Info History of PADI's Enriched Air Nitrox course

[BoltSnap]

Do you have any evidence of this other than your well known hatred of all things PADI to back it up? Nobody else in the scuba world seems to know about this secret arrangement. How did you find out about it?

I became an instructor LONG time before you did and I lived through it all. In fact, I was renting equipment and pool time from a PADI dive shop and had buddies who were PADI/NAUI instructors.

So you are saying that when Skin Diver magazine pushed against nitrox in 1993,they did that because PADI secretly pushed them to do it

Not secretly. They collaborated together.

even after being openly neutral about it in Dive Training magazine the year before?

That's not how I read and understand the article and the information about PADI vs. Nitrox. PADI was against nitrox because of many reasons, their reasons.

They said they don't teach it, but they don't oppose its careful use.)

They don't teach or let their instructors teach it through PADI. How on God's green earth are they going to oppose its "careful use"? They can't control it when the users and instructors are not doing it under PADI's control. This statement sounds "significant" but has no meaning.

Why do you think they quickly changed shortly after that and came out with a full teaching program for it?

Their stand changed few years later when their affiliates were blasting PADI for opposing and preventing the use and teaching of Nitrox under PADI's name. Many of these affiliates were looking for other agencies that don't oppose Nitrox since the dive industry started to see the benefits of Nitrox use. PADI had to do the 180 in its stand because it was afraid to lose its control and grip of their affiliates. They had to yield to the market and saw that they can make $$$ with the courses they can sell.

other than your well known hatred of all things PADI to back it up?

Hahaha, drama now. It isn't hatred at all, just the facts. So the operative word to discredit somebody now when you don't have anything to discredit them with is "hatred of all things PADI"??? This is like dictators in my part of the world calling their opposition "fundamentalists" to justify their committing unimaginable crimes to suppress opposition, vilify the opponent to discredit them and to get rid of them en masse.

Nobody else in the scuba world seems to know about this secret arrangement.

We are talking about events that took place 25 - 30 years ago, you know that? Were you a diver then?

 

[tursiops]

The wonderful thing about conspiracy theories is that they don't really need facts or substantiation, just the unsupported allegations are enough. "I knew somebody that said..."
I'm a total skeptic about @BoltSnap's story without some backup. Surely he can't be the only person to think that PADI is the instigator of it all, and only came around because of pressure from the dive shops. The available evidence seems to support the view that PADI was reluctant, but around 1988-1990 began to develop the course material. They were concerned about safety, and wanted to make sure their course was bullet-proof.

 

[BoltSnap]

The wonderful thing about conspiracy theories is that they don't really need facts or substantiation, just the unsupported allegations are enough. "I knew somebody that said..."
I'm a total skeptic about @BoltSnap's story without some backup. Surely he can't be the only person to think that PADI is the instigator of it all, and only came around because of pressure from the dive shops. The available evidence seems to support the view that PADI was reluctant, but around 1988-1990 began to develop the course material. They were concerned about safety, and wanted to make sure their course was bullet-proof.

You forgot to add "hatred of PADI," for it adds more sizzle to your argument.

 

[noserider]

So you are saying that when Skin Diver magazine pushed against nitrox in 1993,they did that because PADI secretly pushed them to do it, even after being openly neutral about it in Dive Training magazine the year before? (They said they don't teach it, but they don't oppose its careful use.) So you are saying PADI's public stance was a lie, and they were secretly fighting against it, is that right? Why do you think they quickly changed shortly after that and came out with a full teaching program for it?

Do you have any evidence of this other than your well known hatred of all things PADI to back it up? Nobody else in the scuba world seems to know about this secret arrangement. How did you find out about it?

Well if it wasn't PADI it was the Editor, probably a single person that was pushing for articles on it and they could easily have been thinking I do not want to upset my advertisers. I really think we are talking about just a handful of individuals that were against it

 

[Centrals]

PADI was also against "tec diving" in the beginning. Eventually created "DSAT" to compete with others.
Liability could be the main reason.
Everything has to be consulted with the lawyers.

 

[boulderjohn]

Wow! A whole slew of unsubstantiated theories spring up!

 

[yle]

I just read through this entire thread. But I'm now struggling to understand it's purpose. Was it to inform everyone that:

--- long ago, nitrox was not used in recreational diving. It was a new thing, and cert agencies did not condone its use.

--- now, 30 years later, nitrox is common and all major cert agencies include nitrox as part of its standard course offerings.

--- PADI is not to be trusted, as they use Skin Diver magazine as a front to secretly oppose things (like nitrox) that they publicly do not want to oppose because they might later support the development of a course in the subject.

Did I miss anything? Only the third item was news to me.

 

[yle]

PADI was also against "tec diving" in the beginning. Eventually created "DSAT" to compete with others.
Liability could be the main reason.
Everything has to be consulted with the lawyers.

There's a subtle, but important, difference between being "against" something and simply not supporting it. The absence of support is not the same thing as opposition.

I can't imagine PADI was actively against tech diving, i.e. actively advocating against it. I can imagine that it took a while for PADI to develop courses that they believed were appropriate to train and education students so they could participate in tech diving safely.

But I could be wrong.