Posted by Wayne on July 28, 2002 at 22:42:42:
In Reply to: Large Chain Store and PADI posted by Wayne on July 28, 2002 at 22:18:45:
I forgot to sum it up; I got so into the rest of the long answer. I do blame the store for the instructor's behavior. If it was a bad instructor from XYZ dive shop or a Sports Chalet, I always blame the employer for the product being offered by the instructor. I believe that a small dive shop with an owner on the premises will watch over the teaching staff and set the culture of the staff. In the chain store model, it is hard to find a supervisor with sufficient clout who is totally concerned about the diving operations. The big time managers are unlikely to have come from the scuba department. And this means that they are not capable of discerning the nuances of good instruction.
Want some fun? Ask Ken Kurtis (Reef Seekers) or Jim Of Scuba Toys about an instructor like the one I had my little problem with. Would they have known that this is how he was representing their store? I bet the answer is yes. Would they have approved of his behavior? I bet the answer is no.
That is an advantage of a business dedicated to SCUBA DIVING.
Wayne