Doing It Prejudiced

[BradfordNC]

(And all this time I've been just happily diving, making my mask leak from smiling too much...)

thats all that matters realy

lets hit the water and enjoy

 

[Foo]

thats all that matters realy

lets hit the water and enjoy

Let's do it! We get to go diving Friday, if my husband feels better! He hasn't felt real great since we returned home from Mexico...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm still waiting to see your DIR-F report Bob, your class has occured correct?

Oh ... it occurred all right.

Remember the time when I was learning how to DM, and David asked me to demonstrate a hover in the pool for a bunch of OW students? Something I could without a thought until I was called upon to do it in front of a critical eye ...

It went something like that ... :11:

The class is a lot of work ... fast-paced, task-loaded, and humbling. The real fun comes in the aftermath ... putting your self-image back together and reminding yourself that the objective is to have fun. But in fact, it's all good ... and the skills are starting to come together after 20-something post-class dives.

Actually lookin' forward to doing it again ... but I still don't care for Kool-Aid ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[cornfed]

So as I see it, I'm a stroke if I don my hot pink Dive Goddess skin

No, that makes you a rule 6 violation.

 

[surfratforlife]

Come on!!! Both of you!

Kim, you know smoking is terrible for your body and puts you at a greater risk when diving!

Don, you are an avid outspoken anti-smoker/diver.

We ALL know these things after reading this thread. Let me put it bluntly...

Kim QUIT SMOKING!!!

It will be one of the best things you can ever do for yourself. I smoked cigarettes AND pot for 15 years and have now been clean for over 5 years!! I finally quit after my mother had a lung removed (cancer) from smoking for 40 years and kept on smoking!!!!!!! She passed away in our kitchen (coughing up blood) in my fathers arms 3 months after the surgery, WITH A CIGARETTE IN HER HAND!!!!.

I will be the first to say I miss smoking EVERY day but it does get easier as time goes by. By the way, I have been diving for about 15 years and noticed a considerable difference in my air consumption (less) and post dive breathing (easier).

In short, I know how good it was to smoke but I now know how good it is not to smoke. It was a hard road to quit, I won't kid you, it took months and tons of kidding/jokes/peer pressure from my friends. in the end I finally found "The Nicitrol Inhaler" and that helped me through the hardest time (the habit of hand to mouth). Even now I take it one day at a time, every time I see someone smoking I remember.......

I also agree that GUE has the right to set it's own standards, requirements and expectations. If those disqualify you then you do what every american should do anyway and shop around for the organization that fits YOUR standards, requirements and expectations.

I hope you found what you are looking for as far as a training organization and as for the smoking..... well no-one can tell you to quit..... but you sound like an intelligent man and I'm sure whatever decision you make is the right one for you.

The people who love you will support you in whatever your decision may be.

 

[TCDiver1]

It's the other way around - smokers pay huge amounts of tax buying tobacco supposedly to pay for the extra health care and non-smokers tend to live longer and actually need that care.

In Michigan, our tax per pack went up to 2 bucks last week, second only to New Jersey. The tax hike was done to help pay for state budget shortfalls not healthcare for smoking issues.

Kim, like others have said, if you don't like their rules, use someone else for training. GUE has the right to require what they want of their students just like you have the right to smoke if you want to.

If you want GUE training bad enough, you will quit smoking for it. If you don't, you can train with someone else. Don't buy into the hype that GUE is the only safe way to get trained. There are plenty of other good options.

 

[Mako Mark]

Come on!!! Both of you!

Kim, you know smoking is terrible for your body and puts you at a greater risk when diving!

Don, you are an avid outspoken anti-smoker/diver.

We ALL know these things after reading this thread. Let me put it bluntly...

Kim QUIT SMOKING!!!

It will be one of the best things you can ever do for yourself. I smoked cigarettes AND pot for 15 years and have now been clean for over 5 years!! I finally quit after my mother had a lung removed (cancer) from smoking for 40 years and kept on smoking!!!!!!! She passed away in our kitchen (coughing up blood) in my fathers arms 3 months after the surgery, WITH A CIGARETTE IN HER HAND!!!!.

I will be the first to say I miss smoking EVERY day but it does get easier as time goes by. By the way, I have been diving for about 15 years and noticed a considerable difference in my air consumption (less) and post dive breathing (easier).

In short, I know how good it was to smoke but I now know how good it is not to smoke. It was a hard road to quit, I won't kid you, it took months and tons of kidding/jokes/peer pressure from my friends. in the end I finally found "The Nicitrol Inhaler" and that helped me through the hardest time (the habit of hand to mouth). Even now I take it one day at a time, every time I see someone smoking I remember.......

I also agree that GUE has the right to set it's own standards, requirements and expectations. If those disqualify you then you do what every american should do anyway and shop around for the organization that fits YOUR standards, requirements and expectations.

I hope you found what you are looking for as far as a training organization and as for the smoking..... well no-one can tell you to quit..... but you sound like an intelligent man and I'm sure whatever decision you make is the right one for you.

The people who love you will support you in whatever your decision may be.

That was a D*mn good post and about the most sensible and sensitive post I have read on this thread. thanks surfrat

 

[DWJ]

Now I have just found out that I am precluded from taking any GUE course at all - why? - BECAUSE I"M A SMOKER!

Did something change with GUE because if memory serves me, SeaJay wrote a great deal about his first DIR-F class and he clearly stated he was a smoker then.

Found it

http://www.scubaboard.com/t21342.html

so now you can't even take the course if your a smoker?

 

[RichLockyer]

His first class was prior to it becoming a certification-level class.
The application still had the same language on it, and smoking was forbidden, but they were not as tight on sticking to the rules in those days. Back then, one of the goals was to introduce the skills and experience to as many divers as possible... it fell under "don't ask, don't tell"

 

[Dan Gibson]

Interesting.... What about personal responsibility? If you are diving with a buddy, do you not think you have some responsibility to them? Like it or not, your smoking does put them at increased risk, however small that may be.

Just remember, diving like many other activities is not a right, it's a privelage. If you don't exercise responsibility, someday it could be taken away from you.

In another post indicating one is not a smoker when they actually are one is dishonest. GUE does opperate on an honor system. It only works when people play by the rules.

There seems to be a lot of "I" in a lot of these arguments. Where is the concept of team? To anyone who argues they have a right to do virtually anything they want that is not in direct conflict with some law; do everyone a favor and grow up and accept some responsibility instead of telling everyone you have a right to do something.

And I thought that America was the country of freedom of choice and personal liberty