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>Surely only the most experienced instructors should be teaching beginners.
>
>What do the course directors, instructors and beginners out there think?

I'm not sure.  On the face of it, it seems to make sense.  Then I think 
about turning loose a brand new instructor to take someone down to 
(somewhat) dangerous depths.  Imagine if that person A) lies about how 
long it's been since they dived or B) was trained by someone who was... 
er... having an off-month.

As an instructor, one of the things I do is to critique not only how they 
performed the objectives of this dive, but also critique the entire dive. 
 I also, in front of the students, have my DMs critique _my_ dive, have 
the students critique me, the DMs, etc.  Who is better qualified to do 
this, a newly certified instructor (with one year of diving experience) 
or an experienced instructor?

My Answer:  Neither.  The experienced diver is, regardless of how long 
they've been an instructor.  However, I'd rather have an experience 
instructor taking someone down to 120 feet to a wreck than have a 
newly-minted instructor doing the same.

I've gone through student's gear and showed them what I think was wrong 
with how it was rigged and show them my rig (you'd hate it, George, it's 
based on a Zeagle BC and DUI CF200SP dry suit, although it's pretty trim 
otherwise).  One student taking my advanced class had been taught that 
"redundancy was important".  This student had (and I'm not exagerating) 
three timers, 2 depth gauges, and three compasses (what's the plural of 
"compass"???).  This was for a 30 minute, 40 foot dive.  George would 
have REALLY hated his rig - it epitomized anti-Hogarthian.


        -- 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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