Posted by JRM on April 25, 2001 at 18:26:40:
In Reply to: Re: Slight Disagreement... posted by Bill Johnson on April 25, 2001 at 15:44:21:
Wonderful Fresno county. There are only three real dive shops in the area, two not worth frequenting. The third is PADI affiliated shop. I met both instructors, and picked the one I liked. Luckily he turned out pretty good. However, he did have to spend the vast majority of his time catering to the rest of the students. My "buddy" and I had our DM, and we got to do a lot of extra good stuff while the instructor and the other DMs worked with the other 6 folks in the class. We had 2 students per DM, plus the instructor.
My statement wasn't a "I love PADI" type of thing. It was a "PADI was the lesser of all evils" up here. And while I haven't heard it in a while, no, travelling to go to class wasn't feasable. Heck, I've been trying for a couple of months to coordinate taking JW intro to DIR class, but the distance really screws things up. Based on the experience of trying to get that class, I really am glad I didn't try and commute for OW. I probably will commute for Rescue Diver, though.
I will play devil's advocate a bit here (like I don't normally, right?), and say that pretty much *all* OW programs are short. You can't possibly get enough training to dive without supervision in a course. This stuff takes practice, and not just practice in a pool. Now I wish that I was able to take a course where they were actually able to simulate emergency situations. But that doesn't have anything to do with time, it has to do with liability. My wife has standing permission to rip my mask off or turn off my air without warning. And it's a good thing, too. Cause I got my mask kicked off once (by an instructor, no less), and it wasn't a big deal. We need to run more OOA stuff between the two of us, just to keep the wheel greased. I do believe in practicing skills on every dive (something my instructor stressed).
Oh well, guess I just had one of the rare "Not horrific PADI experiences"
FTR, I will *not* be taking any form of technical diving from PADI. I got lucky once, I really don't feel the need to roll the PADI dice again :-)
JRM