Question From Last Issue: Why Does IANTD Continue to Teach the Math and Why Maintain Such Rigorous Quality Standards?

It is essential that a student diver is fully aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of any form of recreational diving. The down side of recreational diving has been swept under the carpet now for many years by some of the other agencies in an attempt to market recreational diving as a completely safe activity. No diving activity is completely safe, just as there is no such thing as a completely safe decompression schedule. By teaching the math and maintaining rigorous quality standards, IANTD is demonstrating that it is a responsible diver training agency and is trying to ensure that recreational diving is kept as safe as humanly possible.

If as an Instructor that is not enough reason to "play the game," then look at the issue again from your own completely selfish point of view. In this litigious society we live in someone is always out there trying to "kick your arse" in an attempt to live a comfortable lifestyle at your financial disadvantage. Why not "protect your arse" by making all the necessary information available to your student divers by maintaining rigorous Quality Standards. There are too many people out there who would dearly love to see a successful litigation against a technical instructor so that they can satisfy their egos by saying "Look, I told you so. It's dangerous." - Rob Cason, IANTD Australasia

So Why teach the math? Perhaps the question should be "How do we simply and safely instill in the Basic Nitrox divers of tomorrow the procedures for EANx as an alternative to air?" We must remain mindful of roots and our target audience. To a lot of divers, math is not only not a strong point but positively confuses them. Whether we teach mathematical formula or present the information in a definitive table form is to my mind irrelevant. The point is that, at what is our most sensitive course In giving safe, unambiguous information, we have fulfilled our safety directive without either supplying more information that could lead to additional conclusions being drawn or leaving ourselves open to the question in a coroner's court of "Did the student understand the limits?" The answer being "Yes, they were on the table in front of him!"

One thing is certain. That is, all other courses above Basic must each all faces of the sport. At technical level, understanding the math is not just about being a scientist. It is a statement of the mind that says the student is responsible and has a desire to fully understand the subject prior to embarking on any dives. To this end, in my view they must be fully assessed in the shape of a written exam (which will test the math!) and provide confidence of in water abilities. For most this is the easy bit! A final thought! The divers we produce are only as good as the standards we can maintain and not those we generate. - Kevin Gurr, IANTD UK

Has it been so long ago that the NITROX controversy raged across the industry? Then (only 1 to 1.5 years ago, depending on which editorial) we defended ourselves from the Doomsayers by agreeing that all Nitrox divers need to be properly trained and bragged about how good our training was and so on. Not it appears that the Quality of Standards is too high. This really baffles me! When we are talking about training fellow humans and loved ones to do any try of recreational activity, we should always look for High Standards. I dare say none of you want to be given a certification for a course. You want to earn it. At least when I am at the dive site, all I hear is how many fabulous dives "Joe Diver" has made and that "Joe is about to make a world-famous dive." This sounds to me like "joe" earned his Wings (BC).

Since I do not teach diving for a living, I guess the almighty buck, at least the making it, is not at issue with me. I think that for anyone to dive as safely as possible they need to understand Dalton's Law, the basic Law needed for Technical Diving and even simply OW diving physics. Yes, tables can be used to represent the math. But do you students really understand what a table means? What is really scary is the thought, "Are we trying to eliminate the math because the instructors don't want or know how to teach it?" I think some of those doomsayers for the past year are just waiting in the wings to be able to say, "Ha, I told you so. That Nitrox stuff is dangerous, it kills!" - Brent Blunt, Just a Diver