christo <christo@az*.co*.za*> writes: > ... > This man must be remarkable to control so many divers that was supposedly > good divers. Every time someone dies, Brett Gilliam is personally > responsible. > > As a NAUI Instructor, I also teach beginner scuba courses. One of the > things we teach our students are that they make the final decision if > they want to dive or not. Are they happy with the conditions, are they > capable of the situation or not. It is THEIR decision. No instructor can > or will force someone to dive. .... Certainly, any diver can make the final dive or no-dive call, but what criteria will he or she use? If an instructor tells a student who doesn't know any better that 200 feet on air is no problem, chances are the student won't blink if that's the dive plan. Are they going to believe their instructor who they've met in person and who has spent some time with them, or some stranger who posts an anti-deep-air rant on the Internet? And likewise, how is the instructor going to know what's prudent and what's dangerous? Agency materials are his/her main guide. The conventional wisdom on how deep on air is too deep is swinging in the shallower direction; too many people have died, and the fact that too many of them have been involved with TDI is what has pointed the finger that way. If you're only teaching the basic course, you're not getting involved in any depths at which narcosis is an issue anyway. Students should know that the limitations at that level (60' max, never dive along, never enter overhead environments, etc.) are not because we're being anal, but because we can't teach them everything there is to know about diving in only a few easy lessons. Tell them there are courses for all the more interesting aspects of diving, and the course for diving deep is called Trimix. Even if NAUI still isn't teaching technical courses, I'd rather see a past student go to one of the tech agencies than try dangerous stuff on his own. BTW, if you've been involved with NAUI for more than a few years, do you remember the year our dues helped save the life of a little dog? Yes, that was Bret with his toy gun. Looked real enough in the picture. (Nobody over the age of 10 needs toy guns; either you need one that works or you need to stop pretending.) -- Anthony DeBoer <adb@on*.ca*> -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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