--- Timothy Doty <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> An instructor has to assist in 2 courses before
> being certified as a tech
> instructor. If memory serves me right they have to
> have 27?? multistage
> deco dives as well. Is this alot? Is that what you
> would(generaly
> speaking) call "substantial experience"?
IMO, no and no. Perhaps adequate, but not substantial.
However I remember a controversy on the cave list
about PADI cavern and the requirements to be a PADI
cavern instruction being way too lax in some folks'
opinions. Maybe this is a step in the right direction.
I've done most of my tech training with an instructor
who was at the time the training director of the
NSS-CDS. Call it a security blanket, if you will, but
I believed what he told me because he had done it and
done it many times. (Plus I also figured that if
things went really bad, he'd be able to save my
butt!!)
> >After all, one little secret in tech diving is that
> >you don't show up with a trimix card and just walk
> >onto a Doria trip. Experience and references count
> -
> >they will want to know who certified you.
>
> To bad they don't do that on all boats..
Probably not practical in the recreational world.
There was a proposal in the rec world a few years back
to require log books showing minimum levels of current
experience. Somehow it just didn't sound right to me,
so I'm glad it died.
> I doubt PADI will go for that, they are pretty
> ridged with their course
> material. Although I do see a little free rein in
> the tech program.
I know. My understanding is PADI is very proud of
their course materials. I just think tech instruction
is a different world. Even the limited classroom
portions of those courses are much more interactive
than rec classroom sessions.
> What do you think about PADI's paper qualifications?
For the courses they are offering, they look okay. But
will PADI allow individual instructors to set HIGHER
standards if they wish?
> >4) Is willing to fail students, even if it causes a
> >financial loss.
>
> I think this should be true for recreational as well
Me too, but I'm not sure that it is. You're part of
the instructor world, so you would have more insight
than I do.
> I have a copy of the training material and have read
> through it. I also
> have done some research into other tech agencies and
> there appears to be
> some variation. For instance where your long hose
> should be routed and
> which hose you should be breathing off.
In the tech world, things change over time. I did my
cave training with the same instructor in three
weekends over a couple of years. Each time, we changed
my rigging because some better methods had been found.
At that time, most folks were still breathing the
short hose, and I did that for all three cave courses.
Last time we dove several years later, he asked me
which hose I was going to breathe. My answer was - the
long hose. He liked that answer, as he had also begun
to breathe the long hose.
For my first cave training, we stuffed the long hose
under bungee cords on one of the back tanks. Now I
route it like the DIR folks do.
There are a lot of differences in how tech divers do
things. Many tech divers continually change their
systems as new ideas come along. There is also the DIR
system which basically lays it all out for you as to
how everything should be rigged, and what types of
gear you should be using. This has the advantage of
standardization, which can be important in the event
of an emergency.
It will be interesting to see how the PADI methods
meld with tech diving. They are smart to start with a
couple of courses before taking the whole plunge.
Has anybody heard much about NAUI Tec? I really
haven't heard anything about how the program is going,
and how successful it has been. The only information I
had is that they had approached some of the TDI
instructors I know about switching over and at least a
couple of them declined.
David H.
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