Thank heavens for PADI

[Mako Mark]

If you had your own boat could you dive without a guid?

Anyone diving with a commercial operator has to have a guide in the water. Most people dont take objection to this, they actually appreciate and want to pay for this.

If you turned up there with your own boat??

Im not sure, I havent seen anything governing private divers.

 

[durian]

I do not think all the animosity and name calling is going to make PADI go away. Hopefully the quality of training and standards will continually improve. My OW instructor was trained by PADI and then by the SWEDISH UDT. My AOW instructor was in his 50's and had a list of certifications and qualifikcations that are longer than his arm (in 14 font, bold). My point is that the training and expereince for these instructors went beyond the confines of PADI, but they are PADI instructors and add to the overall quality of the PADI program.

I defend PADI because many seem to want to BASH it. I do not want to think that my training has been with the K-Mart of the diving world ( maybe the Starbucks would be ok).

Anyway, 2 things are true. People often feel better about themselves when they belittle someone else. People feel better about their, school, company, club, church, etc, when they belittle another school, com,company, club or church?????

 

[MikeFerrara]

Anyone diving with a commercial operator has to have a guide in the water. Most people dont take objection to this, they actually appreciate and want to pay for this.

If you turned up there with your own boat??

Im not sure, I havent seen anything governing private divers.

Nothing wrong with using a guide if you want one but a law that requires you to have one is insulting.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I do not think all the animosity and name calling is going to make PADI go away. Hopefully the quality of training and standards will continually improve. My OW instructor was trained by PADI and then by the SWEDISH UDT. My AOW instructor was in his 50's and had a list of certifications and qualifikcations that are longer than his arm (in 14 font, bold). My point is that the training and expereince for these instructors went beyond the confines of PADI, but they are PADI instructors and add to the overall quality of the PADI program.

Exactly my point.

I defend PADI because many seem to want to BASH it. I do not want to think that my training has been with the K-Mart of the diving world ( maybe the Starbucks would be ok).

I think that's why many people defend it.

Anyway, 2 things are true. People often feel better about themselves when they belittle someone else. People feel better about their, school, company, club, church, etc, when they belittle another school, com,company, club or church?????

There is a third truth. That is that when a person spends a considerable amount of time and money but through experience loses respect for the agency they teach for they may not be so pleasent about it.

 

[Allison Finch]

Besides... with PADI cranking out customers it creates a steady flow of potential customers for other certifiying agencies.


YEAH, CUSTOMERS FOR EMERGENCY ROOMS, RECOMPRESSION CHAMBERS, ATTORNEYS, COURT SYSTEMS, FUNERAL HOMES.......NEED I GO ON?
__________________

 

[gj62]

YEAH, CUSTOMERS FOR EMERGENCY ROOMS, RECOMPRESSION CHAMBERS, ATTORNEYS, COURT SYSTEMS, FUNERAL HOMES.......NEED I GO ON?
__________________

By all means, please do. In today's litigious society, were dive professionals able to prove that PADI's (or any other agencies standards - since the main agencies are very similar) did not adequately prepare a diver for the type of diving that they limit you to, you would see many more court actions. As it is, I cannot find a pending or recent legal action against PADI for a failure in defining or implementing adequate training standards.

So, please back up your shouting with reasonable, not anecdotal, evidence and I will certainly be willing to be swayed to your arguement. As it is, I will be one of the many that hope the instructor oversight improves before the standards, since the latter without the former will not be a significant event...

 

[Lawman]

If it wasnt for Lawyers... we wouldnt need them...

what do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the sea??

.

I havn't stopped laughing since you posted that knee slapper!
The next time you bring the dive boat in leaving a diver out in the ocean, or you need the O2 bottle and the crew used it all up getting over hangovers tell the defense attorney the insurance company sends to defend your sorry a$$. I'm sure he'll get as big a kick out of your humor as I did!

 

[H2Andy]

lol...

trying to quell lawyer jokes is like King Canute commanding the tides to stop...

it ain't gonna happen! but thanks for trying, Lawman!

 

[H2Andy]

QUESTION:

Is there any evidence that accident rates have sky-rocketed due to all the
allegedly poorly trained PADI hordes?

or have they, in fact, remained rather constant for the past 30 years?

just curious

 

[MikeFerrara]

QUESTION:

Is there any evidence that accident rates have sky-rocketed due to all the
allegedly poorly trained PADI hordes?

or have they, in fact, remained rather constant for the past 30 years?

just curious

True but but what we don't know is how many dives are being done. I tend to think that the number of dives done each year is also staying pretty constant. Last years new divers took their one vacation and are pretty much through and replace by this years new certs. Thousands and thousands of new divers are certified each year and if all these divers were out diving you'd need 100 new resorts every year, equipment sales would be through the roof and every shop would need a bigger compressor every couple of years. Not only has the business not grown recently but I've talked to a number of shop owners who said that last year was their worst in 30 years.


One thing that we do know is that a large percentage of the dives that are done are done under some level of supervision. People are doing canned dives off resort boats. Often there is in-water supervision but even it there isn't the dive is taking place at the same site dived by the resort every day and most of the real planning has been done for the divers.

How would they do if they went out on their own and just went diving?

Some of the things I see seem to suggest that without some help these divers are just cannon fodder...fish food...or whatever.