Your Opinion Does Not Matter
I was with the Aide de Camp to the Sultan of Selangor yesterday. He hasn’t dived for more than a year now. So he has asked me to go with him to the KD Sri Semporna naval base (the ADC is a Lieutenant Commander), put up a night there, before boarding our version of an LOB..the CB-90 combat vessel.
All I have to do is to pay for my air ticket KUL-TWU-KUL.
Drool people….
KD Sri Semporna
CB-90H Combat Vessel
A year ago havoc struck the region when a high magnitude earthquake displaced the ocean floor in the Indian Ocean region. This in turn sent huge waves crashing, first into the Acheh province in northern Sumatra, followed by the southwestern area of Pulau Langkawi, before hitting coastal areas of mainland Kedah and Penang. These waves of destruction then traveled north hitting the Phuket and Phang-nga provinces on the west coast of Thailand before hitting Sri Lanka and southeastern India in the Tamil Nadu province. It did not stop there. People died on the east coast of the African continent. By the time the waves finally subside, they have traveled all the way to New Zealand and Alaska.
Let us not be caught off-guard again. An early warning system may not be able to prevent another tsunami from happening, but it would certainly save more lives.
My son, Mohamed Amirul Farhan, was born on Christmas Day 2002. He is the apple of my eye. A handsome and sharp boy. I hope he will learn the bittersweet aspects of life and that it would help him mature to face this cruel and cold world.
My, My what a big boy you’ve become,
Seems not too long ago, you had just turned one.
Yet, today is your Birthday, sign of another year past.
It’s hard to believe you’re already 3, and still growing up so fast.
Before you know it, it’ll be girls and a car,
Then off to college, or perhaps you’ll be the next Big Movie Star.
No matter where your Fate shall take you, or your Adventures should roam,
Never mind the reason you’re always Welcome to come home.
For now it’s bikes, bugs, or maybe your favorite play toy,
Nevertheless, you’ll always be my “Little Boy”
Forever, My Son.
I saw my Angel tonight…my Angel gives me traquility…
There’s a message in the wire and I’m sending you this signal tonight
You don’t know how desperate I’ve become and it looks like I’m losing this fight
In your world I have no meaning though I’m trying hard to understand
And it’s my heart that’s breaking down this long distance line tonight
To all my Christian friends, have a Merry Christmas!
To all my Jewish friends, chag urim samey’ach! Shalom alekhem!
Whale Shark Tag Tells Sad Tale
The tag attached to a whale shark suddenly ended up stationary and on land – most probably because the animal was caught and eaten.
The 7.5m whale shark had been tagged and was being monitored by Australian scientists as it moved around off Western Australia. The satellite position signals eventually started coming from on shore at Ningaloo island and, reported ABC Online, emitted from the same spot for the next three months.
It is thought that the whale shark was caught by fishermen and taken ashore to be eaten, the tag being removed and discarded. As a result of the incident, Western Australia’s tourism minister has called for an “international treaty to protect them (whale sharks) and our tourism industry”.
Diving with whale sharks or spotting them from boats is a major draw for marine-orientated visitors to the region.
I have received positive and constructive comments from readers on this issue. Hopefully with their permission, I will post them here. The question was – Bad Instructor or Bad Diver?:
clos Says:
both
Snafu Says:
Why Both? Is always the instructor & instruction…as for the diver if they are lucky they will meet good diver that will help them BUT most of the case the diver will meet another diver that will slack & put em down insted of helping them to improve by showing it to them.
Most instructor .. MOST INSTRUCTOR do teaching for the MONEY, by cutting time on the teaching, Money they earn become bigger … NEW student wont even know where to start, or what is wrong … dey just ask How much & how long…. den get exploited by DIVING SHOP…DIVING Instructor…etc…etc
By the time they know the right method or right people… new diver pick up BAD HABBIT already & hard to be corrected.
Not that the INSTRUCTOR dont know anyway… but dey keep on doing it, ALL IN THE NAME OF MONEY!!!
