Why, Y?

[crispix]

I know it's old news, but I just found out about YMCA cancelling its scuba program.

Boo! I was Y certified a few years ago, and it was a fantastic program! In depth material and curriculum, lots of classroom and pool sessions, far more stringent than any other class I've taken since.

I'm a better diver because of my Y instructor and the Y standards.

I could tell the program was languishing from the sorry state of the yscuba web site and the stale curriculum (not that anything was fundamentally wrong with it, but it had obvioulsy not been updated in some time). This is really too bad. Y-trained divers are better than a lot of what I've seen out there.

I've read the thread about why the instructors were upset with the Y's rules, and it sounds like there was just too little interest at the top to keep it going, and the Y decided to use the mutual-destruction nuclear option rather than explore solutions.

Boo!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You have been out of the loop. Alot has taken place in the last couple months. Go to the SEI Diving forum for what I think you will view as welcome news.
Jim Lapenta
SEI Diving Instructor
SEI Diving Scubaboard Representative.

 

[Walter]

It's my opinion that the YMCA of the USA has been planning to drop SCUBA for quite some time. It's really been on the way out since the Norcross office was closed several years ago. The advisory committee was abolished. The program director was eliminated. Sanctions for all classes were required. Affiliation with a local Y was required. Each move was a step toward forcing SCUBA out of the YMCA. It was obvious at DEMA in 2003 when they promised us they would keep SCUBA for at least 18 months...

The strength of YSCUBA never had anything to do with the Chicago office. The strength of the program was in the advisory committee and the high standards. YMCA is out of the diving business. In its place is SCUBA Educators International (SEI) with high standards and the advisory committee back on track, no forced affiliations, no sanctions required to teach a class.

This change is a good one, it keeps everything that was good about YSCUBA and gets rid of the parts that weren't.

 

[rstofer]

It's my opinion that the YMCA of the USA has been planning to drop SCUBA for quite some time. It's really been on the way out since the Norcross office was closed several years ago. The advisory committee was abolished. The program director was eliminated. Sanctions for all classes were required. Affiliation with a local Y was required. Each move was a step toward forcing SCUBA out of the YMCA. It was obvious at DEMA in 2003 when they promised us they would keep SCUBA for at least 18 months...

The strength of YSCUBA never had anything to do with the Chicago office. The strength of the program was in the advisory committee and the high standards. YMCA is out of the diving business. In its place is SCUBA Educators International (SEI) with high standards and the advisory committee back on track, no forced affiliations, no sanctions required to teach a class.

This change is a good one, it keeps everything that was good about YSCUBA and gets rid of the parts that weren't.

But, do you think it will succeed? Will they be able to find facilities or perhaps use Y facilities? There probably aren't a lot of publicly accessible deep pools.

I certainly support their goals and I really like the independent training model.

Finally, will their certification be internationally recognized any time soon?

Richard