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Jason asked wheter or not any mixed gas students had failed the course, and this opens up a whole can of worms lighting on issues at even the most basic level of diver training. I am not a Nitrox instructor and due to time, money and the fact I'm getting married in August have had to limit both my diving and my teaching. However after having been a full time instructor for three years previously before starting my Ph.D. I have some strong views on the subject of diver training. I am of the opinion that there are those people who should not take deep baths never mind learn to dive. However while I was an instructor working for a dive school I was constantly coming across people who wanted to learn to dive who just couldn't learn. My boss would take their money and then give them to me. What I used to do was just keep on teaching them and insist that they have extra lessons-- which after a certain number of hours they would have to start paying for, on top of what they had already paid. This worked to some extent, but you did eventually get tired of having to teach them which could become a bit demoralising. What all instructors need to do is ask themselves would I want this moron diving with me or someone close to me. On several occassions when I refused to award a qualification they got angry and said that they had paid to learn to dive, and I had to correct them by saying that they had paid for a certain number of hours of instruction. A good analogy would be booking 20 hours worth of piano lessons and then not being able to play Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. You don't ask for your money back you just pay for more lessons. If instructors do pass people who are not competent after completing the minimum course requirements and they go off and kill themselves then the whole industry will suffer through stronger and more thoughtless legislation. Unfortunatley PADI will be there to fill the gap with their team of lawers saying they do it best and they have the tightest controls on what their instructors teach. I liked the idea that someone came up with before which was having one person teach and another examine the student to determine their competance. This may not be important at the lower less demanding levels of diver training but may be at the higher levels of qualification. Instructors who are making their living through teaching diving have to take responsibility for their students welfare even after they have completed the course. I manly teach friends and people recomended to me by friends now and so this is easy to do since my rent and food is not dependant getting them in and out as quickly as possible. If I go back to teaching full time again I hope I can still maintain that standard. Gibbo John M. Gibbons 0171-793-1101 Home Univ. London School of Pharmacy 0171-582-6561 Fax Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry 0171-753-5800 Wk ex 4882 jgibbo@cl*.ul*.ac*.uk* or jgibbo@cu*.ph*.lo*.ac*.uk*
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