Dispelling scubaboard myths (Part 1: It is the instructor not the agency)

[stuartv]

There are 2 articles that I use regularly in my classes and when I discuss issues within the dive industry. One is no longer online and I'm not sure how long the other will remain so I have a copy of them backed up with the sources identified. Please read them:

Dive Training Magazine: July 2012 | Editorials: Addressing the Issue of Diver Competence | Text by Alex Brylske

Diver Magazine: January 21, 2014 | Dive Training Today: A Perspective | Text by Bret Gilliam

I can't agree completely with that first article. It concludes with this:

In the final analysis, the argument about whether divers are more or less competent today than in the past can go on forever unless you establish some criterion for measurement. I've always liked the one criterion that nobody can fudge or misinterpret -- death. How many divers die while diving today versus years ago?

After already mentioning how much better the equipment is today, it is hard to fathom how the author can go on to draw some connection between death rate and diver competence. There are less deaths today, but is that really because divers are more competent? I don't see how you can make any kind of connection like that. I suspect many would argue the opposite - that diver competence is lower, but better equipment and an industry that has evolved to make hand-holding a normal and expected experience has overbalanced the competence factor and that those things are why the death rate is lower.

Regarding the second article:

What agency awards (or did award) a "Master" certification in as little as 25 dives?

What agency does or did allow someone to be certified as an instructor with only 40 dives?

Just curious about those.

The author said:

The industry would benefit greatly by producing a more complete training package that truly qualifies people with the skills and confidence that keeps them in the sport.

I think the training is out there. It's just broken down into multiple steps instead of one monolithic course, and people are not required to do it all if they don't want to.

And the author talks extensively about online equipment sales and destination equipment package rentals and how those are hurting local shops. His discussion is predicated on the notion that this somehow needs to be "fixed". Sorry. That's evolution. Businesses that "worked" by selling gear with a large profit margin need to change. It's a fact of modern life. Dive shops are going to succeed (or fail) based on the quality of service and the perceived value of the experiences that they offer their customers. Yes, they will really have to *work* for a living, not just put out a smorgasbord of gear and live off the profits made from customers who don't really have much other choice. The shop where I DM offers (I believe) the lowest prices in this area for OW training. And, my shop owner has told me that training is a profit center for the shop - not a loss leader. So, it IS possible.

The author of that article says he's a 42-year veteran of the scuba industry and it shows. His ideas seem firmly rooted in "the good old days" with some idea that we should try to return to that. And that notion is being crushed on a daily basis by Reality.

Personally, I don't see nearly the problem with "retention" that some people do. It seems to me that the people who really are bothered by "retention" are failing to grasp the difference between the divers from the old days and the "divers" of today. Diving used to require a serious commitment to even get started. Of course the people who were committed enough to getting that first certification were going to stick with it at a fairly high rate. Today, getting started in diving does not require remotely the level of commitment to the sport that it used to. Does that mean that the people who match the commitment levels of Divers Of Yore are exhibiting a lower retention rate? I doubt it. It just means that there are a lot MORE people - many with a much lower level of commitment, as compared to the Divers Of Yore - taking the first step into scuba. There are a lot more people, with a much lower level of commitment, completing their first certification than in Ye Olde Days. New Divers are simply different, as a group, than Divers Of Yore. So, it would be naive of us to expect New Divers to exhibit similar behaviors - including retention rates - to the Divers of Yore. The industry is different now. New Divers are different. Rather than try to mold the industry into some semblance of the shape it used to have, we need to recognize that it is different, that it has lower fatality rates, that it is more accessible to people of all ages and walks of life, and learn from the successes and the failures to continue to evolve it and make it even more popular and safer.

 

[diverintheflesh]

StuartV

Thank you for thurough and thought out answers. It's fantastic when another can share insights and perspective different of othets without flaming, bashing, or harassment. Cheers, --carlos

If I can ask a little about your DM experience. Your answers are well thought out and cogent, far more detailed than what I've seen where I live.

What certification agency are you credentialed in?

What tasks do you help the instructors with?

Since the goal (after avoiding death) is to avoid decompression sickness, in your opinion, what's the best way to prevent decompression sickness?

Thanks,



--carlos

 

[Wookie]

Since the goal (after avoiding death) is to avoid decompression sickness, in your opinion, what's the best way to prevent decompression sickness?

