Would Government Regulation of Diving Be So Bad?

[H2Andy]

boatlawyer:

well... i asked:

do you think the agencies are god at training divers? (my spelling error)

and she answered:

no, they are not gods (her pun)

but the gist of her answer is that they are not good at it (or so it seems to me, but i could be wrong
and Snow will correct me)

your solution, btw, would lead to more litigation (tons more litigation), which I am
sure very few people want i certainly don't want more litigation regarding diving.

 

[jkennedy]

WOW! Thanks for a great board H2Andy. It is amazing to see how many people think they need the goverment involved in their lives. Even if it is a discussion it still amazes me. What a great country we live in...........

 

[Snowbear]

ok... you tell me what you dont' want done, but you don't
answer the question.

Yes I did. You're just missing the point. But that's OK

 

[Snowbear]

i understood Snow to say that the agencies were not doing a good job.

Not quite, Andy. Read the actual words I typed. Just because folks are not perfect, does not mean they are bad at what they do.

 

[H2Andy]

Not quite, Andy. Read the actual words I typed (as well as your words that I quoted )

lol, yeah, i got your pun. see my post 131

 

[Snowbear]

lol, yeah, i got your pun. see my post 131

Keep readin'. There's another message in that post.

 

[H2Andy]

Keep readin'. There's another message in that post.

yup, i did read it, and quoted it verbatim in my post 126. you
state that you believe in personal responsibility and that
you will continue to strive for excellence.

certainly this addresses post-c-card "self-training" to
remediate poor training, but it doesn't address how
to improve the training provided by the agencies in the
first place.

so, seems to me you dont' answer the question of how to improve agency training in lieu of gubmen intervention.

 

[Snowbear]

yup, i did read it, and quoted it verbatim in my post 126. you
state that you believe in personal responsibility and that
you will continue to strive for excellence.

certainly this addresses post-c-card "self-training" to
remediate poor training, but it doesn't address how
to improve the training provided by the agencies.

so, seems to me you dont' answer the question of how to improve agency training in lieu of gubmen intervention.

I thought it was the instructors that provided the training, not the agencies. The agencies provide the standards the instructors are supposed to adhere to, but it's the instructor that does the training.

My comment about Personal Responsibility was not just meant for me, though it does play a part (though small) in the whole scheme. If each diver, instructor, DM, agency leadership person and dive shop owner would take the concept to heart, your thread would have been laughed off the board. Because so many folks want to put blame and responsibility for their lack of whatever on someone else, some folks seem to think there is a need for Uncle Big Brother Sam to step in and dictate... uh... tax... uh... I mean regulate us so we maybe won't hurt ourselves.

 

[H2Andy]

If each diver, instructor, DM, agency leadership person and dive shop owner would take the concept to heart, your thread would have been laughed off the board.

your statment is absolutely true. and i wish it were that way.

however, "if" is the biggest word in the English language.

if we lived in a perfect world, then there would not be bad instructors teaching
poor diving techniques to unsuspecting students.

however, since we do live in an imperfect world in which
bad instructors teach poor diving techniques to unsuspecting students, i was wondering what we could to to
improve dive training.

short of government intervention and living in a perfect world

 

[Snowbear]

Well, without personal responsibility, the bad instructors will not improve and will continue teaching. If every once in a while an unsuspecting student wakes up and smells the chlorine and takes it upon him or herself to do something besides propose the feds come in and fix things, small changes may start happening. Like the phone call or email to the certifying agency of the instructor that drogs down the OW student who's have trouble equalizing? How about the already overweighted (at the suggestion of the instructor) DM who is ordered by the instructor to use his BC as a lift bag while retrieving dropped weight belts? If the students and co-workers don't take personal responsibility, why would the instructors? If the instructors don't, why would the agency leadership, especially when the agency leadership has likely worked up through the same crappy instructor ranks? The change must come from within to be effective and lasting.

My turn - I'll ask you again - do you actually think government intervention would actually improve dive training? (We're back to talking about real world, not the fantasy world where folks believe in personal responsibility).