fresh and salt water, or still water versus open water with currents and waves? Lighthouse Diving Center is a 54-year-old dive store (founded in 1972) that teaches primarily in cold, dark, salt water that has currents. The equipment needed includes thick wetsuits and drysuits, hoods, booties, thick gloves, heavy- weight belts, and larger, heavier BCDs. The environment poses a big challenge. The heavy equipment also poses a big challenge. Lighthouse used to teach a three-week course (about 32 to 40 hours) which consisted of 6 two-hour pool sessions, 6 two-hour lectures, a snorkeling open water dive, and 4 scuba dives (2 tanks per day). This was a common format all scuba schools used in the 1960s and 1970s. However, over the years, the scuba industry has given each student an e-learning code (eliminating lectures), eliminated the full snorkel dive, and reduced the number of pool hours. Pools are expensive, and dive schools utilize the pool only for necessary skills. The courses are now about 24 hours, give or take. In warm water areas, I see even shorter courses. Even though a shorter course in warm-water areas can be successful, it does not prepare the diver to dive in their local area, where we have colder, darker waters, currents, surf, and other TRAINING continued
conditions like poor visibility. In addition, these warm-water courses do not prepare divers to use different equipment and techniques. Since more people are taking the easier warm- water courses, they no longer want to dive locally in more challenging conditions. Maybe that is why we are seeing a huge dropout rate. Our divers have just completed an item on their bucket list rather than chosen an exciting new lifestyle like everyone here reading this article has done. Yes, things have changed. Many of us think we should revisit the standards and pro- cedures and, this time, develop standards for various regions and conditions. We need to address warm water versus cold water, visibility standards, clear water versus poor visibility, and the equipment used for each condition. While we address standards, we should also consider how to motivate divers to choose scuba as a lifestyle rather than a bucket-list item. Although instruction agencies have been the source of all our standards and procedures, I think the professionals we
find in retail dive stores/schools and manufacturing sectors should play an equal role in these exploratory discussions. It’s time for a change. What do you think? Email me your thoughts.
email Harry
39 | SCUBA DIVING INDUSTRY
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