tombiowami once bubbled...
I have only been diving a year, but have enought experience to answer your question about what is lacking in the basic OW classes by the current orgs.
A basic failure to force students to learn and execute skills hovering in good/perfect buoyancy/trim.
I learned the skills on my knees, on a platform.
The focus of the DIR Fund class is really just getting people to learn how to hover with little motion.
Tommy
How about this?
Because a DIRF course may be a good thing for most any diver, doesn't mean that the programs provided by all other training agencies are a bad thing for all divers.
Simply put, existing agency training ain't broke for all divers. No, i repeat NO divers come out of our OW class without a very good grasp of buoyancy skills. They don't get their c-card without those minimum buoyancy skills. Same goes for other skills that are SUPPOSE to be taught and displayed by the student to show proficency in that skill.
For the most part it is not the agencies, who set the standards, who drop the ball. It's the individual instructor who doesn't demand that the student meet the skill level intented or the student who a year later has never practiced the skills they learned to become more proficent and off they head to Coz.
I've said this before and i agree with psionicdfw, OW divers should be droppin like flies if OW training is as screwed up as some of you say. I'm in full agreement that DIRF is great ADVANCED training for any diver to take if they so desire but do not believe it is needed to be safe diver in many senarios. No statistical model of anything is absolute yet we have to hang our hats on something. How many stop signs do you think are run each year without incident or report? For what they are, statistics don't lie. Diving accident occurence of 0.00004 or less is really pretty amazing considering all the things that can go wrong in all possible senarios.
Do i take this to mean everything is perfect with existing agencies training programs? Certainly not! No program is perfect and can always be improved through experience and innovation. One thing i would change would be to make c-cards expire and require re-training or basic skills evaluation every two years or so to keep the plastic good for air.
I liked LY's starting post for this thread but took it for what it is and what i think he ment it to be. His opinion and what he has worked out for himself. From what i've read & heard about DIRF, it is a good thing to consider but IMO it is not the holy grail of diving. Again, agreeing with psionicdfw here, decide for yourself what is right for you. GUE is not your only choice if your serious about being a safe diver.
