Peak Buoyancy Specialty Course

[Wibble]

Pity it can't be called 'coaching' not 'instructing'. That way a diver could pay for an hour's coaching without spending the "whole" day studying. Best value for both parties and highly repeatable.

 

[boulderjohn]

Pity it can't be called 'coaching' not 'instructing'. That way a diver could pay for an hour's coaching without spending the "whole" day studying. Best value for both parties and highly repeatable.

There is no reason you can't teach the course without including the certification, so it would be close to what you are describing. If I were to do that, though, I would still follow the course structure and call it instructing.

Let's compare this to golf instruction. I have taken more than a few hours of golf "coaching," getting neither certification nor a palpable improvement in my play. Let's look at those lessons from the golf instructor's point of view. You "coach" for a certain amount of time and get a certain amount of money. No problem. What's the worst that can happen during a lesson? I imagine it would be a student keeling over and dying of a heart attack. If that were to happen, would the golf instructor be at fault? I can't imagine he or she could possibly be considered to be at fault. The only possibility of liability would be if the instructor somehow whacked the student with a club, which is highly unlikely.

Scuba instruction is a different animal altogether. In an hour's lesson, a student could easily die. It has happened far too often. It is also possible that the instructor could be at fault, in which case liability claims could go into the millions. In the ensuing trial, the plaintiff's attorneys will try to show that the instructor screwed up in some way. Let's take a case where the instructor was not following established curriculum--the case where a student died doing a doff and don exercise (discard gear on the bottom, swim to the surface, swim back down, replace the gear) at the University of Alabama. Since what the student was doing is not in the SSI standards for the course, it was up to the instructor to prove that what she did was within standard practice for scuba instruction. Of course, the fact that the agency does not include that exercise because it is considered too dangerous worked against her. Stay within an approved curriculum, and they will have a hard time proving what you did was outside normal practice.

 

[Wibble]

Interesting alternative viewpoint. Was with you until you mentioned the 'L' word. Litigation obviously really gets in the way of innovation. Thankfully it's pretty much confined to the USA.

I'd see it done as a day out at a quarry/whatever. Several "participant" divers would go there for some practice. A 'coach' would then spend an hour/whatever with each one to work on those basic skills, maybe with a common session to start and end the day.

When not being 'coached' the participants (don't want to use the word students here) will go off to a platform and work together on their skills. They each pay the coach something -- equivalent of a day's boat diving? Everyone's a winner.

Core skills don't need certificates.
Core skills need other people to comment on how well you're doing.

 

[boulderjohn]

Interesting alternative viewpoint. Was with you until you mentioned the 'L' word. Litigation obviously really gets in the way of innovation. Thankfully it's pretty much confined to the USA.

I'd see it done as a day out at a quarry/whatever. Several "participant" divers would go there for some practice. A 'coach' would then spend an hour/whatever with each one to work on those basic skills, maybe with a common session to start and end the day.

When not being 'coached' the participants (don't want to use the word students here) will go off to a platform and work together on their skills. They all pay the coach something; everyone's a winner.

Core skills don't need certificates.
Core skills need other people to comment on how well you're doing.

I would be willing to work on several some core skills without being part of a class, and I have done so. In dong so, I weigh the circumstances.

For example, not long ago a man paid me to work with him on his kicking skills in a pool. there was no class involved, but it was just kicking skills, and the man I was helping was an instructor. I figured the risk was pretty minimal.

In comparison, I will be doing something similar for someone soon, and given that person;s lesser certification status, I will follow a curriculum that I created (and PADI approved) that is similar to GUE Fundamentals.

 

[BoltSnap]

I don't understand why some folks attack the "Peak Buoyancy" Specialty Course offered by one agency (perhaps also other agencies under different names) while they are prompting offerings from GUE. These folks summarily pass a blanket judgement on the PB course without any information on the instructor who is teaching it. I don't understand why they talk through both sides of their mouth with contradicting opinions.


Pay any instructor from any agency what you will have to pay for the GUE's fundies and you will get a PhD in buoyancy control and other skills at awesome skill levels. It is one thing to pay a couple of hundred $$ for PPB course and to pay a $1K or more for fundies.

