If you walk into a dive centre with more than a few dives under your belt and say you are thinking of “going pro,” nobody will turn you away. There is no assessment process, no enrolment interview, no talent spotting. The fact that you are accepted as a candidate for a dive instructor course does not mean that someone has seen that you have the right attitude, aptitude and personality. You have to decide this yourself and that is why I thought an article on the topic would be useful.

The clients died mainly because the professionals persisted with attempting to reach the summit despite the fact that they had passed their turnaround time; that is, the point in the day at which an attempt on the summit would normally be aborted for safety reasons. The concept of establishing a turnaround time and sticking to it religiously had been a major factor contributing to the professionals’ hitherto exceptional safety record on Everest.

his Scuba Confidential column in issue #97 is adapted from a chapter in Simon’s book Scuba Exceptional: Become the Best Diver You Can Be. Simon Pridmore is the author of the international bestsellers Scuba Confidential: An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver, Scuba Professional: Insights into Sport Diver Training & Operations and Scuba Fundamental: Start Diving the Right Way. He is also the co-author of the Diving & Snorkeling Guide to Bali and the Diving & Snorkeling Guide to Raja Ampat & Northeast Indonesia.

This is frightening, as not only do students risk their lives when participating in these “farces” of training trying to pass as dive courses, but these fast-track courses also endanger the credibility of the entire dive industry.

There may be several variations on the basic theme, but I have found the simple way to rig steel cylinders to hang this way is to break the process of rigging them into a series of simple steps. Now, before explaining things in detail, there are a few assumptions that apply to this method.

On this particular trip, one of the divers, Brian, made it very clear that he did not like these policies. He would often swim some distance away from the group, complaining afterwards that their bubbles kept getting in his photographs. Sometimes, he would swim in completely the opposite direction from the group, on the basis, as he would subsequently explain, that the guide had been taking them all the “wrong” way. And, on every dive, he would just refuse to come up at the 60-minute time limit. When he did eventually surface, he would boast about how much air he still had left.

"We are not making enough money from our dive center, but we enjoy it immensely," said science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke sitting in his wheelchair. The rustling of palm trees and the ocean waves could be heard just outside. At his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I met with Clarke while shooting a documentary about his work in science fiction.

This makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil Tyson has described what many people do in response; instead of searching further, they build a wall around what they know so they do not have to see the darkness beyond. He refers to this wall as "the perimeter of ignorance."

How is this relevant in the world of scuba diving? Let me begin with a story.

If our definition of learning assumes that learning involves a permanent change in behaviour, then how long is permanent? If a change occurs, but it disappears as soon as the student leaves the class, then did they learn? I think most people would say no. If they retain that change for four hours, would we say that was “permanent” and they have learnt? What about four days, or four weeks, or four months?

One of the most popular battles for armchair divers and Internet warriors is that of training versus experience. You hear it all the time: “I don't need a certification card for that dive. I've been doing dives like that for years.”

The other popular assertion is that all those pioneers in diving got it all through experience: “No one was doing certification cards back then, and if it was good enough for them, well, then it is surely good enough for me!”

Finally, you hear the counter argument: “Yes, they may have all the badges, but I wouldn't dive with them.”

Why are students not learning this stuff in their scuba classes? The reality is that instructors do teach it, but the students are not learning it, or at least they are not putting what is taught into practice. There is a fundamental problem, and when there is a fundamental problem, we usually need to go back to basics. Let me ask you a question: Do you know what learning is? I assume most of you just mentally answered “yes” without a second thought. Of course, you know what learning is.