A new breed

A friend of mine from many years ago dropped by. I had not seen this felloow for over twelve years, he was a senior diver from my old dive club when I first joined. I always admired his style of diving and that he always took an interest in new divers and tried to nurture them along the way.
He commented it is hard to get new divers involved in the club and asked what we did to combat this.
The topic revolved around, divers claiming to have dived for ten years but, have not dived since they completed their course or, divers who were very active and ceased diving because, the people they were comfortable to dive with, stopped diving for whatever reason.

I have taken this onboard and have realised indeed, there is a new breed of diver about, one that doesn't take into account the weather, dive conditions, their own mortality or the well being of others.
I said" We need to sit back and educate these people into diving etiquette". This doesn't mean stay out of photographers way or wear your reg on the right side.
Divers need to be educated that it is OK to miss a dive because the diving conditions do not warrant a dive.
The newer divers require understanding and a method that shows them the right and wrong way to enjoy scuba diving.
Why have a bad dive that puts them off diving, when they could simply wait for a good day.

I was under the impression, that dive clubs still nurtured their members. I should have known better, after being a member for some five years of a local dive club.

The change comes about swiftly, so swift that people do not even notice the change.
I remember the night we as a club, voted to buy a boat for members. I distinctly remember some of the older members saying a boat would change the club, I didn't really understand this uat the time until a short while later.
We had fun on the working bee to get the boat ready and the feeling of accomplishment, the first day we put the boat on the water and went for a dive.

I remember this well only too well. We partied through the previous night and I imbibed a bit too much of the local brew and couldn't even dive the next day.
Great times though- It was on this dive that the loan was to be paid, money needed to be collected.
This led the club down a commercial path, even though this is strongly debated, I still believe we became commercial because we started to look for "bums on seats".

Commercial operators do have a policy of numbers to break even, this may be higher than a so called non commercial entity but the priciples are the same.
This is where the breakdown of a clubs community to watch over newer divers, take them under their wings and look after them, breaks down for a while.
This happened to me when I first started diving and is something I always keep in mind when I have new divers in my charge.

By the same token, I believe new divers should take stock of their own experiences, think about their limitations and accept they do need to be looked after, not nursemaided, but given a thorough checkout and then allowed to progress.

Something akin to snow skiing. After paying for your lift ticket and lesson, you join a group that has similar expeiences. The ski instructor accepts that when you join a particular group you can snowplogh, turn and stop.
Some people have a different level of experience so they move to a group that is their level.
The instructors accept your experience, then they take you further.

Divers need this type of help.
We tend to think a diver who has completed an open water class is experienced enough, maybe they move to Advanced. Yes, this shows them what to do, but they still need experience, to dive.

Non profit or as they like to be called Non commercial private clubs, formerly gave this experience freely, I have noticed more and more clubs are becoming commercialised and looking for "bums on seats" to pay for boat costs and the newer divers are missing out on the old style of being taken undera wing.

Some club members become a tad hostile when confronted with this issue. Most believe the instructor or dive store should have trained them better, some clubs do offer training and believe they are doing a good job. This may be so, but clubs need to do more, they need to offer new divers more than ways to buy cheap gear, or ridicule because they purchased colour coordinated regs.

Sometimes. clubs seem to think by advertising how to buy cheap equipment to their memers, they are helping them. This might be so, but divers go to social clubs to gain experiences to dive.

I advocate all divers who learn to dive, should spend a considerable amount of time in the club scene. For profit or Non profit it doesn't matter.
New divers need to gain the experiences they require for diving by diving. This may then keep them diving for longer.

So what was the outcome?

Lets take the new divers and educate them. Certainl, they have learn't to scuba dive, now they need to be placed into a probationary position where they are nurtured by experienced, responsible divers where they will learn how to use these skills to dive.

G' day

Welcome to my blog!
I hope to give you an insight into what we do here at Pro-Dive Central Coast and allow you the chance to interact with us.
Our Dive centre is a PADI 5 Star dive centre.The first and longest established on the NSW Central Coast.
We like the fact, many other local dive centres have done the same, thus bringing the standard of scuba diving on the coast up a few notches.

Teaching people to Scuba dive is a major part of our operation, but that is a small component of our overall success.
We offer divers overseas travel to exotic locations, local travel to sites around Australia. Scuba gear sales and hire.
Our Dive club- "Pro-Dive Exploreres" meets each month for a social get together and offers dives every day of the week.
Being the largest club on the coast, we have people looking for dives each day of the week.
Vist us soon.
Our website is www.prodivecentralcoast.com.au