outrage at instructor's intervening with local law

[pt40fathoms]

This guy is right out of his mind if he believes what he has written. I suspect that he is sane though, and is trying to create a law that will help line his pockets. A law that is based on false and misleading statments is always just a disguise for some liar or tyrant to help further his or her own personal gains.

When ever someone proposes a law, and that law is clear to generate revenue for the group that is proposing the law. They ALWAYS make the statement "it's not about the money". When you hear that phrase, remember this one "it's about the money"!

Is their some email address that we, the "international" dive community, can send a short letter. In order to refutiate his lies?

 

[TCDiver1]

I bet there is a bunch of people, at a bunch of agencies laughing there *ss off at this guy if he really sent this letter to all the agencies he shows he did.

Your still a democracy over there right? I would try to solve this through Padi first. If that didn't work, contact the government official who is suppose to represent you and let them thump this bozo.

Like others, i am aware of NO other countries that require what he is asking for. He is WAY off base!

 

[orbiter]

pt40fathoms once bubbled...

Is their some email address that we, the "international" dive community, can send a short letter. In order to refutiate his lies?

thanks and yes - either my personell email and i'd pass it on to both the forum and the IDA, PADI Euroupe and PADI International or you perhaps to these organizations directly.
p.s
i'll find out the address of the IDA and come friday will post it here.
thanks again

 

[Genesis]

I just got off the phone with Jeff Madler, who is the VP of Industry and Government affairs at PADI in California.

He was, to put it mildly, appalled. He was even more appalled at the idea that he might be getting a few thousand - or more - petition signatures

He has promised that he will address this problem and take care of it, and has stated that he will NOT support this action.

I have been promised an email update next week; apparently the PADI Europe people (who are responsible for Israel) are coming here this week, and he will be able to meet with them personally and make a statement on this by Monday.

I'll be waiting on that before deciding if a petition is warranted...

 

[el-ninio]

I must thank you, as an Israely diver, for your comments, and even more for your actions. Genesis, your last mesage (after the phone to jeff Madler) is a spetial treat. Now I know why PADI europ's QA person is unavalable untill next week...

With all the potentioal damage this letter curries, there is also a chance that it will finaly convince the Israeli diving comunity that it must unite and work together to protect it's rights and interests. Nothing like thretin ones ability to dive pushes people to action.

anyway, please keep up the good work, and we will be glad to host you in Eilat the next time that Israel is declared safe for tourists....

 

[Genesis]

I suspect it will be a loooong time before that part of the world is safe for tourists... but I'll keep the invite in mind!

 

[Jonathan]

just my 2 yen - not aware of any such laws in the UK or Japan where I do most of my diving. Unless maybe I've been breaking the law unwittingly......

Jonathan

 

[art.chick]

When the law is called upon to regulate something it does not understand, something foolish always happens. One silly thing we still have on the books in California is that a tank here must have a J valve! Someone wrote the law in the 70's & for some reason they thought that the J valve was better because it would keep divers from running out of air (like cigarette filters prevent cancer?) They do not enforce this, but it is kinda funny that it was actually written into law!

I agree that greed is the motive of this guy. What if we DID have to hire DMs or instrutors for every dive? I think the number of divers would drop because the cost would be too much for some people. Although hiring instructors is one way of getting money into an LDS, there is also equipment sales & trip booking. The money that would have to go to hire a guide for the easiest local dive would be diverted away form these expenditures.

Although solo diving is debateably considered dangerous, there are reasons why people choose to do that, too. If our educations as divers are adequate, we can decide in which instances we want to dive alone, as a buddy pair, in a large group, or with a hired guide. That is why we sign reams of release forms. that is why we take classes. IF our friend thinks we are too poorly trained to handle dives without a guide, perhaps he should be pushing for better & longer classes!

 

[Drew Sailbum]

1. This guy needs his head examined.

2. It appears that this person is a PADI Course Director. To be clear, Course Directors are not necessarily PADI employees. If he is presenting himself as an employee of PADI, or as representing PADI's opinion on this issue, then I would be outraged and call for his expulsion from PADI. (Yeah, that's the word... outraged - a nice, family-friendly word!)

3. By all means vote with your wallets. Boycott this fool. Spreading boycotts too widely may be a poor use of this power, and a questionable strategy.

4. While most of the countries I have been to have no laws regulating diving with guides, one does. Malta requires an instructor be in-water with all divers who do not have a Maltese Sport Diver Card. To get a Maltese Sport Diver Card, a person must submit proof of certification to CMAS 2-star, PADI AOW, or comparable level of certification along with a doctor's medical certification of fitness to dive. Records are maintianed at the recompression chamber at the hospital.
In my experience there, this resulted in the medical exams being turned into a complete joke. Not even turn-your-head-and-cough level of thoroughness.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

I guess that I won't be diving in Malta anytime soon. Yet another example of paternalistic garbage from civil servants who would be starving in the street if it weren't for their never ending supply of welfare dollars (aka taxes) that keeps them doing jobs that are too useless for the private sector to undertake.