 

[Wibble]

I don't understand why some folks attack the "Peak Buoyancy" Specialty Course offered by one agency (perhaps also other agencies under different names) while they are prompting offerings from GUE. These folks summarily pass a blanket judgement on the PB course without any information on the instructor who is teaching it. I don't understand why they talk through both sides of their mouth with contradicting opinions.

In a word, consistency.

GUE has sorted out the standards for skills, for training and for their instructors. Any GUE Fundamentals instructor would have excellent skills. Any alumni would have met the course's high standards.

Comparing Fundies to the standards required from an introductory level recreational course is unfair.

Or is it? Why shouldn’t some excellence be injected into recreational diving? Why can’t all instructors be ambassadors of excellence and not minimum, barely adequate standards?

 

[BoltSnap]

In a word, consistency.

GUE has sorted out the standards for skills, for training and for their instructors. Any GUE Fundamentals instructor would have excellent skills. Any alumni would have met the course's high standards.

Comparing Fundies to the standards required from an introductory level recreational course is unfair.

Or is it? Why shouldn’t some excellence be injected into recreational diving? Why can’t all instructors be ambassadors of excellence and not minimum, barely adequate standards?

I am the last person to defend PADI but fair is fair, GUE is grossly insignificant in terms of numbers and statistically even less relevant at all. To dismiss a course based on impressions and based on what some do is just BS and prejudicial. GUE's fundies have different goals than the PPB. GUE's Fundies is meant to be a prelude to GUE's technical diving training while PADI's is geared for the purely recreational diver. Approach a decent PADI instructor and tell them that you want an intro to tech course and I am certain that you will get a great course with great buoyancy control training. Heck, pay any instructor from any agency what you pay for the GUE's fundies and you will get a Ph.D in buoyancy control and others skills with awesome skill levels. It is one thing to pay a couple of hundred $$ for PPB course and to pay a $1K or more for fundies.

I just find it hypocritical and self serving but mostly to draw attention to one's self for more attention.

 

[Jcp2]

Interesting alternative viewpoint. Was with you until you mentioned the 'L' word. Litigation obviously really gets in the way of innovation. Thankfully it's pretty much confined to the USA.

I'd see it done as a day out at a quarry/whatever. Several "participant" divers would go there for some practice. A 'coach' would then spend an hour/whatever with each one to work on those basic skills, maybe with a common session to start and end the day.

When not being 'coached' the participants (don't want to use the word students here) will go off to a platform and work together on their skills. They each pay the coach something -- equivalent of a day's boat diving? Everyone's a winner.

Core skills don't need certificates.
Core skills need other people to comment on how well you're doing.

You mean like this?

UTD Scuba Coaching | UTD Scuba Diving

or like this?

Recreational Diving | AQUI Watersports

 

[SmashMonkey]

I plan on doing my AOW with Rainbow Reef in February. Sounds like your may not have gotten a lot out of it; should I consider somewhere else? I was hoping for more than just 5 dives.

I just did AOW+Nitrox at Rainbow Reef in June.

- I recommend signing up for Nitrox at the same time as AOW. Talk/text with the instructor tell them you want to add Nitrox. It's $100 through the instructor. $150 if you sign up through RR. Use nitrox for the deep dive.

- All the instructors at RR seem competent and professional. Some, but not all, are quite young and inexperienced. The AOW course at RR from my own exerience and watching others, is by the PADI book. No extra above and beyond training. It is what it is: 5 sampler dives introducing more challenging situations with some light training. It's the gateway cert to the more challenging dives without having to demo your competence to RR or show your log book. The PPB dive is popular but realistically it's only 1 dive. Swim through a hoop, do a few hovers, etc.. YMMV but you might learn a few things - or not.

- I would recommend RR for AOW because they have a lot of instructors and a lot of boats. Very flexible scheduling and can do 5 different fun dives in 2 days. For the most fun I would recommend doing the night dive on Tue or Thur and dive the Speigel Grove for the deep dive.

- After every dive trip you can go to the RR retail store and spin the wheel. Try to win free Nitrox course or free nitrox fills.

 

[Wibble]

Quality not quan

You mean like this?

UTD Scuba Coaching | UTD Scuba Diving

or like this?

Recreational Diving | AQUI Watersports

Exactly

By GUE I mean all agencies that have quality as their prime goal.

It’s quite possible to apply the same ethos of core skills quality within the recreational community