Posted by maddiver on August 28, 2001 at 19:22:05:
In Reply to: Re: Others posted by TDI Diver on August 28, 2001 at 16:21:31:
>>>>Bottom line
if the instructor does not have any more experience than what he/she has been taught while receiving certifications, that is little to no actual diving
experience, all this instructor can do is pick up a book and teach out of it and hopefully follow the *standards* of his/her agnecy.
This does not make for a very good instructor no matter what the agency or the *standards*.
The sad thing is there are a lot of these type of instructors *teaching* technical diving.
Couldn't agree with you more. Do you want some 18 yr old with 85 dives giving a technical nitrox course to your wife? Point is that GUE at this point is so small and requires stricter standards that it is easier to find a GUE instructor with the level of expertise and experience that I would consider 'able' to teach. In my mind if you have less than 250 cave dives you cannot teach others as you have not learned yourself...same thing would apply to say 100+ trimix dives. I am not suggesting all TDI/IANTD etc instructors are unqualified and/or unsafe only that to be an instructor and teach others, you need not have much experience. Most of the GUE guys (atleast on east coast and in Mexico) have Extreme Exposure experience (in otherwords they were not 'recreational cave divers' or tourists) Experience gained on the cutting edge translates many times into sound information and practices for new divers.