CASE STUDY - THE
LAW OF PRIMACY
By UTD Instructor Alain Najm
The story of a very first dive –
If you know Lebanon, or if you ever
had a Lebanese friend, you should know
that the holidays are the time of the year
where Beirut gets crowded with expats returning to visit their families and
friends.
Xmas 2013 was no different for Beirut,
nor different for me: I am always excited
to hang out with my friends whom I miss
all year around.
Roy, who happens to be one of my closest friends, surprised me this year by
asking me to take him for his first dive.
He had never dove before, but he finally decided to take time out of his tight visit to Beirut and actually spend it
learning SCUBA diving.
Now that he left for France, I thought it would be a good idea to write about his experience as to inspire both instructors and divers, the same as it did me.
So here is how it all unfolded:
Like all first-time divers, Roy first approached me with many questions. I was very excited about the project and I
took my time explaining to him the different directions he could take. Yet, I was very straight forward recommending the UTD Open Water course.
I was very clear with him and I explained how it will be more time-consuming and require more effort than the
other agencies’ Open Water courses that I teach. This is what I said, “We can go in the pool, get you on your knees
on the bottom, and do some skills. All you need to do is perform those skills and you will be ready for open water
diving. We can even cover theory and pool skills within one day. This might sound simple, but you won’t become
the most proficient diver this way.
“Now if you go with UTD, you will have more material to
read online, more time studying diving theory, and more time
in the pool practising more demanding skills. This will make
you a more skilled diver, safer (for yourself, your team, and
the environment), and I guarantee that you will have much
more fun diving.”
Roy thought about it and decided to go with UTD – a sign of a