I've never been good at NOT voicing my opinion. ? Scuba Dive Chat

Several things have happened recently that have made me think and pen this very long winded article today.? I saw a segment of a reality show called Lifeguard where the lifeguards had taken it upon them selves to decide that a diver, that they could not see, and had never had any previous contact with, was lost and in distress.? With absolutely no information what so ever they ascertained in the segment that the diver was overdue, ill trained, lost and by their accounting should be out of air and in distress.? As a scuba professional I was completely blown away by their decision to involve multiple life guards both swimming and on Paddle Boards, the San Diego County Sheriff, and the US Coast Guard in this search and rescue.? Through the segment comments were made by both the host and the ?talent? about the training not being adequate for his activities, the equipment not being adequate, standards not being followed and the need for the lifeguards to available to rescue them.? No mention about the over reaction, over kill, incorrect assumptions based on invalid information and finally, in my experienced and professional opinion, the lack of the lifeguards qualification to even rescue a scuba diver, let alone make the determinations they did.? In terms of assisting a diver, their only real use would be to tow me to shore if I felt I was tired, and that?s about it.

And incidentally, the diver was fine.? Wasn?t lost, was following his prearranged dive profile and was extremely shocked to see all the commotion on the surface in his honor.

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Then, I read an article recently by a person claiming to be an ?old timer? scuba diver who claimed to have made numerous rescues of scuba divers in the La Jolla Shores/La Jolla trench area of San Diego, Ca.? A popular and very versatile spot in San Diego that offers sites for recreational scuba diving (and incidentally the same general spot as the television show), and scuba training from the basic entry level classes through the professional and even the technical levels of diving.? This?gentleman makes all the all too often heard ?in my day? types of comments about training, gear, choices of dive sites and on and on.? He stops short of telling how in his dive training they swam upstream, against the current, both ways, dodging ice flows in equipment they invented and manufactured themselves.? According to him he has personally performed several rescues of divers left by their instructor.? He feels that a real instructor would/should never leave their students further than arms reach away, which, depending upon the class being taught, may or may not be true.? He claims to have also witnessed numerous other rescues in the area as well, which he again feels would be averted if instructors were either more rigorous in their teaching as ?in his day? or if the area was closed altogether.

And finally, a conversation via email, with another supposed old timer who had a negative reaction to a video they had seen about something as simple as mask cleaning before its first use.? Before it was over, this gentleman had me seriously feeling sorry for not only his students, if indeed he is a scuba instructor

500PSI Mask Scrub

and not the troll I suspect him to be, but anybody he comes into contact with.? According to him ?real pro?s?? don?t need fancy new equipment, don?t use products designed the past few years to make masks clean and help prevent fogging, or anything else designed to make the sport lighter, more comfortable, more convenient or simply more enjoyable.? Any product that does this is nothing more than a scam by the RETAILER to screw customers out of their hard earned money and diminishes the watermanship that should still be necessary to enjoy scuba was his view.

Scuba diving is a recreation that has evolved greatly since the classes in the early 60?s.? The classes then are not the classes I took in the late 70?s nor are they the classes we are offering today.? But one thing that has remained a consistent theme through all scuba courses over the years is the emphasis on safety.? I don?t contend to know anything specific about the ?rescues? that have recently been performed or have been witnessed in or near the La Jolla Shores area, but I do know that in general today?s scuba instructors are training divers with a strong emphasis on personal safety just as they always have.? The instructors in scuba and our industry as a whole are quite proud of our record, and we commonly boast that our mortality rate is lower than that of the vast majority of recreations.? For instance you stand a better chance of suffering an injury by a golf ball, than you do scuba diving.? This is not an accident, but due to the diligence of the scuba industry and its instructors.

Before I go on, let me say this.? I?m not your average dive instructor.? I?m not some diver who thought being a scuba instructor would be a fun way to dive for free.? I?ve been an instructor for some years and have been certified as such by several training agencies finally attaining the Course Director rating.? I?ve experience teaching and training divers from entry level open water courses through preparing divers to spend extended time in Cenotes or dive the Andrea Doria.? I?ve also had experience as a teacher and instructor in recreations from alpine skiing, to ski racing, to mountaineering and winter outdoor survival.? All of this isn?t intended to impress a soul but rather offer up that that my thoughts aren?t a whim but based on many years of various experiences.

The area being contended divers should not be is one of a couple very popular sites for deep training in Southern California that is accessible

La Jolla Shores

from shore without the aid of a boat.? It is also a very unique and interesting area to explore, offering an amazing variety of marine life to see and while it does require training to prepare the diver to safely enjoy being there, it is far from an unsuitable dive site.? The water here is generally calm and due to the underwater terrain, navigation is quite easy.? In a nutshell, if for what ever unknown reason 2 students surface 1/3 of a mile, as you state, from their instructor in that particular area, chances are quite strong they are certified divers taking a continuing education class and would/should have the knowledge to follow the waves to the beach.

