I don’t know about you, but I’m weary and fed up with the whole PADI versus BSAC versus CMAS debate that seems to have been going on since the first dive organizations were conceived.
At the end of the day, all of them, including those I haven’t mentioned, offer a good level of dive tuition and support for their members. None are “bad” organizations. They each have their pros, and they all have their cons, so choosing one should be down to personal, and in some cases geographical preference.
For some reason, the fragmentation into different “clubs” has brought out the worst kind of tribalism in some divers. I’ve seen it happen in dive groups – often in the form of friendly banter, but sometimes with a real edge beneath the surface. And as soon as anything goes wrong, it’s blamed on the fact that the diver in question was trained by organization “A”. On the web, it’s becoming a real problem. Every forum seems to be plagued by this tribalism, and it becomes especially rampant (sadly) when there has been a tragedy. I was horrified to read the debate in one place where the death of a diver was blamed on his lack of training and standards by one side, and the fact that the dive guides were from another organization was given as the reason by the other side.
Fellow divers – let’s stop this, and let’s stop it right now!
I’ve been lucky enough to dive with people trained by all the main organizations. Most of them have been good divers – safe, competent and sensible. Some have been brilliant – very aware, incredible skills and totally reliable. Some have been appalling – awful buoyancy, stupid decisions and a danger to all around them.
None of the types I just described come from one training agency, in fact you can’t even categorize them by experience. I’ve dived with a brilliant diver who is a relative novice, and at least one awful diver who had years more experience than me.
So what does this all mean? It means training agency and experience sometimes mean nothing. All we can do is to observe, learn for ourselves and help those who need our help to become better divers, irrespective of whether they are an old BSAC hand or a PADI novice blue water diver. There should only be one tribe, and if you’re a diver, you’re already part of it.
Unless you think differently?
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PADI V BSAC etc
Although primarily PADI trained, I have been in BSAC and SAA (for a while on the committee of one)
For me, its about being comfortable with who you are diving with, not who trained them.
Even supposed level of training is no deciding factor as I have dived with a friend who is an instructor who then went off on his own, and others who had few dives under their belts who I felt very comfortable with.
I generally if diving out of my usual buddy pair, talk to the potential new buddy for a while first to see if our levels of training and experience are similar and our comfort levels etc, then dive with them if we both seem happy.
My regular buddy and I have a good relationship diving and we both take images underwater - me video, her stills, and are happy doing our own things for example on shallow house reefs as long as we are within eyesight of each other. If on a dive where the vis is poor, then we are close together - sometimes even holding hands for her happiness.
So for me, its not about PADI v BSAC, but how safe we are together.
Welcome Simon
Thanks for stopping in to comment Simon. I totally agree with you! And I'm a big fan with hand holding underwater!
Cheers!
Scuba Mike
Mike you said you would
Mike you said you would never tell anyone about us holding hands!!!!!
Totally agree with everything you said, it fact I have fallen into a hornets nest in Australia where a great number of diving schools have changed from PADI to SSI and all the negative things you brought up come into play, and the crazy thing is most of them have crossed over from PADI to SSI so why oh why do they cause so much grief with all the negative comments.
I belong to a worldwide club that has the privilege to be able to spend time in an alien environment TO look at the wonders of theUnderwater world we live in, I personally do not care if you are certified insane as long as you are safe, and I have dived with dangerous Pete!
Aussie Diver PADI, SSI, CEMAS, SSA, VD & Scar.
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