PADI Mermaid Program - WTH??!!

[tmassey]

OK, Boomer. It’s all about the Insta...

(Said the instagramless GenXer...)

When I booked my AirBnB for Tulum (Mexican cenotes), they give you the typical page of “sign up now for these excursions!” Within the 20+ Cenote swimming experiences, 2/3 either specifically mentioned mermaid experiences or had a mermaid in the photo. It was crazy. And they all included ‘Instagram-worthy photos’...

It’s a brave new world.

ETA: @JimBlay I truly think your dragon experience is a tremendous concept. Except for the fact that it is perceptually much riskier and harder than swimming. (I say perceptually because drowning is the third highest cause of unintentional injury death: Drowning ) It also might need more facilities to pull off. But it is certainly ‘gramworthy.

 

[Ghost95]

What about mermen? Are us guys not included in this awesome speciality???

Merman. (cough) MerMAN!!!

 

[chillyinCanada]

What about mermen? Are us guys not included in this awesome speciality???
View attachment 632096
Merman. (cough) MerMAN!!!

No nono, this is a merman

 

[Ghost95]

Guess I don't meet the prerequisites...

I can just see it now.

Me rolling, tugging, and stuffing myself into a mono-fin onesie, a 46 year old fuzzy beer gut not so subtly peeking over the top of the iridescent scale print fabric, and my wife hyperventilating with fits of laughter while snapping photos to be posted on the family Christmas letter or her dog's Instagram page labeled "Catch of the day". Heat stress overtakes me as unconscious mercifully descends on my sweaty, pescanoid form, I proclaim with my last breaths..."merman, baby, merman".

 

[chillyinCanada]

Guess I don't meet the prerequisites...

I can just see it now.

Me rolling, tugging, and stuffing myself into a mono-fin onesie, a 46 year old fuzzy beer gut not so subtly peeking over the top of the iridescent scale print fabric, and my wife hyperventilating with fits of laughter while snapping photos to be posted on the family Christmas letter or her dog's Instagram page labeled "Catch of the day". Heat stress overtakes me as unconscious mercifully descends on my sweaty, pescanoid form, I proclaim with my last breaths..."merman, baby, merman".

Don't be too surprised:

 

[Ghost95]

Well, I'll be...

The wife would still be rolling on the ground if I tried this, and she's very supportive of my hobby.

No amount of, "but honey, it's for a real certification", would let me ever explain my way out of this.

Is there a "Vintage Merman" community? Maybe level 8!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

@Colliam7

It is absurd in that it is wildly unreasonable or unnecessary not because mermaiding is stupid. I’m sure it takes serious skill, fitness, and artistry. But do we really need 4 student and 3 instructor levels? Do we really need a formal certification program at all? That is what I find absurd. Others obviously disagree.

We are so past keeping the main thing the main thing in dive instruction that it truly has become comical.

 

[Miyaru]

...
But do we really need 4 student and 3 instructor levels? Do we really need a formal certification program at all? That is what I find absurd. Others obviously disagree.

We are so past keeping the main thing the main thing in dive instruction that it truly has become comical.

No we don't. It's a choice.

Make a comparison with scuba regs. I have a bunch of Apeks DS4 first stages (and a couple of DSTs).
Next to the DS4, there's also a Tek3, DS1, US1, US4, FSR, MTX just to name a few.
Do we really need all these models when a DS4 still does a perfect job? Surely nobody is complaining about Apeks.
ScubaPro does an even better marketing job, as dealers have to sell a minimum amount of equipment to keep their dealership, which is one of the reasons why ScubaPro regs are on display and other brands get a less prominent place.

An even wider choice of equipment is available when it comes to BCDs. And although numerous jokes can be made about BCDs, especially by BP/W divers, BCDs are still being sold in a massive variety and price classes. "Customer wants to spend $1000 on a BCD? We'll sell a $1000 BCD!"

Still you, as a customer, are the one who decides which equipment you choose. And nobody says that the wide choice of models is absurd.

 

[rmssetc]

One of the DM's at my LDC was heavily into this. She spent the equivalent of $3,500 on a tail fin.

Sounds expensive for a fin....but cheap for surgery.

 

[boulderjohn]

Still you, as a customer, are the one who decides which equipment you choose. And nobody says that the wide choice of models is absurd.

As I said before, I have no idea whatsoever what goes on in the course or in each section of the course, so I will not pass judgment. I will, however, comment on the number of courses required as a general concept.

In any course in any subject anywhere, it is possible to have one big course or several smaller courses. What difference does it make if the entire program teaches the same thing? Well, the difference is student choice. If the course is taught as one big unit, the student must pay for the entire thing up front, and if the student decides early on that the course is not what is really wanted, the student must still pay for the whole shebang. `If the student leaves early, the student has nothing to show for it. If the course is instead broken into segments, the student can choose to leave after the first segment, having paid only for that segment and having an appropriate level of certification for it. When I went to college, I was planning to be a chemist, and I took appropriate freshman level classes for it. I changed my mind during that freshman year. Fortunately, my college program did not require me to pay for a full 4-year chemistry program up front. It was instead broken down into individual classes, so when I made that change, I still got credit for the calculus and chemistry classes I took that year.

In scuba, you see this in a comparison of the requirements for the AOW certification between different agencies. Some agencies have the same requirements for which the program was first conceived more than a half century ago--providing a single dive taste of 5 different types of diving with the goal of piquing a student's interest in one or more of them. Others require that the students complete 5 different specialty classes (usually 3-4 dives each) for the same certification. The advantage of the second policy is that the student who has the AOW rating has had more training and experience. The advantage of the original policy is that if the student decides that one dive is all he or she really wants in that area and has no desire to continue on, the student is not required to continue on, and the student can instead spend the time and money on something else. IF the student decides that the full specialty is worth it, then the student can apply that first dive to the full specialty and only pay for it then.