Posted by JRM on August 10, 2001 at 11:57:42:
In Reply to: shopping around for my Cert posted by Badfish on August 09, 2001 at 19:46:57:
It was at the last Chamber Night. Being that they didn't have enough "loser" tables (a la those who only bought tickets, not full tables), my wife and I ended up getting stashed at a table with a bunch of students from a place that sounds amazingly similar. I'll leave the name out of it, mostly because I don't exactly remember.
But one of the couples was a husband and wife that was getting certed with their son. The instructor not only required them to purchase all this really expensive gear (including dry suits), they actually had to buy it from his shop, at WAY over even rape the masses MSRP. And they were happy as clams. It reminds me a lot of the country club scene.
Now they were really nice people, although a bit on the snobby side. I was trying to explain to them how I managed to get compile a full kit of quality gear (for my wife and I) for about what they paid for one of their computers (and they bought three). They immediately dismissed my stuff as inferior crap (I didn't have the heart to tell them some places in Truk won't even ALLOW people in the water with those Cochran things).
Although from the sounds of the instruction, they were at least getting good training. They were doing a ton of pool dives (although the wife was very claustrophobic, and they were going uber slow so she could get comfortable), and then they had a ton of ocean dives slated. Of course, they had to pay for all of them, so it wasn't like they were included. And then, the instructor recommended that they do their next bunch of dives through his place, so they could get the proper supervision. So as far as the level of training, it sounded pretty good.
If you want to email me the name of the organization, I'll see if it rings a bell.
JRM
-- If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it really make a sound?
-- Hey, if someone screws a rich person, and rich don't even know they're getting screwed, is it really bad?