In Reply to: What the heck is going on at Padi? posted by Captain Tim Burke on January 23, 2006 at 17:24:35:

Two years ago while working in Belize on a Lindblad Expeditions cruise ship as underseas specialist, I was asked to train a new hire that would be my replacement in a week when my commitment ended. She was a certified PADI instructor.

The first tip that she might not be up to the job was when she asked ME to put the strap on her own mask. I asked her how long she'd owned the mask and she said a year. She didn't know you to thread the strap.

The next kicker was when she put her BCD on the tank backwards. I pointed it out and suggested she try attaching it again. She did... once again backwards. When I told her it was on backwards, she told me that was "how we always do it." VERY INTERESTING... watch out for that new PADI standard, Tim!

The final straw was when her extremely poor buoyancy control caused her to go over the edge of Half Moon Caye Wall on Lighthouse Reef and knock out a huge chunk of table coral.... plus drop the TRV 950 and L&M housing (it was only 5,000 feet deep there).

Fortunately she was an extreme example and not the norm. Regarding the shop you are referring to, as someone said it has some very good instructors affiliated with it. My dive buddy/instructor is one of them.