Finally dove with DIR buddies. What a mess!

[roakey]

PhotoTJ once bubbled...
A four instructor panel...

Why did the image of four divers kneeling on the bottom watching a prospective instructor doing a budda hang in the middle of the water collumn come to mind?

How about a four cave instructor panel? That'd straighten out recreational diving might quick!

Roak

 

[PhotoTJ]

roakey once bubbled...

Why did the image of four divers kneeling on the bottom watching a prospective instructor doing a budda hang in the middle of the water collumn come to mind?

How about a four cave instructor panel? That'd straighten out recreational diving might quick!

Roak

They are not trying to become cave instructors, are they?

Hell, test them in an aquarium, with four guys sitting in Laz-e-boy recliners.

 

[roakey]

PhotoTJ once bubbled...
They are not trying to become cave instructors, are they?

No, but the cave instructors will know about static trim, unlike the vast majority of recreational dive instructors.

Roak

 

[gjmmotors]

If you are an instructor or other PADI professional card carrier, you can report them to padi. In the front of the inst maunal there is a form " narc report" as some call it. If you are a padi inst or other pro level member you can hand in the form and let padi deal with a lousy instructor.
In south florida i was on a boat with a bunch of padi inst., course directors, and dm's. One idiot got on the boat and badmouthed padi(big no-no for an instructor) and was a poor diver who nearly caused his two students to drown.(he was also a fresh padi inst. less than 200 dives, and 2 years of diving experience.) 6 instructors, 2 course directors and 4 dm's sent in the "narc form".
Next time your at a quarry and you see a quarry queen instructor do something stupid, just report them, its time to start regulating the kind of people we let teach.
insted of just *****ing about them online.
If im on a boat (usually on the east coast of the us.) I will gladly ask questions reguarding someones fitness to be an instructor,or diver for that matter. Just not in front of there students of course.
By opening your mouth or alerting the captain to a potential problem you are doing everyone a favor.
-g

 

[roakey]

gjmmotors once bubbled...
If you are a padi inst or other pro level member you can hand in the form and let padi deal with a lousy instructor.

This goes for just about the entire recreational diving industry, not just PADI, but to use PADI as an example:

A couple of months ago PADI had a picture on their TecRec (or is it RecTec?) pages about becoming an instructor. The accompanying picture showed a bunch of instructors kneeling on the bottom doing skills.

Even at the IE level, "PADI professionals" wouldn't know good static trim if it came up and bit them in the donkey.

My point being that reporting them to PADI wouldn't help one bit. They don't know jack about static trim, they're PART of the problem.

Roak

 

[PhotoTJ]

roakey once bubbled...

They don't know jack about static trim, they're PART of the problem.

Roak

Evidently not too many other people do, either, the phrase static trim comes up 11 times on the board. Out of 300,000 posts. Must not be that big of a problem, given the way stuff is discussed to death here.

 

[dcostanza]

Roakey,
You bring up the term "static trim", I was going to pm you but thought others might also benefit by the description. I'll be the first to publicly admit to needing some clarification as I have never heard the term used.

By having "static trim", is the term referring to maintaining horizontal body position within the water column when not moving? In essence, staying completely still yet being in perfectly trim?

Thank you
Don

 

[roakey]

dcostanza once bubbled...
By having "static trim", is the term referring to maintaining horizontal body position within the water column when not moving? In essence, staying completely still yet being in perfectly trim?

Except for using he word in the definition at the end of the sentence, yes.

Horizontal static trim: What 98% of divers think they can do, and only about 5% really can do.

Roak

 

[TCDiver1]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...

As long as you teach the skills and provide enough time for those skills to be practiced you'll end up with a good diver. There's more than one way to do everything.

Yup, this is the point. Thanks for acknowledging that Mike!

Okay .... click, click, boom .... time to release the hounds ........

i have seen and taught many good divers off the bottom of the pool over the years. It's not the end of the dive industry as we know it, as some on this board would have you believe. The history i have been involved in totally disputes the thought that if your not perfectly horizontal or don't have perfect trim, you suck as a diver. That is just not true in my experience. But this is the internet so be careful who you listen to. I could be full of it or detroit diver or roakey could be full of it .... who knows?

Use your common sense. Do you need to be perfectly trimmed and horizontal to stay off the bottom or not plow a silt trail? Nope, me neither. Is it better to have perfect trim? Certainly is, but its better to be perfect at anything we do is it not? How many things are you perfect at? Not many for me either.

Look, there are varying degrees of perfection in everything we do. IMO, striving for excellent trim is a great goal, a goal every diver should have. However, i don't think it is a realistic goal, to have perfect trim, at the OW certification level. Nor do i believe, again from experience, that perfect trim is essential for safe, productive recreational diving. This is where i get told the goals i set for my students are too low and i'm your typical lousy Padi instructor. This is where i answer, my students are doing just fine, how are yours doing?

Considering that two of my current students are my nephews, who it goes without saying i care deeply about, i find it extremely pious that anyone would suggest, just because i am a Padi instructor, that i would do anything less than the best i could for them. They will be good divers and in time, if they practice, they to will have good trim.

Calling in the hounds.

 

[detroit diver]

I don't think anyone suggested that "perfect" trim out of the OW class was what this was about. Perfection comes with practice.

My point is that it's never even taught in the first place. You can't practice what you were never taught. And the vast majority of insturctors I see don't even know what it is to teach it.

I will suggest, however, that you can get a long way there if you:

a. know what it is to teach it.
b. actually spend meaningful time teaching it.
c. stressing the importance of this skill.

Wouldn't your nephews be more comfortable divers knowing that, in a current, they can place themselves in a position so as to not have to fight the current? Less concern, less gas usage, more comfort, more FUN.

Wouldn't they also decompress better having the ability to hold their position in the water column?

You don't need perfect trim and bouyancy when you dive. It just makes is a whole lot easier and a lot more fun if you do have this skill.