Really? That's the goals? I dive completely differently. I do not actively manage either of those goals. I figure a well trained competent diver who understands his/her limits manages those inactively, just by the habits they have acquired over their time diving. I also do not actively drive to avoid accidents, although I haven't had one since I was 16, but I get it. My wife does actively seek to avoid accidents in the car, and she hasn't had one since she was 20 either.

 

[boulderjohn]

After several years of teaching Band I can honestly say I was a far better teacher than when I started--but would definitely have failed a test requiring me to write technically proper counterpoint like when in music college

I had a brilliant student in high school (graduated two years early and went to Yale early admission), and he wrote a complex paper that included an equation he had developed for himself using calculus. I went to our high school math department to have it checked out. The calculus teacher was out that day, and not a single math teacher could remember enough calculus to help me. Fortunately, there was a student teacher around, and they called him in to have a look. It was all good.

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't see how you can make any kind of connection like that. I suspect many would argue the opposite - that diver competence is lower, but better equipment and an industry that has evolved to make hand-holding a normal and expected experience has overbalanced the competence factor and that those things are why the death rate is lower.

This History of NAUI was co-written by Al Tillman, NAUI co-founder and instructor #1. In it, he offers the opinion that the average OW student leaving class today (or rather in the day that history was written) is a better diver than were the instructors who formed NAUI in 1960.

 

[Adam Grose]

<SNIP>

I want to add too, that you can interview shops, and instructors in seeking out your training.
.

True, you CAN.... most people don't know to do so, or just don't think about it.

Adam

 

[diverintheflesh]

Really? That's the goals? I dive completely differently. I do not actively manage either of those goals. I figure a well trained competent diver who understands his/her limits manages those inactively, just by the habits they have acquired over their time diving. I also do not actively drive to avoid accidents, although I haven't had one since I was 16, but I get it. My wife does actively seek to avoid accidents in the car, and she hasn't had one since she was 20 either.

I understand what you're saying, and for the experienced diver AND driver, that is a given, but the new diver won't get there if they get hurt or die, and that's why I ask.

There are other underlying factors I push for as well -- enjoyment. I want to have fun diving and I want my students to have fun, but their health and well-being and coming home to loved ones is as important to me, if not more... cheers, --carlos

 

[Wookie]

This History of NAUI was co-written by Al Tillman, NAUI co-founder and instructor #1. In it, he offers the opinion that the average OW student leaving class today (or rather in the day that history was written) is a better diver than were the instructors who formed NAUI in 1960.

There is a lot to be said for standardized teaching methods using what all those NAUI instructors know would work and what didn't.

 

[stuartv]

Thank you for thurough and thought out answers. It's fantastic when another can share insights and perspective different of othets without flaming, bashing, or harassment. Cheers, --carlos

If I can ask a little about your DM experience. Your answers are well thought out and cogent, far more detailed than what I've seen where I live.

What certification agency are you credentialed in?

What tasks do you help the instructors with?

Since the goal (after avoiding death) is to avoid decompression sickness, in your opinion, what's the best way to prevent decompression sickness?

Thanks,



--carlos

HI Carlos,

I have been diving for (only) almost 3 years. I only completely DM training and got my DM cert 3 months ago. My DM cert is from SDI.

SDI Divemasters are more limited than, for example, PADI DMs in what we are allowed to do. So, I mostly help the instructors by babysitting students when the instructor needs to split the group and have 1 or 2 doing skills while the other wait. And, out of the water, I help with logistics and with making sure the students do things like assemble their scuba unit correctly. Also, I am doing my IDC now, to become an instructor. So, I expect to start giving some of the presentations and demonstrations soon - under direct instructor supervision, of course.

I don't mean to be flippant, but my opinion of the best way to prevent decompression sickness is to always do enough decompression. Peeking under the covers of that statement yields a much longer discussion than I can get into right now. Plus, I don't really feel qualified at this point to say what is the best way to ensure an OW student always in the future does enough decompression (as that is how I interpret your question). I feel like I am still very much on a steep learning curve to understand the meaningful answers to that question.

 

[stuartv]

This History of NAUI was co-written by Al Tillman, NAUI co-founder and instructor #1. In it, he offers the opinion that the average OW student leaving class today (or rather in the day that history was written) is a better diver than were the instructors who formed NAUI in 1960.

And what is YOUR opinion on the competence of the average current OW grad as compared to the average freshly minted diver that came out of NAUI training in, say, the 70s?