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::sigh:: I was beginning to think that this whole "newly certified divers
who want to dive the Lucy" thing was some exageration. Until this past weekend.
I had a diver who came to me for a PADI Advanced Open Water _private_
certification. Before I go on, I have to say that this person is A)
intelligent and B) by the end of the day had correctly evaluated himself
without my having to say one word, so he may not be exactly the people
that you all are talking about.
After swimming out to the dive site (50 yards or so), both I and my DM
were concerned about this person. He was quite fatigued. During the
first two-of-three dives we did he cramped up under very mild exertion.
His navigation was pretty poor (although he can now perform the required
navigations of PADI AOW).
This same person wants to dive the Doria. Note, however, that he was
intelligent enough even before this class to know that he was NOT going
to dive it, say, tomorrow, or even the near or middle future.
What concerns me about this person is not that he was out of shape, nor
that he has a goal, but that his goal is "to dive the Andrea Doria". For
someone, this early in their diving career, to have their eyes on that
scares me and scares me badly. Is this the type of thing that we're
teaching our students to "aspire to"? Do we teach them to aim for "the
Andrea Doria" rather than be "The best diver I can. Oh, and btw, maybe
I'll do the Doria sometime"?
Sorry for taking up so much room. This weekend shook me pretty badly.
(Oh, when I said he evaluated himself correctly, he correctly called off
the deep dive of the AOW class with the statement, "I need to get in
better shape and learn some more diving skills before I try that," and we
were talking about a measely 100 foot dive. Hey, I _said_ he was intelligent.)
-- Kevin --
kevink@ap*.co*
It is hard to disagree with a pro-survival decision,
It is even harder to engage in prolonged arguments
with someone who consistently makes anti-survival decisions.
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