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Hello Susan; During the past few months, I have heard from various sources that GUE does not have any insurance, whatsoever. Those comments where made mostly from persons affiliated with TDI. One of those gentlemen, where extremely well meaning (I mean that they were actually convinced/believed the information they were given as true) and told me that nobody here in the NYC area is honoring the GUE cards. Not for trimix fills or specific levels of dives that are requiring training levels above AOW. Curious, I started to contact various diveboats of which the Seeker was only ONE to find out if they are actually accepting the GUE certifications for those specific dives. Cpt. Dan answered my email with a regular introduction about his and his operations qualification, which was okay, but the he warned be by stating : "At this time it would not only be unwise, but irresponsible for any operator to accept any GUE certification as they are not an internationally, or for that matter, nationally recognized agency with merit, credibility or insurance. It is unfortunate that you as well as several other groups like yourself have been mislead by GUE as being a certification agency." (Original Quote) I was reading into this that he actually warns me of taking classes with GUE and that GUE was actually committing fraud. Cpt. Dan then was helpfull to retrain me and the divers of Hydronautics via TDI as you can see from the continuation of the email: "However, I would be happy to reevaluate your divers for certification and train any new divers by competent and experienced instructors knowledgeable of the area." The result of my survey of local diveboats, including the Seekers response were posted by me on the quest list. As you can see, it is more than just an insurance issue, and I believe it is important that GUE understands the effect it has in the public eye. Why? Because we are receiving an outstanding technical training and there are shops we are trying to get a NO2 or He fill and they won't honor the GUE card. Actually on a more relaxed note, this reminds me somewhat of the situation of the transferability of the German Drivers License to the US roads. (My own experience!) SOMEWHAT OFF-TOPIC: The United States recognizes the German Drivers license only for a transfer period for immigrants of 3 months. Then you have to take the US road test and written exam. There are other, even 3rd world countries where the US accepts and transfers their license without any problems. Why would that be? It is actually a pretty childish reason and reminds very much of the situation with the diving agencies here: In Germany, minimum age for a drivers license is 18 years (no learners permit). You have to attend a minimum of 3 months of weekly drivers education (classroom), then you have a mandatory roadpractice of 20 hours (don't know the current terms mine is almost 20 years ago). You can easily end up with somewhere between 40 to 80 hours of road instructions in various driving conditions (mandatory) including countryroad, autobahn, city traffic and driving at night. You have to take a very tough written exam and IF you pass that one, you can take the road test. So, if you finally end up passing and receiving your drivers license, you may have spend somewhere between $1,500 to $6,000. Compare this to your US license: New York State, as one of the toughest in the US: A fee of somewhat $38, including a 20 questions written test and a 10 minutes road test to show that you can accelerate, stop, set indicator and are able to park behind a car on the road. So, why wouldn't the United States accept the German drivers license? Because Germany says: Look at your license requirements and compare them to ours... you got to go back to driving school for the German traffic. What does the US says: *pouting* Well, if you don't accept our drivers licenses... we don't accept yours either. LouisianaLegal@ao*.co* wrote: > > P: > > Why does GUE even care if Dan does or does not let GUE divers on his boat? > Actually, reading some of the accusations that have been thrown at the > Seeker, assuming one believes even 1% of them, GUE should say nothing in > public (thank you in private) and go on. I would imagine that all GUE > certified divers would stay far away as possible from the Seeker in light of > all the "libel and slander" that has been thrown against Dan. I don't know > Dan and never dived the Seeker. But if what is written about the vessel is > even partially true then your employer should be grateful. > > As any attorney will tell you Dan as captain of his boat can refuse service > to any one as long as he does not routinely discriminate against any of the > protected classes in the Bill of Rights. The "right" to tech dive on the > Seeker is not a constitutionally protected right no matter who trained you. > > As for Alton filing a suit for "slander" against Dan, leaving aside the > question of what, if any, damages have occurred to GUE; if in fact Dan > incorrectly said GUE instructors had or have no insurance (which so far I've > only seen quotes from other people alleging Dan to have said this), I can > imagine that Dan's lawyers would counter file in response with their own > libel and slander actions. The litigation could go on for years. Then the > only people who would be getting rich are the lawyers filing the lawsuits > unless GUE's lawyer works pro bono. > > According, to an earlier post apparently Dan has an extensive release which > some feel is a "shield" to litigation. The release is a sign of competent > legal counsel in an age where anyone will sue for any perceived wrong. I > always love it when lawyers bemoan other good lawyers' draftsmanship. > > Whatever happened to personal responsibility in diving? > > Susan > -- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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