Why do so many poorly skilled divers...

[24940]

e I was actually contemplating doing the DM thing myself once I have the 20 dives needed to start the program.

At 20 dives, people rarely have their act together well enough to be considered proficient divers. The fact that one can start professional training with so few dives is really at the heart of the issue raised by the OP.

The biggest difference in diving and diving professionally is that you cease diving for yourself when you go pro. It's about the students safety and pleasure.

 

[Mr.X]

...and those that can do neither, post....

Excellent!!! LOL!!!

X

The previously mentioned adage needs to be binned.

 

[timle]

Not to be negative - but its because the average skill level in nearly anything lots of humans do is pretty poor. There is a vast army of people that want everything to be easy, hence they will never master anything difficult. Unfortunately its becoming less and less acceptable to call people on it.

"Oh, God, what if I'm average? Do you have any idea how dumb 'average' is?"

 

[RikRaeder]

I notice the situation that the OP mentioned a lot. Perhaps it's not "poorly skilled" divers, but rather, inexperienced divers. I'm sure there are some that are just plain lummoxes as well.
I know several divers who have just started and are all ready talking about DM, Instructor, etc. While shops and Course Directors may encourage this for their own reasons, the several people I know are motivated more, I think, by love of the sport and the dream of diving every day and being paid for it than anything else. Sure, they need a reality check, but when the means are held out before them, and the dream (or 10m narcosis) stirs in their minds it's possible that their passion get the better of them.
Admittedly, I too would like to earn an instructor's rating...someday. I, however, want to be a GOOD instructor, so am trying to build up my experience and skills as well as learning new skills which would make me more proficient and hireable (as a part timer I think).
Without reopeneing various cans of worms that have recently been bouncing around the board, perhaps if more stringent standards were applied to those wishing to be professionals, there would be less people applying. I guess that's the crux of the matter, and an age old gripe on many levels: agencies v. marketing v. proficiency.
For many, it's tough to get a lot of diving experience, however they have the pro dream. By making it easier to achieve the dream, certifiers have increased the number of poor products (pros) on the market. In the end, I suppose it's up to the operators to screen the wheat from the chaff. I wouldn't want my friend Mr. X, working for my dive shop leading recreational divers on my insurance. Ms. Y, however might (in a few years) be a welcome addition. Just because everyone is a "DM," doesn't mean they will all be working (thank goodness!).

 

[TSandM]

Well, I'll offer the point of view of someone who almost became one of those DMs.

When I learned to dive, I was enchanted. I was fantastically excited about this wonderful new thing I had learned to do, and was continuing to learn to do (as I was sold AOW and a bunch of specialties pretty much right away). I looked up to the DMs who had worked so patiently with me when I was taking my OW class, and as I love to teach anything I like to do, it was very easy to sway me toward getting into a DM program so that I could help others learn. I did think it was a little odd, how short a time some of the DMs had been diving, and how few dives they had, but all that meant was that it was clearly possible to teach people to that level in that short a time.

I'd never seen a really good diver. My instructors kicked up silt. The dives we did proceeded with the instructor out in front of me, and me swimming like crazy to keep up. Dives I did with DMs from the shop ended with buddy separations. But these were the professionals I had to model myself after. I had no idea things could be different, until I began diving with other people and seeing what was possible.

So don't blame those DMs. A lot of them undoubtedly had the most honorable of reasons for wanting to get the DM cert. Instead, blame a system that turns out professional divers who don't have good buoyancy control, can't avoid silting a dive site, have no clue about gas management, and don't bother to do dive plans or buddy checks, because the people who trained them don't, either.

 

[Teamcasa]

As the old saying goes:

Those that can,do.

Those that can not, teach.

And those who can't teach - They write books!

 

[scubafool]

As the old saying goes:

Those that can,do.

Those that can not, teach.

...and those that can do neither, post....

Priceless, just priceless.

You know, this is actually a good topic to bring up, because I was actually contemplating doing the DM thing myself once I have the 20 dives needed to start the program...mostly because my dive buddy is planning to do the same thing (we both have 7 logged dives), but honestly, you make very good points as to why that might be a mistake to do so. I'm not going to get into the AOW debate here, but I think I may stick to my original plan of getting AOW and rescue then just picking up a specialty here and there to continue learning. I'd prefer NOT to be one of those DMs who doesn't know what in the hell they're doing...even though I already don't silt up the bottom anymore.

I, too, am considering going through the DM course sometime in the future. Maybe another 100 dives or so. BTW, I am close to 250 dives right now.

Seriously, though, while it probably doesn't take most people hundreds of dives to gain the skills and knowledge neccesary to be a good DM, 20 dives is nowhere NEAR enough. Even if you don't finish till, say, dive 70, that is still not a whole lot of experience to start guiding and being responsible for other divers, IMHO.

 

[oly5050user]

Not to be negative - but its because the average skill level in nearly anything lots of humans do is pretty poor. There is a vast army of people that want everything to be easy, hence they will never master anything difficult. Unfortunately its becoming less and less acceptable to call people on it.

"Oh, God, what if I'm average? Do you have any idea how dumb 'average' is?"

Totally agree.
Also remember that the skills are evaluated at a given time , done correctly supposedly and then certified.All certification means that at a given time this individual completed skills correctly for an evaluator.Whatever the diver does after that is their own problem,and whoever has to dive with them..Does not matter what level they are at.Could be ow on to Instr. level.
Look how many people pass a road test and get a license and cannot drive properly.

 

[MissyP]

Because they get caught up in the "i'm gonna take class after class after class" mentality which is often pushed by most LDS's.. The shop is seeing dollar signs of course, while the new diver is thinking that the more classes he takes will help him become Super Diver in a matter of weeks.. I've seen it happen at my own LDS and it bugs the $%@* out of me because some of the people who have gone through the DM course were absolutely not ready for it...I recall a couple of DMC's laughing at how they got 4 dives on one tank because they were doing 20 min "dives" sitting at 20ft (20 min is the minimum requirement for a dive to be considered a dive) in order to reach the 60 dive requirement to take the DM course. Yup, sitting in the sand to rack up the #'s really makes you a good diver....
I had 250+ dives under my belt before taking on DM.. I was comfortable in surf, boat diving, night diving, deep diving, rocky entries, current, low/no vis, surge, buoyancy, gear, and the other neccesities before becoming a dive "pro"... unfortunately I can't say the same about a lot of other DMs... (or instructors).. Recently we had a new instructor that I DM'd for teaching his first class locally~ he had NEVER done a surf entry... and yet we were doing a beach entry.. .... Well, it was no surprise when he lost his mask on the entry on the first dive.
I have my days where I'm off my game... something on my mind, being cold, feeling lazy, etc.... but keep in mind that nobody is perfect every moment of every dive.. Even the most experienced divers have bad days~ its just the way things go...

 

[RJP]

Why do so many poorly skilled divers want to be DM's?

So they can become instructors!

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