Yeah, I mean I'm a jerk and a college educated elitist, and Thal is too, but to whom else are you referring? Walter is also an elitest, but besides us who are all these other jerks? Do you have their contact information? Jerks love other jerks, and being an elitist diver is always more fun with more people. I could really be a jerk if I had more jerk friends.
By the way, your PADI MSD card still honks on bobo. I love how people complain:
"But I did some specialties and rescue! Why isn't my MSD card anything special?"
Because buying a card does not imply a level of commitment. Your specialties, rescue class, and efforts do. The NAUI course is different, because of that very reason. Just do us all a favor and admit that it isn't a quality course. Actually, just do us all a favor and admit that it isn't a course at all. If your divemaster or instructor card was obtained this way, would you feel the same?
I didn't follow the majority of your post, perhaps it's only me, but what in the hell does this mean? I must really be out of it not to understand, I'd really appreciate a translation.
Good diving, Craig
Translation:
Yes, I am someone who believes that quality in education has meaning and that while ignoramuses can be cured, stupid is (unfortunately) a life long condition. I am quite sure that my colleague Thal would agree, as I would expect would others who respect quality, like Walter (who also believes in doing good well).
By the way, your PADI MSD card still sucks (that is to say is, at best, of rather indeterminate quality), and furthermore you've made no cogent argument to the contrary. It is intriguing to observe the difficulty that some people have in understanding their plight when the completion of a depauperized rescue class and a few rudimentary specialty programs fails to rocket them into the Pantheon of Diving Gods who sit at the right hand of Poseidon.
The rest seems rather clear.
Thal,
Depauperation? Perhaps true in general terms but not applicable to individual training activities. Individuals are responsible for the quality of their own training circumstances and must make the most of them. I would imagine there are good and bad options available within any training organization.
Good diving, Craig
Your missing the point. This is, in my mind, basically a case of fraudulent misrepresentation under the guise of "just good business". Agencies are responsible for the quality of the programs that they run. Programs like "Advanced Diver" had been developed by all the agencies, NAUI, YMCA, NASDS, PADI, LA County, PDIC, etc All these programs were remarkably similar and had developed such a good reputation that they had become the standard credential for activities such as Charter Boat diving. It was a program with real meat on it, typically 40 hours with eight or more dives, coming on top of a 40 hour entry level course and a 20 hour, two open water session rescue class. An Advanced diver really was "advanced." The next thing you know PADI gutted their Advanced program, cutting it in half (the content, but not the price). PADI affiliates started selling this course as their "Advanced Diver Course" when it was only the equal of the NAUI Sport Diver (also know as O/W II). PADI then did the same thing with their Master Diver Course. Is this "good business" or a blatant lie? Chances are it was both, but the term, depauperization" also fits perfectly.
Is it all PADI's fault? No. Instead of agressively pushing back and exposing the fraud for what it was, the other agencies either followed suit or ignored what PADI was doing (NAUI was especially bad at this, then Executive Director Marshall McNott thought that NAUI, as a not-for-profit, needed to be "above" that sort of behavior). They were later caught in a race or thier very survivial to minimize standards, even for their entry level courses. It was about that time that I said, "a plague on all your houses," which is basically how I still feel.
