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Mike- If you look at this from the instructors point of view. Here's his new class, a bunch of people he may our may not know. As he gos through the schpeal, there will be some knowing nods and some absolutely blank stares. As the physics are covered there will be some good questions and some looks of absolute boredom. In the class there will be people like you, me and Tom who have done their homework and could probably survive the worst the instructor can throw at us. And there will be people who have time and money to burn, want some cool looking patches on their jackets and want bragging rights to their friends and family that "I are a techecule gradidate". They just want their stinking cards and out of the goddamn classroom. These worst case scenarios represent the lowest common denominator of the class. The instructor has the choice of washing these people out (and loosing the income) or bowing to the LCD and going on with the class. Usually some kind of middle ground takes place but still you can't expect everybody to have the interest to do research on their own. Many will have the prerequesit 100, 150 or 200 dives. Many (or most) will be cayman island, lake and quarry dives cake dives. Thats the whole point about this. Instructors are letting marginal students with incomplete training do dangerous dives and they are getting killed. The fact that there are competent, self-trainable divers out there makes not one tit of difference to the statistics, which are looking worse every year. And its these statistics which are going to have a bearing on how we dive, probably sooner than later. Jim Sender: Mike Zimmerman Date: 7/7/98 9:49 AM >> In a tech class the instructor has say over how you are configured. > >Only partly.. I still have to agree. If I show up for a "tech" course >and the guy shoves a pair of Beauchat 120 lead-sleds at me, I'll tell >him to take a hike. > >>It is >>assumed here that the reason you are taking a tech class is to learn how >>to configure and use your gear. > >I'm there for the skills, the knowledge, and for "tweaking" my gear. >After reading these forums for what, 7 years now, I feel like I won't be >majorly reconfiguring, more I will be tweaking. > >And in the past when I have done major reconfigures, such as when >I knew I wanted to start my cave class, and knew I would be diving >doubles, I did not practice the new gear configs in _class_ ... I called >the instuctor ahead of time, asked what the basic configs where, and >practiced them on my own ahead of time, in the quarry, in 30' of water. >I may seem overly cautious for not trying 5 pieces of new gear on >one dive in 150' of water in a cave, but hell I'm young, I've got plenty >of time to do it slowly and right... and live to do it another day. > >What gear config info can one not get off the net nowadays? >Doubles, hose routing, stage bottle rigging.... > >My point is that even though I seek the best instructor, I try >to be sure I can survive the worst instructor. > >>Why do you make the assumption here that >>the student already knows tech before taking a course in it? > >Because it is within the reach of most divers to learn quite a bit >about a course before they take it. Especially those already >certified at AOW level and looking at the "tech" courses. > >This is not to relieve bad instructors from blame, but to insist >that I refuse to be the helpless idiot diver that you insist I must be >when I take a class and am temporarily a "student" (actually I am >always a student). Sorry I refuse to turn my brain off. I'd like >to think I still play a part in my life decisions. > >You guys take this argument to such extreme that you seem to >say a competent student can never overcome an incompetent instructor. >This is the logical conclusion if it is always the complete fault >of the instructor every-single-time something happens. > >Mike > >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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