Jeff Bozanic – Scientific Diving Legend

In this episode of The Dive Locker podcast we hear from NAUI’s Director of Training Terrence Tysall of the many happenings in NAUI.

Welcome to the Dive Locker podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that made you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management, and dive business.

I’m your host Tec Clark. Welcome everyone. In today’s episode, we’re going to have another training agency check-in. Today we’ll hear from Terrence Tysall, Director of Training for NAUI. Now, since it’s been a while since we’ve done a check-in, let me explain it. This is an opportunity for you to hear right from the training agencies themselves on what they’re about as an organization and what new things they’ve got going on. And listen, you don’t have to be a NAUI professional to listen. Don’t switch the dial because you’re not a NAUI professional. In fact, it’s always been my wish that if you’re an instructor or dive pro or a divemaster of one agency, you can learn about other agencies by hearing directly from them, not by listening to rumor mills or from the shop down the street, but by hearing from them on these check-ins.

And so also we had lots of good feedback from the last episode, “Your next class is always your best class.” It seemed like that episode resonated with many of you out there. We got lots of likes and shares from that one and that’s really cool because I know many of you have the same quality mindset as I do and we share that together, so keep it up. That’s awesome. I like to see that and keep up the likes and the shares as well of these episodes. So without any further ado, let’s hear from Terrence Tysall for the NAUI check in.

TEC CLARK:           Well Terrence, here we are at the NAUI check-in at DEMA 2019 it’s so good to have you on the Dive Locker. How are you doing?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              I’m good Tec. Thanks a bunch. I appreciate you having us.

TEC CLARK:           Yeah. Well tell us about this. You know, NAUI check in. It’s your opportunity to tell us what’s going on in NAUI, but I want to start with right off the bat, what makes NAUI different from all of the training agencies that are out there?

 TERRENCE TYSALL:             Two things spring to mind. Immediately. The first one, of course, hearkening back to our bylaws in which we have enshrined what we refer to as the loved one concept. And this is a written contract, a document in our bylaws that, States that we would not certify anybody at any level, whether it’s leadership or lower, unless we would be willing to have those people dive with our loved ones at the same level as an equal body. So it’s super important to us.

TEC CLARK:           Right. I remember it well. That’s when I, you know, went through my first instructor training in that was the whole level that we measured upon and the entire instructor training course group would have to feel that way about everybody going through that led to such unification in who was coming through and who was getting certified. That was a really important tenet of what it meant to be a NAUI pro. And, and that’s the first thing you say is one of the differences. Would I trust this person to teach a loved one to dive. I think that that is a really great, great hallmark.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Yeah. Or even more importantly, even at that, even at the most basic open water level, would you trust that person to be a buddy? Or, the loved one of yours. And that’s just, and again, it’s in our DNA I guess. And then I guess the second thing is, is it’s funny, it’s hard to even visualize from outside, but in NAUI there’s this vaunted concept of instruction or academic freedom, which means when you have a basic set of standards that you adhere to that then past that, as long as the students know in advance and you’ve explained it, then you can take that course and teach it to the next level.

TERRENCE TYSALL: And you with your, you know, with your training experience, you know that, I mean, it’s a, I’ve been real fortunate in my life to, to train a lot of technical things and then train multiple years at universities where you can get an open water student for a semester. So it’s, it’s just wonderful. And, I think that’s important in today’s culture because I mean, we’re members of the RSTC and it’s so frustrating to hear of the norm now as a two day scuba course or four days scuba course. And we can’t do that. That’s just, yeah, it’s tough.

TEC CLARK:           Yeah. I think those are really remarkable. the academic freedom thing has been, you know, something that is, is, is highly celebrated amongst NAUI instructors worldwide. and you know, this has been from the beginning, you know, you guys have been on that, and part of those bylaws since, since the inception back in what, 1960?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              It’s, yeah, it’s our 60th anniversary this year. 60th anniversary. That’s pretty amazing.

