Posted by MHK on February 01, 2000 at 14:29:46:
In Reply to: For the record... posted by SLANG on January 31, 2000 at 17:42:48:
If I may interject on this thread for a moment. Many of you in this NG know me or have seen me on the boats and I would like to comment on two people that are at issue in this thread.
First, in terms of John Walker, John is a friend of mine and an extremely qualified and experienced technical dive instructor. In fact, John and I dive together often. That aside, John's comment's about 20 years of Ca. experience shouldn't be taken in the context of his view of one shop. John is dedictaed to seeing that diver's receive quality instruction, he isn't interested in the * I'll give you a few dollars and you sign off on my c-card mentality*. I've assisted many of John's classes and I can vouch for the fact that he makes you earn a c-card, he doesn't just hand them out. Does this limit how much he earns ? Of course it does. Does he care??? No he doesn't. If more instructors were as rigid as John there would definately a higher quality of divers out there than there are today.
As for Reef Seeker's. In the interest of full disclosure, I DM for Reef Seekers on occasion. But having said that, I would not do so if I didn't believe they run a top notch shop. While Ken and I like to argue, ( he's just fun to argue with ), his shop is primarily interested in promoting safe diving. As for his prices being unjustly high, I would respectfully disagree. I'm confident that you will find his prices competetive with any shop around. And as Ken pointed out, he has a gaurantee, so if you find what you bought cheaper he'll refund the difference. Billy, who primarily runs the day to day shop operations is the friendliest and most knowledgable guy around. I've been in the shop and have seen Billy turn away large sales ( ie; computer's, bc's, regs etc. ) in favor of cheaper alternative.
Just my 2 cents, FWIW.
Later