In Reply to: Re: Not the shop posted by Captain Tim Burke on January 25, 2006 at 08:23:44:

Bravo, Tim - hold your ground!

We met a dive instructor wannabe from that chain a couple of years ago in Cozumel. She had around 20 dives under her belt at that point and was introduced as an 'assistant instructor' candidate taking an advanced class concurrently (that class was a joke - my wife was in the same class and she did few of the skills and attended no classroom training). This instructor candidate was not even comfortable with her gear - except for a different new outfit she wore each day on the boat.

Turned me off on PADI (this had not been my prior experience with PADI, as my instructor (formerly of NAUI) took it much more seriously). However, even my old instructor lamented that students were being certified under some subtle pressure of this chain to get more dives into more training classes. Its sad, as PADI has excellent instructional materials.

I would not be surprised if the instructor you had confronted was this very same person. There are excellent instructors and DM's afiliated with that chain, so this type of person is an exception.

My wife and I took the LA County program a year after that Cozumel experience (as my wife needed to learn better dive skills). Although I had around 300 dives at that point, I learned a LOT as well and improved my dive skills. Cannot say enough good about the LA County ADP. It complements training from shops where you learn the basics. Few people could or would pay for the level of training you get with LA County if it were provided commercially... its run by unpaid volunteers who love diving.