TEC CLARK:           Yeah. All right, so we’re hitting 60 years right now. You’re at the show, you’ve got a wonderful booth. the booth was packed when I was just there to visit you. Tell us what you got going on. What are some of the new things?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Well now I’m always going to view things through my, fairly biased viewpoint of, of course, training as the training director. So, the entire agency, the whole organization, I mean we’re a membership based organization. We’re a legitimate 501c3. We’re the only one of the large or any of the agencies to be a not for profit. And that’s important to us too. It’s a member based organization. So our job is to walk that tight rope of servicing our members this amazingly eclectic blend of instructional styles and all that and get this organization moving forward.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              So I, I tend to gravitate towards things from training. I mean obviously the booth is wonderful. Our marketing team is, has just knocked it out of the park with that. all of the staff, whether it’s the ladies that are normally on the phone but are now, they’re in the booth answering questions and helping people resolve problems. And then of course, again, the, you know, the guys that are in the back shipping stuff. I mean, it’s such a neat team. we’ve got our, you know, our financial guys are our IT guys, everybody, all, everybody’s everyday comes to work with this mission of, “Hey, how can we service our members?” So the exciting things to me initially, and of course the team has really changed. We’ve had some pretty profound leadership changes in the last almost a rotational basis in the last decade. We’re, we’re hitting some stability and I think we’re getting key personnel positions filled that are going to anchor us for the next decade.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              I mean, we’re sitting in a room next to somebody I hope succeeds me someday. And I hope that the two that I have working with me in the training department are there long after I’ve moved on. But more tangible, one of the first things that comes to mind is in the rebranding and repackaging of our, of our basic level course materials, everything from, the open water class through, two of our freediver levels. We have eight new tecs in the last year. And, there I think the repackaged, I think they flow better. I think they certainly are refreshing and bright looking. And, then in that journey, I’m looking over at Chris laughing, is because in that journey we discovered always trying to vet our materials against the, the touchstones of our industries, such as the U S Navy diving manual, the NOAA diving program, all that.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              sure enough, we found out that our, our tables were not in some cases, as conservative as the new Navy rev seven. And again, you know, you kind of wish, “Oh, why did we look under this rock?” But we did. And then what can we do? We ha we owe it to the membership and our, and our people to see that through. So we had to redesign NAUI dive tables that had been around, I want to say since the 90s, early nineties. And so we incorporated the new a US Navy revision seven stuff in that did 80% of those no decompression times. And, and it just sounds so simple in two sentences, but it took us weeks and weeks and of course, editing. So the books, the new tables are certainly the most updated in the industry. And, and then of course a, a concept that I’m, it’s super near and dear to my heart and I know yours is, is technical training.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              And NAUI was the first of the major organizations to sanction it. And, then I, I think we in our drive for quality and you know, that educational purity and then just leadership styles. I don’t think in previous decades, I mean this is the thirty year of, you know, event with NAUI with tech or more, I don’t know if it was always the priority that, that of course people that are tech interested would like. So yeah, I think a, I think this year the board made a super courageous decision for us to, to do a new alignment with our tech programs. Within the next year, we’re hoping to have updated materials for those. And I think NAUI tech is gonna hopefully be in that preeminent position again where it was.

TEC CLARK:           Oh, that’s great to hear. That’s outstanding. Yeah. You mentioned the dive tables we got into, I was just teaching a course and it was funny to bounce from the and then the Navy and to watch which ones leapfrogging first and who comes out and then all of a sudden one gets ready and it’s going to print and then here comes the next one and it’s never consistent. And so I then when you plug in and you look at the agencies like yourself that are taking US Navy and backing off, that has to change. So I, I applaud that. I think that that is a super responsible way to say, “yep, the only thing that’s constant is change.” And so it’s inevitable and you’re rightfully doing that. I think that’s wonderful.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Yeah. We had a, we were, I think we’re on rev six of the NOAA manual now and of course, rev seven of the U S Navy diving manual. So, and again, as you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not passe yet, but certainly most people are using other, other table bases in their computers, whether it’s RGBM or, or you know, a VPM or whichever of the, them decompression models. But still in the, at the end of the day, if the electronics fail, you, we need our students from all agencies to be able to reach into that pocket and be able to still use those tables and feel confident with them. So.

TEC CLARK:           That’s fantastic. And you also mentioned the board that the board is driving a lot of the decisions of, you know, where you’re heading and things like that. Tell us about that. I think that that is another unique thing about NAUI, as you mentioned earlier in the 501c3 status and, and so forth. tell us what kind of, a strong point that is when the board can collectively come together to help drive the mission forward and, and all, how, how does that work?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Well, it’s, it’s neat. I mean, it’s almost like in, I’m going to be just teased mercilessly for this, but it’s almost as if our country has caught up with, with, with NAUI. And what I mean by that is, is I mean it’s democracy in action. You know, this isn’t a big corporation owned by some other big corporation or anything like that. And there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a, this isn’t an insult to any other traditionally organized companies, but this is a nine member group with international advisors, of, from all around the world. Cause effectively half of our businesses is outside of the United States and growing rapidly. And we have, I want to say it’s 16 representatives just in Europe alone. So it’s this diverse group, you know, different languages, different cultures all coming together for this passion about diving and to set those strategic goals for the corporation, which then we that are fortunate enough to work for NAUI on a day to day basis, try to turn that into a tangible policy and then execute it. So it’s, it’s really, it’s, it’s, we’re, we’re super lucky.

