Posted by Wayne on July 24, 2001 at 22:54:37:
In Reply to: Re: Here is a bit of the problem... posted by FunnyNot on July 24, 2001 at 22:19:05:
I do think it is a great value to have such things as "divecheck". Try going diving away from home without your card sometime. I had to get my kids to fax a copy of my NAUI card to Hawaii once because there was a packing problem. It is nice to be able to get it verified at any time of the day or night by phone or on the internet. PADI is not evil, but they are successful, and that makes them a target.
You state that none of your friends received the questionaire. It is sent to a sampling of students. As to the questions they include such simple things as 'does the instructor name on the card correspond to the person who conducted your last checkout dive?' and even more technical stuff like numbers of students and whether or not the instructor had physical contact with both the student and the line during the CESA. Just because you were not aware of it, does not mean it isn't being done. I have seen only the one because my daughter was sent one after her certification. While it is true that newbies are not able to judge the quality of the instruction, as they mature they will be able to interpret it better.
There is one diver in particular on this board who got bad instruction from a really big chain store. She now realizes it. I think she should go back and complain to PADI about the particualr instructor and his store. That is how it has to happen.
I know of instructors who are not welcome on certain dive boats because of what they have done. I think the folks who baned them shoudl follow up with the certifying agencies and explain why they are not welcome anymore.
You said that PADI wants bad instruction. That is just BS. Have the agencies all watered down the courses in the last 25 years or so? Sure. Is there more that could be crammed in? Sure. Is this problem exclusive to PADI? No.
I do not know what your experiences are that have you so worked up, but if you got screwed, learn from it and deal with it.
And learn to type without shouting and knock off the unsigned posts. If you have something to discuss, discuss. If you want to rant, do it somewhere else. We are trying to make this a rant free zone.
Wayne