Nitrox workshop dings - Divers Alert Network

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Rubicon Foundation Archive (http://rubicon-foundation.org)Lang (ed.): DANNitrox Workshop, Divers Alert Network, November 2000When I reviewed the figures, I saw that the first year of the program had higher number ofcertifications than the second year of the program. It was high, went down and went upagain. Drew, did you find that same thing for PADI, an initial influx and then a drop off?D. Richardson: Yes, Jon, basically the same experience. We viewed that as a pipeline ofinterest, if you will. It didn't drop off a lot, but it did somewhat and since then it's been asteady upward growth if you look at it on a curve.J. Hardy: Exactly the same with SSI.T. Mount: That is the IANTD submitted data and it is current through the end of October. Wealso have instructor trainers who aren't listed there, but it wouldn't change the numbersbecause they have instructor numbers prior to becoming instructor trainers.B. Gilliam: Yes, TDI is exactly the same. As represented, our instructor trainers would beincluded in the instructor group anyway so those numbers wouldn't change. Our numbers areaccurate through the end of the third quarter.E. Berts: The ANDI numbers confirm what we submitted. Probably the only comment to makeis that the number of instructors represents nitrox instructors and nitrox instructor trainersonly. Instructors with other ratings are not included, for example, an open water instructorwho is not a certified nitrox instructor. To get some validity to the data, since that's whatwe're looking for, it would be fair to comment that there has to be a tremendous number ofduplicate certifications. This might possibly explain the sudden influx of numbers with, forexample, PADI's data and SSI's data, followed by the drop-off. Crossover certifications andmultiple certifications are frequently the case.M. Lang: Do you have any feel for what the overlap might be?E. Betts: It's an appropriate question to ask. If we're trying to validate data, I really couldn'toffer a conjecture. There is a reasonable number of ANDI instructors who also hold otheragency's instructor numbers. I would probably estimate that number to be as high as 25percent.B. Gilliam: Ed may be right in regards to the possible cross-certification of instructors. I doubtif you're seeing any of that skewing the diver statistics because I don't really see anything thathas the tendency for a regular diver to end up with multiple certifications. Although that maybe true at the instructor level, I think the other numbers are pretty hard.M. Lang: For nitrox?B. Gilliam: Yes, for nitrox.T. Mount: I would concur with what Bret said. We actually sent a survey out to instructors atone point to know if they cross-certified students and very few of them do. Most of themcertify with one agency or another. Many of the instructors obviously are multi-agencycertified.M. Lang: Drew, would you want to comment on that?D. Richardson: That's consistent with our analysis.J. Hardy: What Bret is saying is true. There are a lot of crossovers at the instructor level,particularly at first. These instructors may have already held a certification from a technicaldiving association, but as far as I can tell, we have very little crossover at the student diverlevel.B. Wienke: I would concur with that and as the cost of certification goes up for divers with theagencies, you'll see less multiple certifications for divers.66
Rubicon Foundation Archive (http://rubicon-foundation.org)/. Nitrox Operational Data DiscussionM. Lang: As there are no more comments on this first section of operational data, we'll proceedwith the rest of the data submissions.D. Kesling: The UNC numbers are what we submitted. My main comment is under number ofinstructors. We have instructors teaching under NAUI, PADI and IANTD programs. That'sthe only comment about issuing recognition material certifications for the scientific divingnitrox study and those 803 divers.M. Lang: They are IANTD certified?D. Kesling: Those are scientific nitrox divers within our program who might receive recognitionmaterials or meet the prerequisites for NAUI, PADI or an IANTD certification based on whatthey select or what the instructor offers.M. Lang: Those numbers may actually already be accounted for in NAUI, PADI, or IANTD?D. Kesling: Right.M. Lang: I'll make a note of that.D. Dinsmore: Those numbers are correct. The "2" represents instructors at the NOAA DivingCenter. Besides being NOAA instructors, they are also NAUI nitrox instructors. Thenumber "139", if you realize we have got about 300 NOAA divers, represents over one thirdof our total who are nitrox certified.M. Lang: Are these yearly recertifications or are these one-time certifications?D. Dinsmore: Those would be one-time certifications.C. Borne: The numbers haven't changed. I need to point out that at the NASA facility, we don'tcertify divers, they're not given a card. They're not doing any kind of open water checkoutdives, it's a facility-specific qualification. The number "384" is what is on my current roster.There have probably been approximately 250 divers deleted from that roster. As far ascertification or qualification, we're close to a 600 diver total. My instructors are withIANTD, NAUI and PADI. Sixty to seventy percent of my staff of 70 have gone on to get thenitrox certification, but some of my staff members do not hold the cards, they're just qualifiedto dive in our facility.W. Jaap: If you look at the "non-available" entry under the instructor heading, we have 24organizations at AAUS that do teach a nitrox course and certify through probably PADI,NAUI and IANTD. As far as numbers of divers last year, we had 442 nitrox divers in AAUSorganizations. The typical percentage of nitrox diving compared to air diving is about sevenpercent at this point in time. Nitrox is showing a slight gain on air diving. Other than that, itshows we have been doing quite a bit of nitrox diving.M. Lang: The next operational data section is from liveaboard nitrox diving. We thought wemight be able to get a good handle on the number of nitrox dives that actually occur amongcaptive liveaboard diver populations. The problem we ran into was that some operationsdon't track numbers of dives because they felt there wasn't a need to. The only way for themto track nitrox divers at all would be to physically count the release and waivers signedspecifically for nitrox. Peter Hughes, for example, even though he was interested and wantedto contribute numbers, felt he could not allocate the staff time to trace this. The next option Ipursued was to try to get an idea of the number of nitrox dives by overlaying a formula onthe cubic footage of oxygen consumed; however, several liveaboard operations use gasseparation membranes so we could not answer how many 80 cu.ft. aluminum nitrox cylinderswere filled.67
Page 1 and 2:
Rubicon Foundation Archive (http://
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20: Rubicon Foundation Archive (http://
Page 69: Rubicon Foundation Archive (http://
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
show all

Nitrox workshop dings - Divers Alert Network

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?