The State of Diving

[seaducer]

I remember how awesome it felt when the buoyancy and the trim all fell into place. I remember coming up thinking; wow...I actually got to see some stuff and enjoy the dive without having to concentrate only on staying trim and off the bottom.

I guess the point is, wouldn't it have been so much better if you could have figured that out in training?

If you look at the one lady in the video...the one who is upright and trying to clear her ears all the time. The one who can't let go of her buddy.

It is not about us being 'elite"...it is about what is fair to that diver? She clearly does not have the tools to dive safely. What if she has a serious issue?

I am sorry if this sounds "elite" but that woman, and others in the video are a danger to themselves, those in the water with them, and to the environment they are diving in. And that is not fair to anybody.

I am glad they had fun and nobody got hurt. I am also happy to say that I have never seen a group that bad collectively outside of a pool.

 

[Rhone Man]

Ah, the ever popular highly critical newbie bashing thread.

For some reason, these always remind me of one of my ex-girlfriends.

 

[seaducer]

Ah, the ever popular highly critical newbie bashing thread.

For some reason, these always remind me of one of my ex-girlfriends.

Did she dive like the people in the video too?

 

[*dave*]

Ah, the ever popular highly critical newbie bashing thread.

Sorry you and others have seen it as such, but if it were so, I don't think it would be allowed to live in Basic SCUBA.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

There is no reason for this to be the norm or even typical. A little time, patience,and practice can take a new student on their first night in the pool on scuba and have them in better trim and with more control than the people in this video. I know. I do it. Being in trim and exercising good buoyancy control is easier if students are started with it from the beginning. I would be ashamed if these were my students regardless of how long they had been certified. And the DM who handed the fish to the woman. Just plain stupid. If as Dave said each of these had received even a little competent instruction they would have had even more fun and everyone would have enjoyed the dive. Some people simply should not be diving. We all know this. But the ones that are should at least look like divers.

The cost/time argument or justification for this CF is pure BS. I can see good divers staying away from ops like this. People who would come and dive for a week as opposed to one day or a couple dives. How is that good business? Divers like this do not generally support the local shops, take more training (unless it's quickie gimme money courses), or make an effort to improve their skills. I do not want to be around the just enough is good enough bunch. I will never be as good as I'd like to be. Because the better I get the more I see divers who are just that much better. So I set an even higher goal. I would rather dive with the newbie who wants to get his buoyancy control to within say 3 feet plus or minus than the one who has 500 dives yet is still using his hands, banging into stuff, and tearing up the reef yet sees himself as good enough. Sorry no you are not.

 

[Rhone Man]

Sorry you and others have seen it as such, but if it were so, I don't think it would be allowed to live in Basic SCUBA.

I was just poking fun, but it is a bit of a recurrent theme on SB...

 

[Scott L]

I was just poking fun, but it is a bit of a recurrent theme on SB...

I will take a sub-par OW training thread over a deep air discussion any day of the week...

 

[seaducer]

I will take a sub-par OW training thread over a deep air discussion any day of the week...

How about a poorly trained OW, split fin using diver on air, 180 feet down 1500 feet back in a cave, with only a Spare Air as a buddy?

 

[Hank49]

The only groups I'd seen this unskilled was when we did the Intro to Scuba...or Discover Diving. But we took them to a sandy bottom area where they couldn't do much damage.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The video was fun and amusing, but it is not that unusual. I've seen much worse. Most all looked to be having fun.

I've seen divers so nervous before a dive they are shaking,

I've watched more than one PADI instructor SCREAM at their students moments before they enter the water,

I can't count the number of certified divers who were taking their advanced training dives and totally panic when their lips get wet and they step off the ladder,

I've helped an instructor dress a 425 lb stdent who was physically overwhelmed getting dressed and needed a 60 lb weght belt that was proably 5 feet long,

just last year, I watched a PADI instructor manage an underweighted student by grabbing hold of his pressure guage and pull him around tethered by the guage hose like a ballon floating over his head for the entire traiing dive.

I've seen an active PADI instructor so nervous before a typical local dive to 130 feet that he was shaking terribly and could hardly get dressed.

I've seen a certified dive swim out through the surf zone at night and then surface and begin to scream so hysterically that I was pretty sure he was being attacked by a shark and when i asked him what was wrong, he said he was scared.

I've seen a number of people try to climb an anchor line in a total panic while wearing scuba gear.

I've seen cerified technical divers nearly kill themselves a number of times due to an inability to manage buoyancy.

No, the only thing in the video that surprised me was handing off the scorpion fish, I used to pick them up to show to customers, but I would never hand one off (that was pretty stupid).