BrianPH14
Registered
I'm in the process of choosing an instructor for cave diving, and in reference to anything that is trying to kill me I always seek out second opinions. Here are some of the many reasons this process sucks.
1. Factions. In my home state of MO there are multiple groups that cave dive and none of them do it the same way or place the same value in all aspects of the process of cave diving.
2. Small community that isn't small enough. Everyone seems to know everyone else within two points of separation. which brings me into my next point...
3. Strong Opinions / Personalities. Every small group thinks that every other group is full of pricks, or are dangerous, or add whatever other adjective you want to that. One person from the group had a bad run-in with one person from the other group and everyone got on board with the tiff. Similarly I've had a group of people tell me very passionately that backmount doubles suck when none of them had ever tried BM, but they heard a friend of theirs that tried them once voice preference for sidemount. That kind of stuff.
4. Logistics. Some people say mexico is the best place to learn caves, others say Florida. Some say you need to do both to get a holistic training experience. I've been told that I can learn to dive in FL or MX but the conditions are so much more gnarly in MO that I'd have to practically relearn for local caves. Some people say to learn in a few places from a few different instructors. Some say to stick with one.
5. Lastly, and my biggest issue personally, I have no way to really evaluate an instructors diving because I'm not able to get into a cave with them until its too late. So group A could be right that they rock or group B could be right that the instructor should be avoided and I'll be none the wiser until my life is already in their hands and could have a bunch more money on training and travel to correct any shortcomings or whatever.
I hate politics, especially in leisure. As an outsider its difficult to rise above it when the entire experience is literally underground. Thats all I had to say.
1. Factions. In my home state of MO there are multiple groups that cave dive and none of them do it the same way or place the same value in all aspects of the process of cave diving.
2. Small community that isn't small enough. Everyone seems to know everyone else within two points of separation. which brings me into my next point...
3. Strong Opinions / Personalities. Every small group thinks that every other group is full of pricks, or are dangerous, or add whatever other adjective you want to that. One person from the group had a bad run-in with one person from the other group and everyone got on board with the tiff. Similarly I've had a group of people tell me very passionately that backmount doubles suck when none of them had ever tried BM, but they heard a friend of theirs that tried them once voice preference for sidemount. That kind of stuff.
4. Logistics. Some people say mexico is the best place to learn caves, others say Florida. Some say you need to do both to get a holistic training experience. I've been told that I can learn to dive in FL or MX but the conditions are so much more gnarly in MO that I'd have to practically relearn for local caves. Some people say to learn in a few places from a few different instructors. Some say to stick with one.
5. Lastly, and my biggest issue personally, I have no way to really evaluate an instructors diving because I'm not able to get into a cave with them until its too late. So group A could be right that they rock or group B could be right that the instructor should be avoided and I'll be none the wiser until my life is already in their hands and could have a bunch more money on training and travel to correct any shortcomings or whatever.
I hate politics, especially in leisure. As an outsider its difficult to rise above it when the entire experience is literally underground. Thats all I had to say.