Fun as a Training Standard...

[Cyborg Pirate]

I am going to have to agree with The OP. I was forced to dive some in the service. I hated it. Horrible training and crap gear. 23 years later I am working on a dive boat as the captain. No desire to dive. My soon to be wife wanted to go scuba diving in Bora Bora. So very reluctantly I took the OW class with her and her parents too. Little did she know what monster she would awaken. The shop I worked for on the boat is where I am now an AI. In less then 2 years I have taken 22 of the 26 SDI specialty courses. I am now tech certified, I have logged just over 500 dives. I do some sort of training/practice on every single dive.

I was the guy that started the course with I am doing this for my wife. I will never do it again. However, the instructors with my shop made everything fun. I have enjoyed and strived to learn as much as I can and emulate my instructors. Also not just blowing thru classes. But practicing my new skills with every class and working to perfect them.

All because they made it and still make it fun!!! I agree diving should be fun. Learn the skills practice them and make it fun! I try to do the same now that I am a dive pro and teaching!

 

[Wookie]

But the deco tables you mentioned aren't???

I only commented/engaged because it appeared to me that you felt fun and safety were mutually exclusive. My wife, who I hope is now a life long diver that you're looking for, would not be here today without an instructors willingness to be flexible in his delivery.

When I learned, both the deco tables and the way your regulator works to provide you air were both part of the curriculum. That's exactly my point.

Congrats to your wife. I wish I were more flexible. I am not, so I put my skills to use and drive boats. I do not think fun and safety are mutually exclusive, far from it, I am one of the funnest safest divers you will meet. But sacrificing safety for fun (learning some rudimentary Deco theory or regulator operations is safe, not necessarily fun) makes a poor diver IMO. And it's just my opinion, I own it, and it may not be popular.

 

[txgoose]

When I learned, both the deco tables and the way your regulator works to provide you air were both part of the curriculum. That's exactly my point.

Congrats to your wife. I wish I were more flexible. I am not, so I put my skills to use and drive boats. I do not think fun and safety are mutually exclusive, far from it, I am one of the funnest safest divers you will meet. But sacrificing safety for fun (learning some rudimentary Deco theory or regulator operations is safe, not necessarily fun) makes a poor diver IMO. And it's just my opinion, I own it, and it may not be popular.

First off, I highly suspected all along that you didn't run a boat for as long as you did without knowing that spot on mix of fun and safety. I may have been gently goading you a bit. But goading you towards a common ground. You claiming to be the funnest safest diver rings true for your success. (All though the Chairman may take claim to the title.)

I honestly don't have the experience to know if intro to deco is needed for OW. It may well be. I would agree 100% with you for AOW. I love digging deep into my hobbies so I am probably the wrong person to ask. I'd soak up everything you were willing to teach during an OW class. As for the nuances for where safety ends and the fun jeopardizes that safety, I doubt we would be far from each other at all. I'm not on here talking about my wife all the time because I'm looking to lose her in an under trained accident. I am jazzed to have a mutual hobby. Not losing her to that hobby.

 

[Wookie]

First off, I highly suspected all along that you didn't run a boat for as long as you did without knowing that spot on mix of fun and safety. I may have been gently goading you a bit. But goading you towards a common ground. You claiming to be the funnest safest diver rings true for your success. (All though the Chairman may take claim to the title.)

I honestly don't have the experience to know if intro to deco is needed for OW. It may well be. I would agree 100% with you for AOW. I love digging deep into my hobbies so I am probably the wrong person to ask. I'd soak up everything you were willing to teach during an OW class. As for the nuances for where safety ends and the fun jeopardizes that safety, I doubt we would be far from each other at all. I'm not on here talking about my wife all the time because I'm looking to lose her in an under trained accident. I am jazzed to have a mutual hobby. Not losing her to that hobby.

WHATEVER YOU DO, don't take her to the Flower Gardens until she is really really comfortable. It's one of the best dive spots in the world, and when it's good, it's very very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid. And not fun.

I've seen a lot of new divers leave the sport on the way home from the Flower Gardens.

 

[Akimbo]

Why would anyone learn to dive if it isn't fun? This seems intuitively obvious to me.

I wish you were around to enlighten my Navy instructors. :TongueInCheek:

​

 

[Wookie]

Are you saying, looking back at it, that it wasn't fun?

 

[TMHeimer]

As a Band teacher I of course have found fun to be as big part as well, as it is for scuba and probably most activities. I used to have a big meeting with both students and parents present, where I explained that Band is a mix of fun and hard work. But I think it does vary per activity. I have found that practicing the clarinet can be fun, but at least half the time it's just work that needs to be done. As opposed to playing basketball (or any sport), where both the game can be fun but also is practicing free throws and moves by yourself.
With scuba the diving is fun of course, but not so much practicing skills--just has to be done.

 

[Akimbo]

Are you saying, looking back at it, that it wasn't fun?

Words like challenging, interesting, exciting, uncomfortable, character-building, and painful come to mind but never fun. Well, OK, explosives training was fun even though instructors did everything they could to remind us it was deadly serious.

 

[snowdog61]

............ Only tell them what they're doing wrong, and they still have no idea what "right" looks like. Monkey see: monkey do.

That right there.... When I got my OW, yes, I was 'diver'. Think I was this way for a few years, diving with buddies an typically emulating what they did since I was the Newbie. It really wasn't until I went on my first SB Invasion that I saw what good diving was supposed to look like - relaxed and mostly effortless. OK maybe not effortless but I will say purpose driven. It was a true eye-opener. I had no true appreciation for what diving was supposed to look like. While my initial OW instructor got me through the skills, there wasn't much emphasis on either trim, buoyancy, or propulsion. I would have loved to have had an instructor like Pete for my OW - things would have been much easier much sooner rather than learning them on my own.

 

[The Chairman]

I would have loved to have had an instructor like Pete for my OW - things would have been much easier much sooner rather than learning them on my own.

Thanks for the kind words, and I agree with everything you said. This lie that you have to accrue 100 dives to get your buoyancy down is due to the fact that divers aren't taught a modicum of trim & buoyancy in their OW class. If I remember right, you're one of the few people I kind of chased out of my trim & buoyancy mini-class because you really didn't need it. I was impressed with your ease in the water. Good job on emulating those around you. This is one of the many, many things I love about invasions: mentoring. Noobies are exposed to like-minded people with above average skills. The result is @snowdog61. If you're diving, not having fun because you don't have the knowledge or skills, seek out a group to go diving with. It can make up for not learning everything you needed in your OW class.