On Fri, 2 Jun 1995, John Gibbons wrote:(in part)


> 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......



In Australia we have for a long time had independent assessment for cave 
diving, in one form or another.  This was to some degree forced 
on us back in the seventies when cave diving was looking at 
being banned due to a spate of fatalites. Currently at the two highest 
levels, known as "Cave" and "Penetration" we run a minimum of two 
instructors for part of the cousre in the former, and the whole course in 
the latter.  As well as that, the higher "Penetration level" is organized 
by the Cave Divers Association of Australia (CDAA), rather than by 
individual instructors. This means that students have no control over 
which instructors they may be taught by. This does have its down sides of 
course but it does prevent some problems, when it comes to having to fail 
students. We are able to do this, as we have a complete monopoly on the 
access, no CDAA card, no dive.

Although this obviously increases the cost of courses, it also goes 
some way in assurring that high standards are maintained. As part of the 
higher level courses we also have a "stress management exercise" which 
consists of a buddy breathing,masks off, line retrieval exercise, in 53F water
It is a one off pass/fail exercise so the pressure is on, with some interesting 
results(ie people who you think would do OK, fail). Although by no means 
perfect, the system seems to scare off those who may not be suitable. 

The problem we have, is that any local fatality in a cave would certainly 
put many of our cave diving access arrangements in jeopardy. It may not suit 
the dive shops, but we haven't had a fatality in 11 years.

GB


-------------------------------------
  Greg Bulling
  8 Durbridge Ct
  St Agnes                     
  South Australia

  Phone  61-8-2654978

  E-Mail bullo@ad*.di*.oz*.au*
-------------------------------------
 

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