All-

Excuse me for jumping in. My name is Mike, I'm a PADI instructor/NAUI
Masterdiver currently living in Hawaii. I've been diving since, er, uh,
about '88, although not continuously. There's a quick intro. I used to
follow this group years ago, but business has kept me busy. I think, now,
that I can participate actively and constructively so I'm back. Hopefully
those of you seasoned vets out there can help with my first issue here.
I got into a discussion the other day with another instructor regarding
the pros and cons of teaching buddy breathing. To summarize, my point was
that teaching OW students buddy breathing at least exposes them to the
skill, and thus makes them at least a _little_ more likely to perform it
successfully if the need should ever arise. My friend's point is that PADI
made it optional because too many people were getting killed trying to
perform it, and so it becomes a liability. If somebody gets killed trying to
perform buddy breathing they could sue the instructor who didn't teach them
well enough. Redundant air sources, he says, are so inexpensive and
commonplace that there is no excuse for diving without one (or a diving with
a buddy that doesn't have one!), and thus buddy breathing becomes an
unnecessary risk.

Having a summary of both arguments, do you think buddy breathing should
be taught at the OW level, or, if not, should it be at ANY level? If not,
why is it a mandatory skill for divemaster and above? Please disregard the
issue of germs, as there's so much $&^@ in your average pool (including
chlorine) that the point is moot.

Thanks to one and all, and
MELE KALIKIMAKA!
--
-McMike

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~~~~~~~~ The Three Basic Food Groups ~~~~~~~~
SCUBA - PADI Instructor, going down since '88
JEEP - '93 YJ, they call me "duct tape"
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