Logging dives towards instructor exam by hanging off anchor line at 20'?

[MikeFerrara]

Are we sure this guy was just hanging on the line? Perhaps he was practicing buoyancy, mask clearing etc.? I'm only guessing here...

Don't you "pratice" buoyancy control throughout every phase of every dive? Isn't it common enough to gave to clear a mask (or easy enough to flood it on purpose) anyplace?

If he needed to skip a dive to be at 20 ft to practice either he should be starting his count over from ZERO.

 

[HowardE]

I think this is SOP for Pro-Dive a PADI training center (this is my guess as to whom is doing this too) - and they do this all the time. They probably have produced many overnight sensation instructors and DM's this way.

I have been told that YES - this is only to add dives to the diver's dive count so that they can get to 50 or 100 - whatever the case may be.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Unfortunately, that's probably not the case. Padding dives has been in practice for a long time. Lots of divers/instructors have several hundred/thousand 20 minute dives. Maybe instead of 100 dives, the requirement should be 100 hours.

When I applied for my cavern instructor cert, I called PADI to verify they didn't need log book copies of cave dives. I was told no because anyone can forge a log book. The guy at PADI even had the nerve to tell me he's forged a few dives himself just to meet requirements, laughing about it like he thought everyone does it. I was shocked...but I guess I shouldn't have been...

Other agencies make you assist in cavern/cave training before they let you teach it. PADI is the only agency that I know of (there may be others) that will turn you lose to teach in a cavern just because you say that you've done a few cavern dives.

I had a PADI cavern instructor card too just because I could. I never used it though. I started a few friends with line work on land and in OW but sent them to a real cave instructor for the rest.

 

[mislav]

Don't you "pratice" buoyancy control throughout every phase of every dive? Isn't it common enough to gave to clear a mask (or easy enough to flood it on purpose) anyplace?

If he needed to skip a dive to be at 20 ft to practice either he should be starting his count over from ZERO.

You do, but he might have wanted to focus on that. He might have been practicing CESA and who knows what else... again, I'm only guessing here.

What Dive-aholic said sounds like a reasonable explanation to me, but I'm not so fast at throwing stones here. I like to keep an open mind.

 

[D_B]

You cant teach someone to be ethical if the're not

 

[MikeFerrara]

You do, but he might have wanted to focus on that. He might have been practicing CESA and who knows what else... again, I'm only guessing here.

What Dive-aholic said sounds like a reasonable explanation to me, but I'm not so fast at throwing stones here. I like to keep an open mind.

It's nice of you to give him the benefit of the doubt but I'm not buying it. LOL, besides, we don't need to throw stones. Enough DM and instructor candidates are seen doing this that the stones are just falling on their own.

Once I was at 40 fathom grotto. There were two divers repeatedly going to the shallow platform and just kneeling there. They didn't even move. When someone asked what they were doing they found out that they were racking up dives and were sitting still to make their air last longer. Of course maybe they were practicing their kneeling. LOL even if the diver who is the subject of this thread was somehow praticing something legit, there are plenty of others who aren't so the subject still seems valid.

 

[OCDinNC]

Are we sure this guy was just hanging on the line? Perhaps he was practicing buoyancy, mask clearing etc.? I'm only guessing here...

Yes, I was there and I (and everyone else in the group diving with me for the two trips) SAW him and HEARD him and the captain talking about what he was doing, as the two trips progressed. This wasn't just a "I think I know what's going on here" thing; we heard what he was doing, and the captain and DM were in on it, big time. The LDS is, from all appearances and SB'ers talk, an excellent one, and I do not know if he was taking the instructor course through them or not, so I won't say that. But the guys running the boat knew. To be fair, he did go down on the 1st wreck for a few minutes, but the rest of the other 7 "dives" he hung. The first time I came up for my stop, I wondered that he was hanging so long for a deco stop. That was before I heard him talk and realized what he was doing. After the 100th "dive" was completed, there was a lot of "Woo-Hoo, we made it"!

IMO, 100 dives (even real ones) is not really enough to give a diver the type of broad experience I would expect from an instructor anyway. Just my opinion.

 

[OCDinNC]

I think this is SOP for Pro-Dive a PADI training center (this is my guess as to whom is doing this too) - and they do this all the time. They probably have produced many overnight sensation instructors and DM's this way.

OK, I will at least say this much. It was not Pro-Dive....

 

[OCDinNC]

At least the CHARTER was not Pro-Dive. As I said, I don't know who was doing the course here.

 

[HowardE]

OK, I will at least say this much. It was not Pro-Dive....

I know they pro-dive does this. It wouldn't surprise me to know that other training centers did as well. How else can they go from no experience at all to OW instructor in 1 month? Having 100 dives to teach a basic open water course is IMO adequate. Basic OW is (in its current state, and I wouldn't expect the criteria to change any time soon) basic.