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A letter from Steve Gerrard <<<<TDI BOYCOTT Whoa! Boycott? That's the strong word I'm getting from many cave Instructors, cave divers, dive stores and businesses here in the Riviera Maya and in Florida! Apparently, more individuals have become TDI Cave Instructors during the past year. This past week, Joe Odom was staying in Akumal conducting a TDI Cavern & Cave Instructor IEC for a group of seven candidates. What is making everyone upset is some of the individuals lack the proper cave diving experience in general and everyone questions if these seven candidates have ever assisted with cavern and cave courses to qualify attending the IEC as established and agreed by all agencies offering cavern & cave Instructor certifications. I am told that at the 1999 DEMA Trade Show in New Orleans there was a meeting between the Training Directors and Chairmen of the NACD, NSS-CDS, IANTD and TDI and that these four agencies would adhere to follow minimum standards. Joe Odom promised he would follow these standards. An example is a fellow named Jose Barbi who lives in Cozumel. Jose told me months ago he has assisted with the required minimum two cavern courses with German Mendoza to qualify for the TDI IEC. German tells me Jose has never assisted with any cavern courses. So what is going on? Personally, I'm still upset with the fiasco of 1998 when Joe appointed Al Pertner a TDI Cave Instructor Trainer in February, 1998. The problem was AL certified several individuals as TDI Cave Instructors and these people had less than 50 logged cave dives and no or little experience assisted with cavern and cave courses. Plus, they never went through the process of teaching cavern courses, building experience, then becoming Introduction To Cave Instructors, teaching a few of those types of courses and then qualifying to attend a Full Cave TDI IEC. It got so bad they that TDI revoked Al's Instructor Trainer certification. Everyone along the Riviera Maya was calling it Easy Al's TDI Express machine. Here's an example: I certified Nicholai Toussaint and a full cave diver during late October, 1997. The summer of 1998, Nicholai becomes a TDI Full Cave Instructor and was one the evaluators for the TDI IEC during December 2nd - 5th, 1999. Another individual I certified as a full cave diver was Scott Bonis. Scott is an engineer retired from the NASA Apollo Space program. He travels around the United States and Mexico in his RV with his wife. He spends every winter in Paalmu Beach campground until this year where he bought a condo in Puerto Aventuras. He became a TDI Full Cave Instructor the summer of 1998. How does anyone acquire the necessary experience in underwater caves with that type of schedule? Matt Matthes wrote a message recently on the Internet caver's list voicing his concern as he familiar with several of the candidates in the local TDI IEC. Like I said, everyone is pissed and the word boycott is being stated everywhere. German Mendoza is a TDI Cave Instructor (and NACD) and he wrote a very strong letter to Brett Gilliam - President & Owner of TDI voicing his concern with this problem. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone is against these or any individuals in becoming cavern or cave Instructors. It's just must be done correctly following the standards established within the cavern and cave diving community. Does this make sense? Enough said!>>>
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