Posted by Eric S on November 12, 2000 at 19:07:37:
In Reply to: DIR question posted by Frank on November 12, 2000 at 07:44:41:
I have given this subject much thought in the past and here's my take on it.
I think that as far as basic OW training goes, for resort areas in warm tropical locations the regular consumer certification agencies do an OK job. At least vacationers can have a chance to see the underwater world, and with the guided tours available they can be taken to some reasonably safe spots.
Now, when the consumer agencies get to advanced training (at least PADI) this is where some changes need to be made. As far as I'm concerned PADI's idea of advanced training is a joke. Their entire structure all the way up to instructor is flawed. For example when I did my rescue course the intructor was fresh out of school and it was excruciatingly painful to have to sit through his incompetence. Later I found out that the majority of his required dives to become an instuctor were done in less than 20 feet of water helping another instructor with OW classes. These shouldn't even be considered real dives. And I found out that he also padded his log book. Anyway, the result was that I felt truly ripped off.
I think that for advanced and above they should tighten up the training considerably including an overall fitness exam just like they do to get a class A drivers licence. It seems to me that dive charter operators that specialized in advanced diving would benefit from this knowing that the divers are REALLY trained for the conditions.
As far as I'm concerned, the way consumer agencies run things now they're not doing anybody any favors. They absolutely should adopt some philosophies and gear configurations from the technical/DIR side, (for advanced and up).