Do You Know What You Don’t Know?

Personally, I believe that the ultimate responsibility always lies with the diver him/herself. That being said, we do not know what we do not know. Most new divers are left to their own devices to search for quality instruction. In the majority of cases that translates to opening a phone book, making a few phone calls and choosing a diving education by either the closest, the cheapest, the fastest, the best combination of cheapest and fastest, or even the best combination of cheapest, fastest, and closest to home/work. Quality of instruction is rarely a factor due to the fact that the novice does not possess the knowledge of what exactly constitutes a high quality course/instructor. By taking a quick dive at the local open water checkout site, we can see what is being turned out by the mainstream instruction these days and to say that it is not pretty is an understatement. Besides the obvious lack of “mastery” of the fundamental diving skills, the large majority of certified divers are not aware of what constitutes a “good” diver, much less a “good” diving instructor. So, what is high quality instruction and how can a new diver be expected to recognize a high quality class/instructor? The class itself is, at the very least, minimally dictated by the standards. A good instructor can bring to the table material, talent, skill, and technique that can make a class outstanding, but the minimums are dictated by the industry (agencies).

This industry is supposed to be self- regulated/governed. It is not. It is currently regulated/governed by the agencies that are making money hand over fist and are responsible for the decline in quality of diver over the recent decades. They dictate the quality of instructor that they allow to teach and certify with their stamp of approval. The industry’s current minimum standards to become an instructor are what dictate the quality of instruction that is offered to the general public. As evidenced by the instructor resumes and the product of the instruction that those minimum standards have been reduced over recent decades as well. Could this be the cause of the lack of “mastery” of skills in the new diver? I mean, if the instructor really does not know what mastery is, how can their students be expected to recognize it either? The result is that we have people with years of diving experience, but really lacking fundamental “skill” because they have been doing only what was taught to them. In other words, they did not know what “mastery” was, what skills are actually required of good divers, and what a good diver looks like in the water. Then these people go on to become instructors and complete the vicious cycle that we are currently experiencing in the dive industry/community today.

Personally, I think this “cycle” can be stopped or reversed. By using forums like this, by voicing our opinions and observations, and by voting with our dollar and being willing to pay the extra money and take the extra time for quality instruction, we, as a community, can send a message to these agencies that only hear the cash register. To some extent, this is being done with the essentials/fundamentals course. The mainstream is taking notice. You can tell by the fundamentals/essentials knock offs, the equipment manufacturers changing/adding the “DIR” friendly equipment to their current lines and dive stores advertising they are DIR when they are anything but. Funny thing is that these are the same people that were bashing this stuff. History repeats…look at the early days of recreational nitrox compared to today. Bash, bash, bash…until they saw the $$$. They listen to the $$, and if this community stood up and said we are sick of paying for junk and are taking our dollar outside of the mainstream, well maybe they’d feel it (notice I didn’t say listen) and begin to make a change.

So, with all of this being said, my feeling is that the diver him/herself is always the ultimate responsible party for their own actions and decisions involving their diving career. But, honestly, how is a new diver to know what actually is good instruction? To a great extent, because we are self-governed/regulated, we are forced to rely on the industry to at least set a minimum standard that guarantees quality instruction. IMHO, that is not being done by the mainstream agencies. The instructor candidates are also relying on these mainstream agencies to a great extent, to judge their readiness/fitness to teach and certify. These instructor candidates should not be expected to know exactly what makes a good instructor. They are relying on the agencies that they are pursuing their teaching credential with, to actually judge and deem them fit to teach. When the agencies basically have standards that do not require much in the way of experience, skill, and knowledge, the instructor candidates feel they are good to go and well, the result is apparent and I find it difficult to blame the enthusiastic diver that is eager to share his passion for diving. After all, he/she really knows no better due to, as I mentioned earlier, this vicious cycle.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Note: This post was originally posted on September 2008.