Posted by Ken Kurtis on October 31, 2000 at 23:50:29:
In Reply to: Bruce Weinke's summary of the NAUI Conference posted by MHK on October 31, 2000 at 13:30:43:
(Bruce's comment was) Plans are also in the works to make all courses nitrox based, with air the usual (default or EAN21) case.
To be honest Mike, I'm not sure what he's talking about. Since this paper comes from the NAUI Tech Diving Ops, I'd assume he's referring only to Tech courses, but the refernce then to air makes little or no sense. (The sentence really seems not to be very well-written.)
I doubt the intent is to eliminate air in basic courses.
First of all, that's just not the way NAUI works. They generally don't mandate that type of thing to their stores and instructors. NAUI is well known for setting minimum and minaml guidelines which instructors are free to exceed.
And I believe that the option of incorporating nitrox into a basic course exists even now. Since I don't teach nitrox, I'm not sure of the mechanics but perhaps someone who's more familair with those aspects can clarify NAUI's position at the moment.
Secondly, mandating nitrox for all basic classes doesn't seem practical from a business standpoint. Reef seekers is certainly not the only store in the country without nitrox capabilities and to require stores to convert to nitrox compressors, train their staff in nitrox use, perhaps buy additional equipment (properly marked tanks at least) and train their instructors - thus incurring a fairly significant expense for little or no increase in business from a training standpoint - seems like a good way to lose a number of affiliates who don't have the finances to make the switch. And like I said, NAUI just generally doesn't operate with that type of a mindset of dictating to their members what they MUST do.
Thirdly, and perhaps more practically, given that NAUI has just invested a tremendous amount of time and money into revising all the course materials for the basic class (textbook, video, CD-rom, PowerPoint presentation) and that it's all air-based, I can't see them deciding to junk all that in the near future or go to version 2.0 to switch it all to nitrox.
But, I could be wrong. It's happened before and I'm sure it'll happen again.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, Ca.