What training/experiences make for better scuba divers

[arcFlash]

GUE -  the people that started DIR. Their training expires! I'm sure someone on this site can recite the rules on it but the basics are; You only have the  highest certifications that you used in the last year and below. That is, if I was just AOW, I'd have to dive below 60' x times in a year or I'm back to OW. If I have Adv Tri-rebreather, I'd have to dive that x times or I'm back to Adv Tri OC or something like that. The point is, if you don't dive it, you lose it.

Fitness is an important part. The DAN accident report is full of people with a BMI well past 30. But given the general health of the average American what's PADI to do but certify them.  ;D

All fun aside, The problem is the industry around diving is for profit so they try and balance safety with profits and grow the industry all while selling information a little bit at time. Rock climbing doesn't have an industry or it's so small no one lives off it and not surprising, you don't have many of the problems you have with diving. No climbing shops, No instructors, No marketing pitching gear.... If you want to learn the sport, you have to find someone to 'apprentice' with. They have to trust you with their life in one hand, literally. No mistakes, no exceptions, no c-cards and it work perfectly. If I want to learn anything I find someone that does it, and ask them to show me how it's done. They will but only if I do everything correct, first time. If I can't they will send me away. I taught a few people to pass on what I learned over the year and never charged anything for it. A long time ago, I did hire a AMG for a day but I already knew how everything was done by then. I paid him to confirm my system before making a big step to multi-pitch climbing. Most make the switch on their own.

I'll probably get a lot of heat on this but it's true. Just because it's inherently dangerous doesn't mean you need to have a pocket of c-cards and paid instruction to be safe. 100's of people climb in MN every weekend without c-cards and 'proper training' and everyone does fine.

[DetectorGuy]

I agree that the instruction does not need to be paid instruction to be effective, and the C-cards will really only help you if you are in 7' deep water and you have a stack of them to stand on about 18" tall ;D. The training can be done during anyone's regular dives or it could be more structured.

When I mentioned never diving outside of your training... I did mean just that, but what I did not say was that it doesn't need to be training you paid for, or got a shiny piece of plastic from. I also did not say that this alone will keep you safe. I think if a person never penetrated a wreck before and decided to do it without training, the chances for a bad day are higher. If you have never been trained to go to 220' and decide to do it anyway... pretty certain you will have a bad day. I fully agree that experience is essential, but prior to the experience part, the training happens. At some point you need to do something "the first time" and after a while of doing that, experience is gained. Its not rocket science to figure out that there are a lot of different things that need to happen to minimize risk during a dive, training, experience, comfort level (mentally and physically), the right dive gear for that particular dive, the right conditions at the dive site, ECT. What I was told was that the C-card was just a learners permit so that once you have the basics for any level of diving through what ever kind of training, the next thing is the real learning from diving at that level, until you are ready to train more and get the next level of learners permit.