Level of Instruction

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O-ring once bubbled...

One of three things happen:

1) The students learn how to dive properly and they are decent in the water coming out of OW and get even better with experience.

2) The students learn how to dive like crap and kneel on everything and touch down all the time, but they get a clue either through continuing education, the Internet, their buddies, or someone and wake up and improve through experience and practice.

3) The students learn how to dive like crap and kneel on everything and touch down all the time and they don't give a rat's ass if they mess up the dive sites, environment, etc. and remain obstinate, crappy divers the rest of their lives. They come on here and argue that everyone should get to dive, they have no concept of practice or fitness levels, and they are generally the people you want to avoid as dive buddies. Their skills are horrible, so they resort to name calling and insults toward good divers to make themselves feel better. They are the worst our sport has to offer..

If you don't mind, I'm going to copy this and post it for our dive club, which happens to meet in a dive shop. You have hit the nail square on the head.

Phil
 
In open water... besides, with the techniques shown in those photos, I would have to have Wes Skiles style strobes just to cut through all the suspended silt to get a decent shot. Probably better that I don't have them..
 
MechDiver once bubbled...
The point is, you were degrading divers for using lines or other aids while ascending/descending and implying they had no skill in doing so.

My point is, there is a time and many places where those lines may save your butt.
I agree. From the original post.
Landlocked once bubbled...
I have to agree with the book. It is safer and easier but..... My question, shouldn't some skill be assumed at this point? This is a low vis specialty class.
The descending and ascending was just an expample of what I was trying to get at. Perhaps a bad one. I was just a little disapointed after reading the book. Where's the beef?! Sorry for the confussion.
 
landlocked once bubbled...
Where's the beef?! Sorry for the confussion.

The beef is on the bottom stirring up all the silt. Never met a cow who had any buoyancy control!

No apology needed. We thrive on confusion, it just needs to be organized:)

Phil
 
I quess I was posting when you posted the DIR pix's.
I just pulled them up.
WOW!
That is something that I personally have not ever had the opportunity to experience or see in my training.
Good to know there is great instruction out there. I may have to look more into that.
Am I impressed!
 
O-ring once bubbled...
In open water... besides, with the techniques shown in those photos, I would have to have Wes Skiles style strobes just to cut through all the suspended silt to get a decent shot. Probably better that I don't have them..

Okay, I'll be the fall guy. The pics of of the DIRF class are great. Granted this is a much more advanced way to teach "certified divers who already know how to dive", but these are not non-divers in an OW class.

An OW class starts in 4 feet of water so all the student has to do is stand up. Reminding everyone that these folks have never breathed underwater before. Okay, we get past the reg retrival, mask clearing, etc. At what point do you magically teach these people to hover 2 feet off the bottom in an 8 ft deep pool and do all the skills required? You sure ain't gonna do it during openwater, so they have to have all these skills before you get out of the pool, right?

Yea, I know! But lets get real here on the OW students. There's alot of difference here between that and a DIRF level class.

Phil
 
The least experienced guy in that DIRF class had 30 dives. I concede the point that these are people that: 1) are already certified divers and 2) actually care about diving well and are taking steps to improve it.

I don't want to turn this into a GUE/DIR debate, so let's forget that for a minute and just talk diving. From people I have talked to (both on this board and in person), if students are held to a higher standard from the beginning they will surprise you and rise to meet the challenge. Maybe not all of them, maybe not to the level of magically hovering, but they will be more capable than the "bottom kneelers" in my photos.

I was thinking, and keep in mind that I am not an instructor so am talking out of my buttocks a little here, that you could show them all the skills in the pool and get them down while kneeling. Then, show them the skills while hovering and tell them that is how they should be performed. That's all a DIRF class does anyway...takes the skills we learned on the bottom and raises them a few feet.
 
I had to think back on my OW class since it has been a little while that I did that.
I am recalling that there were many times, for me, that I shook my head no at the instructor on doing certain skills, had to be where I could stand up out of the water if I felt I needed up fast and things like that.
The DIRF pix's are impressive to me, but at the same time I see now that I have not long ago aquired the skills or the level of diving to feel like I would be able to do that type of training. Who knows.
Maybe it would be different if my training had been different to begin with
I risk at showing my ignorance by posting sometimes, but heck....I sure am learning a lot :)
 
I risk at showing my ignorance by posting sometimes, but heck....I sure am learning a lot

Shoot...I show my ignorance all the time..that's how we learn. I have just shown you my incompetence too...I am in most of those pictures...and not just the DIRF ones ;)
 
I see O-rings last post and realize that if the instructors had shown me the final outcome of what a diver can do and be, it would have been a lot more helpful for me...instead of watching and trying to figure out for myself. Personally I have 90 some dives and feel that maybe I should have gained better skills, buoyancy, for instance, sooner than I did. Maybe it is more individualized than that, tho.
 

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