MEET US THERE!

A great many of the divers who elect to advance to cave diving and other types of "TECHNICAL DIVING" are, already, Leadership Level Divers [ aka. instructors, instructor trainers and divemasters ]. It might be reasonable to expect that they would arrive at the first day of their cave course with their FUNDAMENTAL DIVE SKILLS already in place. More often than not, this is not the case.
This author actually saw and established a value to buoyancy control, early on, by observing  how two Cozumel Dive Guides looked when compared to the professionals who had conducted his initial dive training in the United States. After, much work, he achieved talent that was on a par with that of these two Mexicans.  This author, your author [YA] continued on to instructor training, followed a year later by a...."full cave diver course".
One of the first things to be learned about cave diving is how to do a bubble check and an "S"- drill. Thirteen minutes is how long it took to complete YA's first "S"- drill ! BECAUSE: the two other students in YA's cave class [both **** professionals] were in doubles for the first time and did not have buoyancy skills that were remarkable in a single tank.
Unfortunatly, this "IS NOT" the exception that proves the rule. It is a scene that is repeated far too often. YA has seen it repeated in classes that were attended by colleagues and friends. MONEY$$$$ really does the  talking and many cave instructors can't afford to turn that kind of money away so they hold their noses and certify too many cave students, many of whom are leadership level divers who are without credible fundamental skills. AND chances are good that you learned about diving from one or more of them.

TRY TO IMAGINE

A world in which 199 out of every 200 persons stumbled around like toddlers or drunks.

NOW YOU KNOW....

WHO REALLY WANTS TO LEARN

Make no mistake....

WE "ONLY" MENTOR FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS.

SCUBA Diving FUNDAMENTALS: are the basic skills that are needed in order to operate in an alien world. They are the foundation that supports everything else that a diver will ever pursue or accomplish.  Buoyancy Control, underwater propulsion skills ( fin kicks ) and a horizontal profile with streamlining are as basic to underwater pursuits as walking and running are to terrestrial activities.
Underwater skills do not equal surface swimming skills. This author has seen magnificent surface swimmers who were hopeless divers and has know some truly spectacular divers who had surface swimming skills that were barely sufficient to keep them alive  in an emergency. Equating good swimmers with GOOD SCUBA Divers is a profound mistake that has been perpetuated by the "Status Quo" because they are unable to agree upon or recognize a standard for truly exceptional foundation skills. These  same people, many of  whom never bothered to perfect their own fundamental dive skills,  share their less than remarkable buoyancy control talent, with their students, and promote and advance the culture, of substandard SCUBA Skills,  that continue  to prevail and dominate the sport.
EVEN WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS: ability that has not been mastered, cannot be shared with someone else. This is true regardless of the credentials that are held or the reputation that has been established.  A reputation  that may exist mostly on paper or plastic and that may or may not be deserved.

ABOUT SWIMMING

We agree that swimming is a good thing to know....and not just for divers. This author conducted beginner classes through a local dive shop for nine years and certified almost 600 divers of different levels up to divemasters. The training agency required a "swim test before certification" but, because they did not want the test to appear to be a condition for taking the course, they suggested waiting until the end of the confined water (the pool) sessions to apply the swim test. IF the reader has not already guessed, there were no less than five students during that time that failed the swim test on the 5th night of confined water training AFTER performing well on SCUBA in both the shallow and deep ends of the pool. The first thing that this brings to mind is the comfort level that must be required to pull that off. This defies imagination if you are a swimmer. This is followed by the realization that , if a non swimmer could out perform a swimmer on SCUBA, and in some cases this was true, then surface swimming becomes  "only" a test of surface skills, without equipment. We agree that there should be a test for minimal surface survival. What we object to is the use of superb swimming skills being substituted for a "real standard" for Buoyancy Control Skills. Or better still.....an encouragement to exceed any and all standards for FUNDAMENTAL DIVE SKILLS.

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My first dive mask was an "Adolph Kiefer" signature model from Sears Roebuck. It was triangular in shape, blue in color and included no option for pinching the nose to aid with equalization of the ears. Adolph was a champion swimmer from the 1930s & early 1940s. Nobody in the United States had ever heard of Jacques Cousteau  or Mike Nelson [ both were still years* away from  their TV  impact ] so  "a swimmer" was chosen to endorse a dive mask.  I'm not suggesting that this was the beginning of substituting swimming skills for dive skills but I think comparisons can be drawn  as to why  so many  current  "elite divers" are forgiven their  less than  spectacular fundamental dive skills "IF" they are good swimmers!

john noftall

BECAUSE: there's no such thing as buoyancy control skills that are "GOOD ENOUGH"

DANGLIES; are a regular feature of dive magazine photos!