Day: February 10, 2006

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Divemasters…Skilled or Unskilled?

Very often you find Instructors and Divemasters who brag about their dive skills. Well, I don’t dispute them as they would have gone through quite a lot to get where they are.

According to PADI, upon completion of your Advanced Open Water course and completing both your Emergency First Response and Rescue Diver courses, and on top of that you have 20 logged dives, you can enrol for the Divemaster course as a DMT. Upon completion, you must have a minimum of 60 logged dives. To become an Instructor, you will have to become an Assistant Instructor first, and must have at least 100 logged dives.

Now, what if the DM organises a dive trip and acts as a dive guide to 4 Nitrox divers who dive to, say 30 meters for 45 minutes, and then after half an hour of surface interval, turn to the DM and say, “Hey, we’ve completed our surface interval. You’ll have to go down with us again and show us this other deep dive site.”?

By the end of the day, the untrained-in-Nitrox-diving DM would have seen pink perch (ikan puyu) swimming by him.

I would think that those who have Master Scuba Diver rating would have more specialised skills than most Divemasters. This is because, on top of the EFR and Rescue Diver courses, a Master Scuba Diver would have gone through 5 other specialty courses. I currently hold PADI PICs for UW Photography, UW Videography, Wreck Diver, Deep Diver, Enriched Air Diver (that allows me to use up to 40% Nitrox mix)..and to add to that, I also have the Advanced Nitrox Diver PIC issued by the PSAI. These specialties would certainly be of help to me if I decide to become an Instructor later in my diving life.

Maybe PADI should consider having DMTs rated as MSDs first…meaning, one has to become a MSD first before he/she is allowed to become DMs. Then PADI would have added quality to its Divemasters.

Just a thought.

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Of Cartoons and Riots…Part Deux

Having seen the caricatures, I can see why people are very angry all over the world. It is bad enough that by drawing the face of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), one commits the very wrong Muhammad forbade people from doing, for fear of people idol-worshipping the drawing than worshipping God Himself; what more drawing one and making fun of Muhammad.

Therefore, this blogger is in the opinion that it was (and is) wrong, for anyone to draw the face of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). And for a non-Muslim to draw one, what more making fun of the Prophet, tantamounts to insulting the religion and its followers.

And me, I am quite liberal in my thinking, and my intepretation of Islam…but I deplore and protest the printing of those caricatures. They have nothing to do with freedom of expression, if the intention is to insult Islam and Muslims.

You do not get to see Muslims retaliating by making fun of Jesus or David or Abraham, or any of the other Prophets that the Children of the Books (ie. Jews and Christians) believe in, because they are the Prophets of Islam too.

I do not condemn the protests that is happening worldwide, but on the other hand, I condemn the retaliation against churches or synagogues, or any other places of worship. This is against what Muhammad had taught Muslims 1500 years ago. When the Muslims were facing the Romans, the monastery of St Catherine in Sinai was under the control of the Muslims. Muhammad forbade his soldiers from retaliating and committing vengful acts against the Christians under their rule. He forbade his soldiers from even laying a finger on any of the monks or priests, and even to help the Christians repair damages done to their monastery caused by the Roman attacks.

There are many ways to protest. But nothing comes from violence…and nothing ever could.