Posted by Wayne on July 28, 2002 at 00:27:34:
I was at Casino Point today and was shocked as I watched open water classes from THAT REALLY BIG CHAIN STORE. I watched as huge groups walked down the stairs and swam on the surface as a heard to their descent point. Then they disappeared, and I would forget them -- until I saw them at the surface again. For the record, I was there assisting a semi private OW lesson for two friends. Not a bad set of ratio, 2 students for 1 instructor and 1 DM.
At one point we broke for lunch and tank refills and we watched a class of 13 start their dive. Instead of using the stairs, they geared up and climbed the wall and worked their way down the rocks next to the air fill trailer. The put a DM (I assume he was a DM based on the observed behavior) in the water first. The instructor stood on the rocks and directed his students as they entered below him. Another DM (another assumption of mine) stood at the end of the line of students working their way down the rocks in full gear. 2 things stood out for me. First they did not wear their masks, but rather had them around their necks. Second, they hand carried their fins. And a third one related to the first, they had no regulator in the mouth.
They stumbled into the surge and would fall into the crevices. The lower DM would ‘rescue’ them and pull them off the rocks about 10 feet where they were to put on their fins – still with no mask, snorkel, or regulator. What a circus. At the time we were discussing how this is a part of why students do not continue diving. If their is their opinion of how diving is done, they would not feel compelled or comfortable doing any more of this activity. This was especially true for the women students who were struggling under the weight of the equipment and having their feet slide off the rocks and get stuck in the crevices more than the larger men.
Then the instructor did his grand entrance. He did a flying leap into the water, rolling in mid air to land on his back. It was done with shouts to make sure everyone was watching. Then his young DM tried to do the same. The problem is he hit a subsurface rock. It sounded and looked like it hurt. He swam kinda funny at first, too. Finally they all descended.
I was hot so I decided to take a swim in my wetsuit. I grabbed my fins and jumped in where they entered, but I had no SCUBA gear and have many years of experience on wet rock entries. Just me in my wetsuit and fins kicking around on my back enjoying a beautiful day and warm water. One of our students came out to do the same. As I was about to come ashore, the thirteen divers popped up in front of me. So I backed up and waited and watched. Many of them were very cold and shivering. They then tried to get back up on the rocks. Their technique was to remove their fins, mask, and regulator and try to climb up the large wet boulders. The instructor was up first and watched them flounder. When one woman was lying on top of a rock and was trying to get traction to get her hands and feet under her, the instructor was shouting, “Look, another mermaid on a rock!” I thought the tone was demeaning. Then he told them that since the dive was now over, they were all certified divers and all they had to do was get out of the water.
Then the evil Wayne came out.
I asked one of the divers near me in the water if now that they were certified divers, was it OK to tell them about the stairs to the left. The student told me that they used the stirs earlier, but because of crowds the instructor told them to do in on the rocks and it would be good for them. Seeing as they were done with the class and now certified divers, I went ahead and told them what I thought.
Basically I said that if they thought they had learned about how to do a rock entry, and were ready to dive rocks, they might want to be careful. I said that here at the Dive Park there is no surf and only a little swell. If they come to Palos Verdes or other mainland sites, I suggest they put on the mask and stick their regs in the mouth in case they get hammered. I told them that I always prefer to have a reg in my mouth when hitting the water in case anything goes wrong.
A few minutes later the instructor and his DM came to me and asked if they could speak to me. The instructor told me off. He said I had no right to speak to his students and “dog” him (his term) in front of his students. He said that he was angry because his students had lost their confidence in him and were asking questions about why he chose that method and if it worked in other places. He told me he did not like his students asking him such questions. I told him that it was his job to answer student’s questions and explain decisions as part of the instruction process. If he could not answer questions for his students, then something was wrong. He was really upset and told me I was unprofessional and undermined his authority (although they were done with the class more or less).
He was right, in that I did allow some concerns to enter his students. But I really think these young brash hotshot cowboy instructors are a joke and they do harm to the sport. I really do not know the solution, but I can see the problem. A long time ago, I argued with Mike Kane about whether there was unsafe training taking place by this chain store and their instructors at the Dive Park. I really thought he exaggerated and that they could not possibly do what he reported seeing. I owe him an apology.