We need a national scuba club. Why, lot's of reasons. Thread after thread how some lds charged a fellow or lady hundreds of dollars for a flipper set. Thread after thread about lack of skills, fear of water, over and over. Once upon a time scuba instruction was largely given by independent instructors, not completely but a large percentage of divers were not trained within the modern concept of a retail dive store. Once it came to be that the retail store was married to instruction the standards went to Hades. It is not a compatible mix. The concept of the current retail dive store model is to pump students through the system as rapidly as possible and the money is made through selling them all of the floor planned scuba gear usually at full MSRP.
No, this is a horrid way of instructing and results in PadI DMs like I encountered recently who could not assemble his tank, I know this because he had it backwards and it took me a full 30 minutes to convince him he was in error, tactfully and quietly.
We need a national club, the club would have a national standards and guiding committee and would accept instructors of varied background. The national club would have regional chapters and ultimately local affiliates--clubs--where students could be mentored and instructed within the context of camaraderie and shared interest and not a floor planning sales scheme as is the case now.
How would the national club deal with other organized (and effective groups like GUE), well, it would not, it would cooperate in shared areas and operate independently where their is not common interest. The concept would be cooperation and not competition. The national club would not sell or retail scuba gear, gear would be sold through retail dive stores or online diver stores as is done now, the stores simply would be divorced of instruction. No longer would student's well being be compromised by the consumerist retail machine.
In a perfect world. :depressed: Oh, what about the rebels like me, nothing would change, we rebels would still rebel and ignore all of the snorkel dictates but the majority of divers would be better served.
N, down with the man
No, this is a horrid way of instructing and results in PadI DMs like I encountered recently who could not assemble his tank, I know this because he had it backwards and it took me a full 30 minutes to convince him he was in error, tactfully and quietly.
We need a national club, the club would have a national standards and guiding committee and would accept instructors of varied background. The national club would have regional chapters and ultimately local affiliates--clubs--where students could be mentored and instructed within the context of camaraderie and shared interest and not a floor planning sales scheme as is the case now.
How would the national club deal with other organized (and effective groups like GUE), well, it would not, it would cooperate in shared areas and operate independently where their is not common interest. The concept would be cooperation and not competition. The national club would not sell or retail scuba gear, gear would be sold through retail dive stores or online diver stores as is done now, the stores simply would be divorced of instruction. No longer would student's well being be compromised by the consumerist retail machine.
In a perfect world. :depressed: Oh, what about the rebels like me, nothing would change, we rebels would still rebel and ignore all of the snorkel dictates but the majority of divers would be better served.
N, down with the man
See below.
