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On Sat, 7 Oct 1995, Ronnie Bell wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, Peter Den Haan wrote:
> > Let's face it, 95% of diving Nitrox is understanding the physics and 
> > physiology of using it. As far as instruction, it has very little to do 
> > with diving skills, so I see very little need for the instructor being 
> > along for the dive, or even being awake for that matter, as long as he is 
> > available when needed.
> 
> I'll go you one further, why do you even need to DO DIVES to get Nitrox 
> certified? If the dives are not monitored by someone why do them at all? 
> Is it just to make the customer have a better feeling after paying X 
> number of dollars to take the course? If thats the case (and I don't know 
> it is) then the agencies need to beef up the cirriculum and drop the dives.
> This is what happens when you have training for the masses. Reminds me of 
> outcome based education.

I don't think that absence of supervision during the checkout dives
is limited to ANDI.  I took the IANTD Nitrox class at tek95 last 
January, then went through a local shop for the "checkout dives".  
The dives were unsupervised, except for talking about the profiles 
with an instructor who didn't know how to figure out the MOD for 
the mixes we were using.  I saw the checkout as being just another 
hoop to jump through so I could get the fills I wanted -- hardly 
unique in the diving community, unfortunately.  As the posters 
above suggest, the most important lessons (physiology, physics, 
math) are in the classroom and outside reading, not the checkout 
dives.  That said, a good checkout dive instructor could make the 
most of the checkout dives in giving the students some good 
hands-on experience in using the gas-analyzer, watching the 
mixing process, and so forth.  Mine didn't.

BTW, the class itself was good (Todd Ives was the instructor), but
as others have said here, I do think IANTD could stand to clarify 
their course materials somewhat.  One other odd thing is that some
of the biggest bozos in the class were apparently going to be taking
their "nitrox instructor" courses the very next day...

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