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>Hello ListRight now TDI in the form of it's training Chairman Joe Odom is conducting a Full >Cave Instructor Seminar / Institute here in Playa delCarmen, Q. Roo, Mexico. There are 9 >participants. Very few have morethen 50 cave dives, some not more then 10 cave dives. One >participant isnot even an Instructor, nor is he a trained Cave Diver. Do they allgoing to pass ?. >I don't know.Am I concerned ?. Yes. Do I want to condemn or punish people ?. No.What I >want to do is to create awareness of what's going on in the FullCave Instructor world. Matt, Hey I think we had a great time at you know where - in the black abyss of 80 fathom grotto? You're absolutely right. We should be very concerned with the caliber of cave instructors that are being pumped out now. Personally I would require a minimum of 500 cave dives in various conditions and sites before I think someone is eligible to be even CONSIDERED as a candidate. These weekend wonders are going to be the death of this sport. I've noticed several people are getting into cave instruction for the money - the margins are much higher than for the prostituted open water instructor. It now seems to be the occupation for retirees and social dropouts. Equipment manufacturers and the hoard of certification agencies are now telling everyone that they should be cave divers - to be cool I guess. The only problem is when the shit hits the fan, someone dies! I wonder where the flaw is? Could it be the new instructors don't know their asses from the holes in the ground they're diving in? This cave diving industry better learn to self-police itself or the ambulance chasing lawyers will close it down for everyone. There is already a group that advocates lawsuits when dive incidences occur. Unfortuantely they don't realize it will ultimately affect them as well. The training agencies (NSS, NACD, YMCA, and GUI) should require a minimum of 500 real cave dives before someone can even apply to be a candidate. The application should be reviewed by a committee of the respective certification agency (independent of a singular instructor) and the person approved or dissaproved accordingly. I would go further and suggest the participating agencies should sponsor an independent standards agency that periodically reviews all standards to ensure at least a minimum standard is met when someone is certified (student or instructor). 'Like most professional agencies do. Cave instructor certifications should be the property of the certification agencies to ensure quality instruction - so they can be revoked as appropriate. Bylaws should be changed to make this retroactive - and to hell with anyone who has a problem with it. There have been recent cases where cave instructors have been caught teaching contrary to the published standards (e.g. not requiring a guideline) and have not been removed from the teaching arena - because of personal friendships and bullshit reasons. This has to stop. From what I have seen, TDI appears to be a joke. Period! People should steer clear from instructors who can't cut the mustard and rely on resort cave instructor courses for their certifications. Even within the various "respectable" agencies there are slews of slack instructors - as you well know. Word of mouth advertising is the best avenue for a student. Just because someone has a cave instructor card doesn't mean jack - as evidenced from the content of your post. Take care, Doug P.S. I'll have the edits done tomorrow latest.
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