Time for scuba-diving profession to find ways to avoid sinking

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Time for scuba-diving profession to find ways to avoid sinking 
By   KULDEJ SINTHAWANARONG 
SPECIAL TO THE NATION

 

BANGKOK: -- HAVING BEEN a certified scuba diver for 20 years and now stepping into the profession as an instructor, I have long seen the industry through the eye of enthusiast-turned-insider. 

 

After Thailand was recognised worldwide as a top spot for divers, it passed through the boom period of the 1990s and became less stable, and the prospects for future opportunities no longer looked so bright. 

 

From the beginning, the sport’s competitive advantage came from the power of trust in educators, advisers, and resources, capitalising on people’s curiosity of the undersea world to transform a once-military-only activity into a long-term passion. 

 

I can think of some examples where old-school selling tactics have been deployed. A dive instructor offered training, provided students with information, gave advice, showed enthusiasm and caring, taught classes (then of course lured them into more advance classes), and finally offered the soon-to-be-certified divers dive tours and equipment for sale (masks, fins, snorkels, wetsuits and so on), earning commissions from the dive shop.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/corporate/30306219

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-02-13

[gamini]

Unfortunately the whole scuba-diving industry has just become highly commercialised. Money is the prime motive. Over the years in order to sell more scuba diving instructor certificates, outfits like PADI have kept decreasing the qualification to become an instructor. So now anyone can become an instructor provided are prepared to pay the money. Instructors probably can't even dive without SCUBA and they don't even have to take a health examination. I would reckon that 90% of the people who call themselves diving instructors would not be able to qualify if they had to take the necessary tests and instruction that was in place 20 years ago.
 

[Srikcir]

"It is a brand-new niche market for the affluent that needs a new approach"

How about an approach that doesn't come with injury and death that comes from incompetent or negligent supervision of customer dives?

[RIC23]

As an Owner of a Padi dive center & a boat owner in Phuket, I see a lot of new Instructors coming & going.

There are a lot more great Instructors here than bad ones, they care about a customers knowledge base & go to extra lengths to make sure that they are competent before they get their certification.

There are unfortunately accidents, but that happens all over the world & not only in diving, but also skydiving, sailing, football, snow skiing, etc etc.

Here there are very few accidents in the teaching phase, compared to the huge no of certifications issued in Thailand.

I am sorry to say there are more accidents involving speedboats than there are in the actual teaching of our customers & that is a huge concern to us.  

[anotheruser]

I went diving on the 3 dive trip in Phuket which is shark point and some wreck and  somewhere else I don't remember. They paired me as a buddy with a divemaster who wasn't working that trip but had the certificate. Both times I had to give him my reg because he ran out of air and had to come up early. 

 

I wasn't any sort of an accomplished diver and was shocked that somebody that didn't know how to dive could have a "divemaster" card. 

 

Later I went for my rescue diver certification and at the end of the course when I passed I remember thinking if you are in the water and urgently need help, I am not the guy you want to see.

 

They certified a friend of mine for open water even though he couldn't figure out how to use a compass and could not keep a steady depth. He was bent over at the waste and kicking wildly. I stuck with him and kept him off the coral. They took him out a more difficult site than usual for beginners because there was room on the boat and it was convenient. 

 

I am not worried about accidents involving divers I am more worried about the damage these people do to the reefs. Nobody I know has ever heard of anybody failing a Pay And Dive Immediately course. My friend should have been taken to a shallow beach and given more instruction, a pool or simply been failed.

 

All of this was in Phuket for what it is worth. Other places I have dived you just say what cert. you have and nobody bothers to check anyway.  

[hanssna]

34 minutes ago, RIC23 said:

As an Owner of a Padi dive center & a boat owner in Phuket, I see a lot of new Instructors coming & going.

There are a lot more great Instructors here than bad ones, they care about a customers knowledge base & go to extra lengths to make sure that they are competent before they get their certification.

There are unfortunately accidents, but that happens all over the world & not only in diving, but also skydiving, sailing, football, snow skiing, etc etc.

Here there are very few accidents in the teaching phase, compared to the huge no of certifications issued in Thailand.

I am sorry to say there are more accidents involving speedboats than there are in the actual teaching of our customers & that is a huge concern to us.  

 

Very well said !  And much straighter info than the somewhat unclear article.

[JAG]

 

"Time for scuba-diving profession to find ways to avoid sinking ."

 

Don't put anything heavy in the pockets of your swimming trunks?

 

[Sir Bogdiver]

I was 50% co-owner of a large dive operation in Phuket from 1983 until 2003.

During that time we owned and operated 2 live-aboards and 2 day trip boats.

Those in the know will by now know who I am.

I have been a PADI instructor since 1986 and am still in teaching status, although not very active anymore as I live in Bangkok.

At that time we were the only outfit in Thailand that had a booth at the DEMA trade show every year so I was invited to sit on the PADI advisory committee which met once a year at DEMA.  This is the largest diving trade show in the world held once a year in the USA.

The PADI advisory committee was comprised of about 15 boat, dive shop and resort owners that were professionally active in the diving business.  Peter Hughes, a well known live aboard operator from the Caribbean, was also a committee member at that time.  This was from 1990 until 1999.

Although we were supposed to give advice on possible improvements I cannot remember any instance where our advice was actually accepted by PADI.

During the meetings the PADI top would usually be represented by Drew Richardson, the present CEO. Typically they would use us as a soundboard to find out how their proposals to further commercialize PADI would be received.  PADI had shortly before changed from a non-profit association (P.A.D.I.) to a limited company (PADI) will all the shares held by a small group of people.  This was done without the members of the association being  aware of it or having any say in it.

Whenever we tried to improve standards in the advisory committee it would be shot down.

We strongly felt that a 60 dives minimum for Divemasters and a 100 dives minimum for OW Instructors was way too low (of those 100 dives only 60 need to be logged, the other 40 they will believe on your honest eyes).  100 dives for divemasters and 200 for instructors was far more realistic to get at least half decent instructors.

Also, the instructor training needed to be a lot longer and more intensive in our feeling.  As this would have cost PADI a lot of enrollments it was immediately shot down which means even today we still have a large number of instructors who  simply not competent.

As for the Open Water  Course and follow up courses, we also demanded similar changes to make the sport safer but were ignored.

I do not know as much about ISS (Scuba Schools Internatonal) or NAUI but suspect the  situation there is not very different from PADI.

In my feeling it it high time that CMAS ( Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques) sets worldwide standards that governments then enforce.