced skills included in OW, and/or increased student to instructor ratio's, this has given weight to the idea(s) such as having all students on their knees for the skill demonstration, or liberal interpretations of "mastering" the skill;
2) Some agencies have all but conceeded the point that education is a loss leader for shops and began to promote ideas such as 2 for 1 training, meaning 2 students could get certified for $99. By encouraging this mentality, the idea was that the shops could get 2 sales of mask, fins, snorkel et.al. and the agency would get 2 certification fees, but what did that do to the quality of education, the motivation of the instructor or the idea that the underlying training has intrinsict value?;
3) Tobin, and others, have suggested GUE trained divers that are instructors for other agencies as an option. While for certain I''m not suggesting that there aren't quality instructors at other agencies, as there are many excellent instructors available, but you must consider that some agencies preclude the instructor from exceeding their standards, so in many respects even the most excellent of instructors are limited to the standards setforth by the agency. So if that means 4 dives, then so be it ( presuming of course the student satisfies the requirements ), or if that means that doing a skill on your knees is allowable, then so be it. Naturally there is an infinite amount of examples I could provide, but I hope you see the point. However, GUE standards codify the notion that instructors are encouraged to exceed standards, and I would advance the position that GUE standards far exceed any other agencies standards from the outset. BTW, GUE is the only agency I'm aware of that publishes our standards on the internet for everyone to see,
www.gue.com;
4) I believe our program will produce more competent and qualified divers, but I suspect others will argue otherwise this subjective ideology. Moreover, I would suggest to you, and others, that the single most fundamental issue I have seen during the many DIR-F classes I have taught was that the fundamental teaching principle of the law of primacy had been significantly compromised at the OW level. All too many of my former students lacked the value and appreciation for things such as neutral bouyancy. It's hard to appreciate the need to be neutrally bouyant after basic OW class when the vast majority of your skill demonstration was done on your knees.
In the final analysis, one of Jarrod's primary motivations for moving forward with an OW program was to provide an option and a path for those that didn't want bifrucated or truncated training, but for those that wanted the option for a more complete and somewhat more demanding training paradigm. We believe that many of the agencies view themselves as a gateway to diving and strive to be as ultra-inclusive as possible, despite what that may mean to the quality of instruction. One major agency was quoted on their website as saying that they issued 966,000 certification in one calender year, at $30 per cert that translates into roughly $29,000,000 of annual revenue simply for issuing certification cards. Now couple that with a crew pak per student at ~$55 per and that is another $53,100,000 of revenue, so you start seeing the financial incentive at getting more and more students into more and more classes, so bifrucating the training starts to make financial sense. Why teach a rigorous OW class when you can teach a less complex OW class and promote con-ed for the AOW and sell 2 certifications cards and 2 crew-paks?? By way of comparison, GUE issued less then 3,000 certifications last year, so you can certainly see that our motivation is not financial as we are non-for-profit whereas other agencies are privately held, for-profit agencies.
Hope that provides a bit of insight as to our motivation at setting up the OW program and what we hope to accomplish with it. Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards
