Posted by seahunt on July 17, 2001 at 21:48:12:
In Reply to: Descent Lines; was Scuba Classes posted by Bill Johnson on July 17, 2001 at 10:26:02:
Wow! I think I'm just glad....
that they didn't have BC's when I took my class.
This is fascinating. I really don't know much about the issue, but I can make some observations about what I read here.
I notice that this started with a complaint about descent lines and divers dragging themselves down. My best buddy there even says they drag themselves down overweighted. Very hot stuff and very loaded.
Really, it just seems an extension of PADI bashing following ideological party lines. I will put in here that it sounds like some of it 'may' be justified and it may also be tainted with ideological mis-information.
All of the other points of view seem to be non-ideological including many who have both condemned PADI and some who point out that some of the individual PADI instructors teach a very high quality class.
Wayne nicely pointed out that some of this wretching ignores that we all started as beginners somewhere sometime. I really think that that gets forgotten. I couldn't clear my ears when I started diving.
From the point of the PADI bashers, it sounds like PADI divers should be drowning right and left, which as Dalia pointed out, is definately not the case.
I still don't know what to make of all this. No one takes into account the individual diver and I have to say that is where my view comes from. The quality of most of the good divers I have known had nothing to do with their class experience. It was all based on their experience after their class and their presonal devotion. Many of the most experienced divers only have very basic cretifications. They dive instead of taking classes. I'm a good example of that. My class was about 18 hours with 4 pool dives, 1 beach dive, 1 follow the leader snorkel and 2 tanks in the ocean. My only real certification (aside from a later NITROX course) is NAUI Beginning Scuba Diver.... and I defy anyone that wants to shoot off their mouth to tell me that they learned to dive the San Mateo Coast (nastiest diving in CA) comfortably, as I did.
Still what to make of this? I think the PADI bashers like an invariant diving style based on ideology. That's definately stupid. Sometimes you use lines, sometimes not. Sometimes you descend in currents sometimes not. Sometimes you do it one way, sometimes another. We are human and we aren't all a bunch of mid aged German guys.
Nah... a pox on all ideologists and fanatics. A fanatic is a fanatic is a nutcase. Diving is for fun and for most everyone that wants to do it enough to get off the couch and dive. I think all the complainers are forgetting that it is the person that makes the diver and not the agency or anybodys rules. Everybody forgets the natural weeding process. Most divers just don't continue after a couple of years. It's too tough for most people. The devoted divers continue and that is why the fatality rate for divers is comparable to most other sports (and a much lower injury rate). I am certain that the ideologists have a skewed view. At the same time, it sounds like PADI has some problems. But in any case, the ideologists (may just as well say DIR) are polarizing the issue. making the issue nasty and bashing everybody that is non-DIR to promote themselves. What a bunch of anger and hate.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt