"Degradation of Training": Has anything changed?

[Greenwood_60]

Don't let people hire bad instructors. They will get better when they can't eat.

Not saying post their names, just guide who you can.

Don't give money to the certification agencies by donation or your membership dues, they'll figure it out. Send them letters or evidence of this bad instruction.

Why not post names of bad instructors (not rhetorical)? Almost everything thinks their instructor was great. It's a combination of confirmation bias, and not knowing any better. And what about those who know their instructor was sub-par, but want to be a nice guy about it... or just don't want their own skills (seen as a product of a sub-par instructor) called in to question? What about those that had personality or teaching method conflicts, and now think their instructor is a dick? If divers are a poor judges of their own ability, what makes them any better judges of their instructors competency?

Grab a newbie and help them. Respond to their calls/posts for buddies.

Dive with'em!

Give them feedback and help them build their skills.

I agree... and I've found most divers more than willing to dive down to anyone's level... but that's been happening, and will likely to continue to happen. It's definitely good, and we'd likely see more and worse divers if this wasn't already the culture of cave diving. How many of us didn't have someone happy to dive down and point out where we could improve?

The NSS-CDS had established a Cavedive supervisor program. So dive master or higher can take a free class, and lead dives. They also must have insurance which they can purchase after successfully completing the free class. This was an attempt to make mentoring more available, and cheaper than hiring an instructor for the day. Its not much but its something.

I think it was a noble effort, but the CDS has two problems. The first is liability. They won't continue to exist if they increase the rate at which they rack up court/lawyer costs. The second is a conflict of interest. Those that involve themselves with the CDS are those that stand to benefit. I subscribe to the subjective theory of value. So that benefit is a personal matter. A lot of us value seeing the damage to caves minimized, and access to caves preserved. Some of us value increased exposure as a cave instructor. It is a conflict of interest for those that are involved for that reason.

(I don't know any of the board members, I'm not accusing anyone of anything... but as Brett Hemphill said "a system is designed to get the results that it achieves"... I am simply discussing the current "design".)

I don't know the solution. I'm just hoping the dialog doesn't stop until there is a solution.