Posted by CalAbDiver on July 09, 2001 at 16:32:31:
In Reply to: Re: tell us about your GUE course Mike posted by msblucow on July 09, 2001 at 15:44:35:
Nice post, Ms. Blucow.
NAUI used to do exactly what you suggest. So did L.A. County Dept of Parks & Rec years and years ago. The scuba courses used to be several weeks long.
PADI has over the years sliced that down to a mere one weekend at the Ocean comprised of 4 open water dives, after a preliminary weekend of two pool afternoons comprised of 4 confined water dives.
The equilibrium within the scuba economy has shifted over the decades since NAUI first "standardized" sport [non-military & non-industrial] scuba diving, up until the present day, when PADI has significantly "simplified" it towards LESS, not more.
PADI gets more money from adding little pieces to the puzzle at a time: AOW, Rescue, Wreck Diver, "Deep" Diver, Search & Recovery, Hunting and Collecting, Night Diving, Boat Diving. At $250 per weekend per topic, PADI is getting rich. And that was the original idea behind "for profit" scuba versus NAUI's "not for profit" motive, or at least thats how it appears to me.
And the Joe and Sally Divers seem to prefer it like that, and not the way it used to be, or else PADI would not have 75% of the market now.
Like I said, MsBlucow, I just cannot see any signs that this trend will change any time soon. Especially in view of the huge OW1 classes that PADI stores currently have.
In fact, I will be working with a huge PADI OW1 class this coming weekend!