Open Source Instruction for Entry Level Scuba

[VooDooGasMan]

Awetmedic, all the members do is post for more info you have already given in all your threads cause they do not retain very well, so they quote to clarify, why they have have to do this I have not a clue.

You have a very clear way of what you would like to provide, unfortunately you will have to keep explaining to instructors, cause most other members do not care as they know how easy it is to dive and yes all scuba instruction videos are funny at best even the tech ones, why? simple they are not actors or directors of filming. This is why sea hunt is the best way to understand scuba there will ever be. To catch an audience the filming has changed.

There is a guy that is a cop in our state, NWProdivers, that has similar intrest in what you want, but not even close to the caliber that you have made it.

Ok now for a solution, I have been around the world diving and they only ask of recent diving and experience, and boat diving you present a C-card.

Simple enough, you provide stationary cameras at your pool for pool skills, you have a lake and boats so put stationary cameras there for open water class, when they travel, they present these and it will show there face and that they have completed the test in and out of water. with the gopro cameras and your own youtube channel, all dive establishments can verify this and do an update dive that will have a date from filming. There would be know way they can argue your students are not qualified because you already know that they do not want to turn a customer down and this video of the diver is the best evidence there is.

Good luck on your adventure and a 12' pool is a way better pool to teach buoyancy skills.

 

[awetmedic]

Great Post! This is exactly the kind of "we know it all" and "you never will" response that I have informed people about. You might not need another agency, and it is your choice not to have one. We are no more an agency than a father teaching his son to throw a baseball is. I have been teaching for 30 years now, as of this year. So what you are saying is that all of my experience is now null and void? The other instructors with me have considerable backgrounds in scientific, navy and commercial backgrounds. Not being recognized by retail businesses isn't one of our concerns. Great post, I love it, just what we wanted to see.

 

[awetmedic]

There is one huge disadvantage for our students. They will be ridiculed and spit on by all the major agencies and not have their cards accepted anywhere. Here are some advantages. Volunteers can get free scuba including the open water dives and equipment or have their costs very low. No limit to the pool time for instruction. Multiple points of view on what you should know taken from all over the world. A course that includes free options such as swimming improvement, lifegarding, rescue, FA, CPR, sailing and much more for no additional cost. A course not motivated by the money that the agency or instructor can earn but a course motivated by education.

 

[awetmedic]

I certainly agree, competition has always been the best thing for the consumer. I don't know if you ever took the original YMCA scuba course, but it was a great course! The YMCA of course no longer teaches scuba and if you dig, you will see courses such as "scuba bronze" that we will never see again. McDonalds is the biggest restaurant chain, but do they have the best food or chefs?

 

[awetmedic]

Yes, I was well aware of the controversy, and the immediate knee jerk reaction of being cast out of the world of the decent, knowledgeable and respected divers and being somebody that they can feel good about pointing a finger at and exclaiming "see there he is, Joe's scuba shack won't even let him fill tanks". Funny you should mention the video, we have 5 underwater windows in our pool and have hooked a web cam up to it many times. Proving ourselves to the world isn't something that interests us. Providing a different perspective on the sport, is. We will be very clear about explaining to any of our students about the fierce protection of the diving industry and that they are outcasts. knowledgeable and skilled outcasts, but outcasts.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Not being recognized by retail businesses isn't one of our concerns.

OK ... so what happens when one of your students goes on an expensive dive vacation only to find out that the dive operation they just paid thousands of dollars to dive with won't accept their card?

Are you doing this for you or for your students?

I don't think I "know it all" ... and I never say "never" ... if there's a better way out there for me to produce well-trained divers more effectively, I'm all for it.

But you have to think it through, and be able to offer a product that will serve the needs of your clients ... that's basic business 101. Your posts remind me very much of a kid who decides to build a robot, has a very good idea what he wants it to look like, and hasn't a clue how to make it work. There's a huge difference between teaching scuba and turning a certification process into a legitimate business. Your clients aren't all that interested in getting a c-card ... they're interested in getting access to diving. Those are only the same thing if the rest of the world recognizes your c-card as legitimate ... and for that reason, being recognized by retail businesses SHOULD be one of your concerns ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[japan-diver]

Since you have found an agency that allows you to add whatever material you deem necessary to the course what is the advantage of not issuing a card that will be recognized when the student travels to dive??? There are many agencies that will allow you to add material or even add requirements to make your course meet your envisioned requirements and for a small fee your clients get a card that is worldwide recognized and if they ever lose it can get it replaced easily. What exactly is the drawback??

 

[awetmedic]

There is only one drawback that is significant for us. Following lockstep into the dogma of "the big agency is best, lets just rest and let them do all the research, development and not think outside the box, grow, create or expand this sport to our best ability". Being the new guy, an outcast that everyone looks down on and ridicules, does have some appeal. Not wanting to be a giant in the industry but rather an elite training organization concentrating on just a few also has appeal.

Besides, if they want a card from another agency, what is stopping them? We don't prevent that.

Hey, are the SEALs any good? They aren't the largest force on earth, I wonder why they seem to be dang hot.

 

[tech_diver]

Do agency people ridicule and spit on you at one specific divelocation or does this happen to you everywhere you go?
One of the reasons a dive operator may not honor a certificationcard that they are not familiar with is because that card may have been printedby some guy in his basement that they’ve never heard of. I think that it has less to do with agencyprotectionism and more to do with liability concerns.
Many dive store insurance policies require that the storecheck for a recognized certification card that they know wasn’t issued from aguy in his basement.
Even if the card was issued by a major agency, operators canstill harbor concerns that a diver wasn’t trained up to standard. They couldcertainly harbor greater doubts over a diver carrying a card they haven’t seenbefore. The truth is we don’t know that basement guy doesn’t do a better jobthat the big guys, we just don’t know him.
I wouldn’t take it too personally that people won’trecognize the certs you issue.

 

[awetmedic]

There is nothing stopping our students from getting a card from another agency or knowing of all the problems that they will encounter. As these posts will be part of information available to them, during their course, they will be clearly aware that they will be rejected as untrained, uncertified scum of the earth. Similar to what a NAVY SEAL experiences when he dives at a resort and he shows up with no card. And yes, this happens, I have worked at resorts in Grand Cayman and Bonaire when uncertified SEALs and other great divers show up. We had procedures at our resort, a check-out dive, quiz and evaluation for everyone we had not dove with, C-card in hand or not. There are a lot of C-card divers who have had one quarry dive 5 years ago and now want to dive, think that C-card means they can?

We are not issuing a card that we claim is acceptable to everyone else, we will go to great lengths to ensure our students know of how this industry is completely against anyone else joining it and how they will be outcast and rejected regardless of their ability.