03 Nov 96 11:01, Beery Miller wrote to Paul Hutley:
 >> Jay why should a charter require you to show your c-card when it has
 >> almost become meanalise (one dive cert orgazion is cert. divers that
 >> can't even swim). All the cert. orgazions want is your money and compeat
 >> with each other for it. They all have lowered their standards for
 >> divers. Also it has happen when a dive instructor does not cert. a
 >> prospeced diver the owner of dive shop fires him. (This does not happen
 >> everywhere or very often) But it has happen.
 BM> I'm not trying to support anyone, but as scuba equipment gets better and
 BM> more advanced, the standards can be lowered.  It used to be you had to
 BM> know how to swim, now they have BC's that provide your buoyancy.
I'm reminded of a poster I used to snicker at....."Equipment Makes The 
Diver". As an experienced diver, I am much more capable of doing without 
certain pieces of equipment than a new diver.  I won't drown if my 
autoinflator doesn't work. Can you say the same for the "diver" who can't 
swim?
 BM> As regulators get better, the physical requirements allow a broader
 BM> variety of individuals to enjoy diving.
Regulators aren't any better now than they were in the early 1970s.  The old 
Conshelf VI regulator essentially breathed the same as today's.  It also had 
more than a few parts that will still fit in the new regulators.  Most of the 
changes were cosmetic.
 BM> Again, you need to look at this as diving is evolving into SPORT
 BM> RECREATIONAL diving, not commercial diving or military diving as it once
 BM> was.
The course that I taught had no resemblance to military training.  We had 
decided 20 years ago that we wanted people to have fun.  The trick was 
deciding what needed to be taught.
Jay
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