I am very pleased to announce that the NSS-CDS Board of Directors approved new and very progressive Standards and Procedures yesterday evening. The new S & P's will be available for full instructor review within the next few days and new course descriptions will be posted to the NSS-CDS website shortly.
Broad changes have been made to the NSS-CDS' Standards and Procedures including (just a few of the major changes):
1. Elimination of the Discretionary Apprentice procedure. The Intro to Cave Diver level (now referred to as Basic Cave Diver) permits the diver, upon completion, to dive up to 1/6 of doubles. The single tank v. double tank concern is now a thing of the past.
2. Institution of a Deep Cave Diver program which provides training for caves dives to a depth of no greater than 300 fsw.
3. Institution of an Overhead Nitrox program. This course is a seen as the first of a series of NSS-CDS gas programs.
4. The 30 cubic foot penetration limitation at the Cavern and Basic Cave Diver levels has been eliminated.
5. The development of an Overhead Rebreather Diver program is in process. While not yet in place, a number of instructors will be involved in the development of a practical approach to instruction of rebreather use in the cave environment.
6. Recognition of the fact that training occurs in places other than North Florida and Mexico and provisions to permit alternative gear configurations for training in areas such as the UK and others.
7. Broader student/instructor discretion in selecting the twin cylinder configuration in which to conduct training- backmount manifolded, backmount independents or sidemount.
8. Recognition of Missouri sites as those in which training may be conducted with reduced student to instructor ratios due to local visibility condtions.
There are many other changes which have been made in an effort to make the NSS-CDS curriculum both more progressive and workable for the instructor and student diver. A concerted effort will be made to encourage those who have left the organization due to past differences to join in the effort toward once again making the NSS-CDS the leader in overhead training.
I will serve in the capacity of Interim Training Chairman for the next several months. This will be a period of continuing activity during which training concerns and suggestions will be addressed.
For any NSS-CDS instructor qualified and interested in teaching either the Deep Cave Diver or Overhead Nitrox Diver program, please forward a Specialty Instructor Application with the required supporting documentation to me for review.
By finalizing these Standards and Procedures at this time, the NSS-CDS has the opportunity to secure its own insurance for all NSS-CDS instructors. This was the primary consideration in proceeding forward at this time.
This is an exciting time for the NSS-CDS and I look forward to working toward the continuing development of our training programs during the period I serve in this capacity.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any suggestions, questions or concerns you may have.
Thank you,
Johnny Richards
Interim Training Director, NSS-CDS
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