Posted by tleemay on July 17, 2001 at 17:42:06:
In Reply to: Re: And another thing... posted by MHK on July 17, 2001 at 15:41:46:
"...neither Terry nor I misinterpreted about 10
seperate classes."
Boy that's for sure. Even though there were probably
no more than 5 students in each UW session, they
were plowing enough of the bottom and stirring
up enough particulate to cause the swim platform
and glass bottom boat wrecks to become near 0 vis
at times.
What we saw in action underwater between students
and the instructor, was confirmed by what we saw
on the surface in between dives. An awful lot of
PADI patches designating their wearers as Course
Directors, Master Instructors, and Instructor
Trainers, and Instructors. Some of them were
obviously operating under the guise of a major
sporting goods chain, some were the smaller mom
and pop's outfit. The only thing missing was a
giant Wheel of Fortune with various certification
levels as the prized and Don Pardo doing the voice
over play-by-play.
If these instrokters are supposed to be the leaders
of the dive training industry, why won't they teach
students right the first time in regards to
bouyancy, trim, and PROPER finning techniques? Why
not make bouyancy, trim, and basic finning
techniques a pre-requisite for _earning_, not
buying your final cert. card? Why? Because it's not
cost effective for someone who only want's to get
certified so that he/she can dive in Hawaii in two
weeks. I am starting to like the 'diver's learner's
permit' more and more. The whole dumbing down if the
recent OW students disgusts me, and that's the
driving force between a discussion like this. This
is not technical diving I am referring to, it BASIC
OW skills as they apply to the real world, not just
while the instructor is around.
I just spent the weekend in the Bay Area visiting
my cousin who is a former Course Director for both
PADI and NAUI. I say former because 4 years ago he
decided to give up teching the PADI way for just the
same reasons why PADI is able to crank out divers
with limping skills at best. Although he was an
independent instructor, he was being HEAVILY
pressured to associate himself with a shop in the
Campbell/Mtn. View area. When he visited the shop
and discussed his training agendas with the owners,
he was told he would have to streamline his
teaching process to enable more divers to be able
to get thorugh the OW courses. They told him that
the requirement was PADI's not the shops, but they
whole heartedly agreed with it. My cousin had been
certifying divers through PADI since 1977 - and with
an excellent record as none of his students have
been reported back to him as having a diving related
accident - life threatening or not. In the confines
of the program the shop wanted him to use, he felt
he would have degenerated the quality of the training
e provided in the past, and that was a risk he was
not going to take. He approached PADI and they told
him that the nature of their business was changing.
They were in the dive certification and travel
business now.
According to PADI's mantra back then, without certified
divers associating themselves to a reputable shop,
there are no marketing residuals available to the shop
owners, and in particular, PADI. originally certified
by a PADI shop, bought gear through a PADI shop, a PADI
shop provides the extended training (which whould have
been part of OW in the first place) and training into
the technical realm of diving be it EANX, Normoxic
Trimix, etc. while I don't argue the genius of their
plan, the dumbing down of the traing to get that
marketing profile to swell is just not kosher.
As a side note, for my OW training I was refered to
one of Los Angeles's most reputable instructors by MANY
different people. This instructor came with high praise
from former students. He taught PADI and only PADI. 3
months and some 30 or so dives later outside exclusive
of those 3 training dives (even after swallowing the
'continue on with our Advanced Diver cert'), I was
disgusted with the training I had received... so
disgusted I asked for my money back (which I received
less the cost of the book and slate). I then sought out
a NAUI instructor who also came highly recommended. I
paid him the money I originally paid the PADI instructor
plus books and materials. My basic OW NAUI class lasted
about the same length as the PADI class
(32 hrs instruction), but the in water stuff was much
more intensive for OW certification.