Should SB be mandatory for new divers ?

[AfterDark]

IMO diving should be mandatory for new divers.

 

[DennisS]

Sure make it mandatory that they join scubaboard, decostop, spearboard, deeper blue, ebay, and craigslist

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I think we need to make personal responsibility mandatory.

A new diver is responsible for his or her own safety, learning progression, experience, and quality of his or her own skill development.

 

[Butch103]

It would be proposed to make SB mandatory for any new diver being certified.
With your new credential, the diver should open a new account in SB, so as the new diver can make a visit to the threads and learn as we all have learned with this site.
Thoughts ?

NO!!!!....if you want to learn go to a qualified instructor!!.....if you don't feel your instruction you recieved in your OW training or subsequent was good enough...find another instructor.....There are brand new divers posting their "qualified"??? opinions and instruction.

Just to add.....I get a notice that it has been sometime since I have posted etc. etc. etc.......I have a hard time reading many of the threads because of their idiotic content!

 

[cfelliot]

I just returned from CocoView in Roatan, Honduras. At 137 dives leaving and 42 over two weeks while I was there, I return realizing that the education in diving should never stop. I am returning a better diver and I know the I will improve even more as I accumulate experience.

With that said, I have to say the I was horrified at some of the things I saw other divers doing. From inverted head crashes into the reef to overhearing a conversation between one diver and his DM where everything the DM tries to say was rebutted with an argument - fould out he was a lawyer later! On the checkout dives first day several divers had to be hauled back from the shore dive due to OOA situations.

I don't know what can be done to improve this, but obviously people are not getting the training needed for OW certification.

 

[emoreira]

I also consider that joining a public board like this could not be mandatory for any diver, however, during the last 2 years that I'm member of this forum I've learned a lot about many things related to the diving activity that cannot be learned from your instructor or your LDS.
Your instructor is in contact with you only during instruction, this is a limited time. Your LDS could know a lot about the local diving place, but not much about other places.
Your instructor could know a lot about the scuba activity, but this is only his point of view.
Here we can make questions at any time, we can share opinions about gear, places, operators, buddies, sellers, buyers and many many other things.
We can get a second opinion with respect to something your instructor or your LDS told you and you do not agree.
The list of etceteras could be huge.
No one here is the absolut owner of the full truth, however, one can make it's own reflection considering the advices and posts and arrive to a better understanding of it's own truth.

 

[The Chairman]

Let's face it: ScubaBoard isn't for everyone. If you are dead set in your modality of diving, have a hard time accepting other POVs, or feel threatened by the plethora of training/diving styles out there, then we are going to offend. If you are here only to have your opinions validated, to be worshiped for being a diving god or simply want to abuse others, then you will be similarly frustrated.

However, if you come with a mind open to new concepts, a desire to share your opinions/experiences with others, a thirst for knowledge and an ego that can accept criticisms, then ScubaBoard is the place for you and you are more than welcome here. We have long tried to keep ScubaBoard friendly AND relevant. I like where we have been, and I appreciate the Mods and Advisors who help us to adapt and evolve as we face new issues. We haven't reached our apex yet, and I hope we never do. Currently we are addressing some friendliness issues with regards to dive agencies, and I am sure we will be given another challenge after that. You can be sure we are dedicated to being the very best forum we can be.

Thanks to the OP and thanks to everyone (positive and negative) in this thread. Without you, we would not be.

 

[super7]

Umm,
Has the op given consideration to language matters?

 

[Jeff Toorish]

What sort of additional instruction should it be?

-Mitch

For example, your basic open water certification would last for two years during which you must complete Advanced Open Water. A more advanced certification would be permanent.

There is so much discussion about declining standards (I don't agree with that, by the way) that you would think simply requiring active divers to get additional training that many of them do anyway would make sense.

I can't think of many activities where certifications are permanent. Almost all such certifications require renewal, why not scuba?

For me, this is a simple matter of safety.

How many of us have been on a boat with someone about to jump into the water who was certified ten years ago and hasn't done a dive since? I know I have.

If you are an active diver, you should want more instruction anyway. If you got certified at a resort and dived ten times a decade ago, why on earth should your certification be active?

Jeff

 

[Straegen]

Disagree with the mandatory training idea. What is in place now has proven effective at keeping divers safe and more mandated training isn't likely to change the safety level significantly. The only thing it would probably do is cause some to leave the hobby.

Additional training is a good thing though and I would recommend it, but wouldn't call it mandatory. I also COMPLETELY support dive ops that require recent dive experience or require divers take a "rusty diver" course. That IMO is a completely different form of mandatory retraining that I find acceptable.