Everything over time evolves.? Physicians once called upon Holy Men to rid people of illness, until Antony Van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria.? Leeches were a preferred method of

The Porpoise

removing bad bacteria or virus?s until drugs were discovered to kill or control them.? It wasn?t until after all this that common hygiene was found to be an effect way to avoid the majority of it all.? People moved about using dangerous versions of steam engines until the carbureted internal combustion engine became common, only to evolve into a fuel injected version which is just now evolving into hydrogen or battery operated versions.? Scuba courses over time have undergone this same evolution.? The old Navy UDT or current Seal Team manual is a wealth of information and is the perfect tool if your goal is to infiltrate a beach unseen or if you choose to destroy something and escape silently.? The level of fitness that those courses require is necessary for the diver who is being dropped off ? mile or more off shore and expected to swim to and from their submarine through surf conditions a defender would not expect a human to attempt.? Many of the stringent standards for becoming a certified scuba diver from the early 60?s were deemed unrealistic and unnecessary by the time I took my first course in the late 70?s.? From there the evolution of equipment and training techniques pared down again much of what was found to be unrealistic and at times even dangerous for the recreational scuba diver.? Take for example the Navy Dive Tables.? My first scuba course still used them.? They are a marvel of mathematical engineering and science that even told you when to make decompression stops in order to lower the nitrogen levels in our system to safe levels.? They were found to be too precise over a period of time, didn?t take into account differences in human physiology and gave way too much credit for the average human being able to follow a precise set of guidelines and not push their limits.? Over the past 20 years those tables have been made more conservative a number of times in an effort to maintain and help ensure safety in recreational divers.

Equipment of course has followed suit.? What is being dismissed as ?fancy? I contend is more streamlined, more comfortable, more functional and in essence more safe than gear has ever been.? Since these people first learned to dive, for instance,the? buoyancy compensator has gone from something you make with directions found in the back of a Skin Diver magazine or a book (safe?) in the local library to a good idea, to a recommended piece of gear to a required piece of equipment.? Why?? 100% diver safety.? After that, diver comfort and convenience.? Also, looking at that buoyancy compensator, and forgetting it?s evolution in styles and types, it originally did not have a power inflator, it had an emergency Co2 inflator.? The best idea we had at that time to assist a diver in an emergency situation was deemed to be obsolete and unsafe and was replaced with the low pressure power inflator and diver training and education was amended to teach us that that same rapid ascent we kept that Co2 cartridge handy for would quite possibly kill us.? Scuba equipment is engineered and manufactured with diver safety in mind first and foremost.? It is the foundation that every single piece of gear starts with.? Once the item, concept or innovation is found to be safe, then and only then is it made to appear ?fancy?.? And of course it is.? You would no sooner walk onto the local car lot to purchase your brand new car and get excited over a Hudson or Nash even if it was filled with today?s technology than you would any piece of scuba gear that looks like something Jacques Cousteau or Emile Gagnan engineered in 1943.? In terms of sales, it is indeed quite important that the gear be eye catching to the consumer.? But never for a second let that be mistaken for unsafe.

Scuba courses are designed to teach divers to dive within their limits.? In the late 70?s and early 80?s a person could actually earn a PADI Basic Diver certification card with as few as 2 check out dives.? The additional 2 dives were a recommended up-sell by the instructor to earn your Open Water Diver card.? This was found to be not a great idea and courses today have in essence been made more thorough by the requirement of 4 dives under the supervision of an instructor to demonstrate all required skills comfortably.? Scuba instruction starts with safety and it is an integral part of the course from start to finish.? The need and necessity for continued and/or specialized education is stressed through out the course as not only a method of increasing the instructor or shop?s income but to predominately stress the need for experience and training in order to safely experience the type of diving that interests the student.? 2 hour resort courses do not give a certification of any type.? They are an introduction to scuba that is performed completely under the direct supervision of a qualified and trained scuba instructor.? Their goal is to give a taste of the sport and excite the customer into taking a complete scuba course.

All in all, scuba today from instruction to equipment is as safe as it has ever been, and while we cannot account for the personal actions of those divers who choose to push themselves and resist seeking out the proper training for their interests that in no way means their instructors failed to stress the importance of it upon them or cut corners in order to increase profit nor has the industry lowered their standards in a way that sacrifices diver safety for profit.? The continued evolution of our sport will be driven by innovation and education, both of which will always revolve around safety.

Source: http://www.divechat.com/2012/07/31/ive-never-been-good-at-not-voicing-my-opinion/

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