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Ok. Now that we have looked at all the under qualified divers that end
up with a cave card what about a candidate that has been diving for
years has a bag of experience and is moderately competent? Why should
barriers to this type of diver be raised?

In a class of three hundred doctors, some one has got to come 300th. The
same is to be said of cave instructors. I would contend that some of the
less capable and certainly unethical ones are in it for as much money
that they can grab and little else. The case of the diver with six open
water dives is a true one because I know him. The same group that he
went with went down to FL to also get qualified in trimix. Two passed,
one failed. I had a chance to dive with one of the divers that passed
this past spring. I was absolutely horrified! It was about a 1 mile swim
altogether on a wall. (1/2 out, 1/2 back) with varying current up to 1
to 1.5 knots. The wall bottoms at 250'. I had never ever seen a diver
crawl (literally) back on that dive. He pulled himself back along the
wall (no bouancy skills what-so-ever), and when we got to shallower
water pulled him self on his hands and knees back to the exit point
because he was exhausted!

Thank heavens we were on air. This diver wants to do a three hunder
footer this year. I can guarantee that I will be nowhere near this
attempt.

Rock solid minimums should be established for caver/intro to cave and
and adequate asscessment of inwater skills by the instructor to progress
to full cave should be enforced. The dive instructor should supply to
the certifying agency a copy of the divers log. If he/she fails to meet
the required minimum and the instructor is trying to certify them, then
the instructors' card should be yanked. It should also be brought to the
attention of the student that paying for the course does not necessarily
mean that you are going to get cetified if your skills do not meet with
the standard.

Dan

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