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This is a long one so use the delete key as required.
Jeff Kell just finished a post about what he saw in an OW class where his 
12 nephew was learning to dive. First thing I would of done if I saw that 
crap going on would have been to get my relative out of the water and 
away from the instructor as quickly as possible. If this guy was willing 
to cut corners on the womans instruction, then what was to stop him from 
doing the same with your nephew. 
This dredges up the same problem that we hear about year after year about 
instructors passing people out of dive classes when they still should not 
be taking a bath in water deeprer than 4". What can we do about it. I 
know I would never let a friend or family member learn to dive with any 
instructor not personaly vetted by myself but that only solves part of 
the problem.
Teaching people to dive and earning money from it causes all sorts of 
problems about who maintains quality control. I know PADI is supposed to 
have this wonderful all encompassing quality assurance program, but as we 
all have seen it DOES NOT WORK. Too many people slip through the net.

Lets look at other area where you pay to get instruction.
	Driving a car-------- someone else examines you
You pay for the instructions but someone else decides if you pass or not. 
This allows people to go to the best instructors for driving lessons 
because they have the best pass rate. I'm sure that there are many other 
good examples but I can not think of any currently

The training agencies are going to have to get their shit together soon 
or they will become regulated. (I think this just happened in Canada).

The BSAC system used to one of the best in the world in training divers 
because of the club system, until money started getting in the way. 
Now BSAC schools can suffer the same problems that PADI schools do
George has developed his own club (WKPP) and so is able to maintain his own 
standards in respect to cave diving. You dive the way his team dives, or 
you dont dive with them. If you join WKPP he takes a look at your gear 
training and any other baggage that you carry with you scraps the crap 
and works on improving the rest. 
The theory behind diving clubs is that it is not just the money the 
instructor is after. They are promoting the sport that they love by 
investing time to teach others. That person is then going to be diving 
with them in the futur and if they have been trained badly or unsafe then 
you are putting at risk one of your friends.
What we have to promote is that the cheapest dive school is probably the 
cheapest dive school for a reason. They cut corners and churn out as many 
students in order to sell equipment and more courses. It all down to 
money and marketing.

What we need is a new Organisation that would not be stuck in the past 
concerning training and what should and should not be taught. It should 
not be so concerned with making money but simply promoting the sport, and 
it should not alow for multilevel marketing as in some of the others. It 
should allow for STRICT adherance to training quidlines with 
recertification of instructors on a yearly basis. Any infringment of 
training standards should be grounds for decertification. And it should 
be based upon a club system with more than one signature required for 
certification of divers. The person who trains does not certify, that is 
down to someone else. 
Diving is such big businness that this will probably never happen. But at 
least we have a few voices crying out for change and identifying the 
strokes of this world for what they are. My favorite FAR SIDE cartoon was 
a field of sheep with their heads down eating grass, with one sheep 
standing up in the middle shouting.....but we dont have to be sheep.... 
So take that to heart in the diving world. We dont have to be sheep. 
Individuals can make a difference even if it takes time for the message 
to get through.

Gibbo

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