Dig It hommieeeeeeEEEeeEEeee!!!!!
idcpro Says:
hhmm…I would say both are not wrong and right. In a scuba lesson there’s 2 things we have to keep in mind. Performance requirements and Mastery. I believe most student divers meet the performance requirements as well as the Instructor, well…as long as they meet all performance requirements, the Instructor can certify them. The question now is did they Master what they have learned? Mastery of a skill involves in the attitude of the Instructor, the Instructor just need to spend a little more time to repeat the skills in the confined water and questions like “why i only can hover at the surface?†or “why I keep floating or get headache after each dive†will not appear.
Good or bad diver depends on both the Instructor and student diver. It’s the student divers responsibility to transfer most knowledge learned in the manual apply it to actual diving and Instructors attitude towards his/her own teaching.
kimi Says:
It’s pity to the student if they got a lousy instructor. For me, the world doesn’t stop there. I’m willing to move forward n to improve myself.
Luckily for me, i got a very good dive buddy who can teach me to be better in every dive i do.
He knows who he is. Thanks bro!
SayLeng Says:
Both. Instructors must teach completely (no cutting corners) and students must learn properly (ask, understand, analyze, confirm & practice).
Ling Says:
I feel it is both. Well, instructions given definitely will affect how one dive that’s where they first contact with diving. But the diver himself must also be open and willing to learn. Be flexible to any constructive feedback.
So far the general concensus is that both parties are equally at fault and otherwise.
idcpro is correct in saying an instructor should not certify the student if requirements or part of, are not or have not been met. The instructor should use a little more time in transfering knowledge to the student. The student, on the other hand, needs to apply knowledge received to his/her diving.
Say Leng has summarised the points above into: Instructors should not cut corners (as in the case of the 20:1 ratio I had seen), and students should “ask, understand, analyze, confirm and practiceâ€.
Ling concurs saying how instructions have been given to the student determines the outcome of the diver. ut the diver must also be open and willing to learn.
We all learn as we go along. The mould the instructor casts is the gateway to either pleasure or torture when one is underwater. However, the diver, as he/she progresses, should be open and learn during each dive. Skills are taught not to be forgotten. Therefore the only way one doesn’t forget is by practising these skills underwater. I may have been diving since 1982, but I make it a point to practice most of my skills (whenever possible) during my first dive of the trip. Still, I do get complacent: I once did rapid descent to about 20 meters without the regulator being in my mouth, and instead of using my octopus which is usually placed at the D-ring near my chest, I did a CESA; second was using twin-tanks ready for rapid descent (wing fully deflated), jumped in and realised that I did not have either fins on. In the first case, had I remembered or practised switching to my octopus regularly, then I would have remembered having an octopus as a back-up. In the second case, had I done my equipment check topside, I wouldn’t have had to struggle using my hands to propel myself back to the surface from 28 meters.
So in my case, I was (and hopefully no longer am) a bad diver.
Bad diver.
So is there such thing as a bad diver?
What makes a bad diver?
When a person learns to scuba dive, he/she takes the mould of the instructor. The person will become a diver based on what is taught by his/her instructor, and whatever knowledge (or crap) that is passed onto him/her. So he/she becomes that mini-me of the instructor…good or bad.
An extension to this would be the loyalty towards the instructor…blind faith, most of the time. This further solidifies the trust and attitude of this former student towards the instructor. This is evident in the former’s willingness to follow each, if not every trip that is organised by this instructor. As a result, any attempt to make this former student see the other side of the instructor, be it good or bad, will be met with stiff resistance.
If the mould is bad, and the diver’s attitude of not wanting to listen to anyone else, not wanting to accept constructive criticism, seeing everything as a criticism towards him/her or his/her instructor, then this diver would be in trouble. We have seen how some money-centric instructors skip certain modules to save time, or because he/she has too many student to instructor ratio (PADI recommends 4 students to 1 instructor for Junior OW, 8:1 for others. Personally I have seen 20:1). As a result, we get divers who stop after completing their OW course and die a natural death; we see divers who continue but do not enjoy diving; and we see lots of marine habitats destroyed through the couldn’t-care-less attitude of the divers.
So who is to be blamed? Just the instructor? Or both?
I feel lethargic after that drive to Kuantan yesterday. I must be old…
…or not enough compressed-air breathing.
Can someone give me a 50% mix for me to breathe in?
SeaDemon Says 
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