TEC CLARK:           That’s fantastic. Excellent. Let’s talk about freediving, the NAUI free diving program launched under PFI. lots of really cool things there. I’ve been tracking that. and you know, I’m a passionate freediver myself. So, that was really neat to see. Has anything changed now with the freediving program with the change in, in ownership, if you will, with PFI? Does that, does that influence anything?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              It  doesn’t, enter, it doesn’t change our training strategy whatsoever. I mean, you know, this is such a, a small and hopefully mutually respected, you know, industry which we’re in and, and this is where, TDI SDI, since they’ve acquired PFI, we just literally sat down with the, the two entities and had some groups because we knew that would come up at DEMA. And so it’s just, I mean, that’s the thing that, that I think people don’t realize is most of the heads of these organizations at one point or another, we’ve sat in each other’s presence and had one on one conversations and it’s, it’s really nice. So as I’m a obviously training guy, not necessarily a business guy, so I may be a tad naive, but, everybody that, with the new acquisition of PFI has been super, flexible with us.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to continue offering our NAUI, freediver programs effectively, the same courses, but we’re going to make sure that the branding is NAUI only rather than that NAUI PFI Alliance and since that contract is, is expired and they’ve moved on to other things, we’re gonna, you know, we support them. And, and the biggest thing from NAUI’s standpoint in the training department is we just want responsible, freediving out there and cause like you, I just love freediving. It was my first form of diving. It was my, my, I still, it’s still, despite the caves and the deep wrecks and all that, it’s still, I think that the purest form and my favorite because it’s just, you know, so. And I think it’s going to be such an exciting time and freediving.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              And I, it’s so funny, I, this industry wants to pit them against each other, but to me they’re so intertwined that at some point a freediver’s going to want to try scuba and vice versa. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to be that elegant gliding animal going head down into the dark? Exactly. Cause we are, we are mammals. Yeah.

TEC CLARK:           That’s awesome. Good to hear that. So tell everybody how they can follow you and you know, how, how do pros keep up with what NAUI’s got going on?

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Well, I mean obviously we’ll, we’ll go the step over the line and say, well, just become a member. That’s one of the greatest way. We’d love to have everybody do it. And we don’t mind if you’re a member of another organization because most of those organizations in one way, shape or form in their lifetime were an offshoot of NAUI, and so, the neat thing is, all of the major social media outlets and platforms are going to have a NAUI  presence.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              if you find one that we haven’t, you know, then let us know. And there’s of course, the good old, telephone. And then our website, which is a just very simple NAUI dot org. Now that’s a great way to do it. But yeah, we have a marketing department that is on it. We have, the Sources blog of course, that used to be our classic magazine or journal. And now that’s in a blog form, which is really nice. And like most organizations, we’re probably just a striving to keep pace with the latest, developments in social media because they change so rapidly. Yeah. What’s, what’s neat is, with our, change of direction in Europe now, the individual, representatives and, areas in inside individual countries, also have their, individual social media presence for NAUI in each of those regions.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              So whether it’s NAUI Croatia, Romania or, or on and on. So yeah, there’s a variety of, of NAUI source information there.

TEC CLARK:           That’s interesting. Yeah, that would be really beneficial for the different markets that you have there. Well, I’ll, we’ll put these links in the show notes page so that people can, touch base with you all. Thanks so much for this time and the NAUI update. it looks like you’re doing some really great things on that show floor. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful DEMA show and we’ll check in with you next year.

TERRENCE TYSALL:              Thanks Tec, I appreciate it. Thanks for letting us talk. I mean it’s, we love what we do.

Would you trust this person to teach a loved one to dive. Well, I can’t tell you how many times I had to answer that question as a NAUI instructor trainer because it was just something that we had to do in instructor training courses and I always thought that that was really an awesome filter to go through to become a NAUI instructor. I thought that was really, really cool because you know, it wasn’t about how that someone’s going to get blackballed because a person doesn’t like the way they parted their hair. No, it was truly, truly “would you trust this person to teach a loved one of yours to dive?” And when you have to answer that question, it comes really quick whether or not you say yes or no because – I don’t know about you, but I’m only going to turn over people that I truly trust and respect to be able to teach a loved one of mine to dive.

So I just thought that was a great filter and I’m glad Terrence described that here, in this check-in. So thanks so much. Hey, you know, you can go over to the show notes page over at scubaguru.com where you can find a transcript of this episode and there you can also see a link to NAUI or visit them directly at NAUI.org.

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today everyone. Thanks so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher. That way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes page at scubaguru.com and there you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care my friends.

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