In Reply to: My LDS Experience posted by Empty V on July 07, 2006 at 14:32:08:

Sounds fishy to me. First of all support you local sherrif or in this case your local dive shop is what will keep them in business. it is true that the copst of an airfill barley pays for the electricity, filters, air purity tests, and employee overhead. So as long as you did not buy life support equipment on-line then fine. Or worse buy on-line and then have LDS service it :-(

The LS I now almost exclusively support and 1 shop that I supported until they went belly up and one shop that that sells more than scuba ALL provided the VIS sticker and a full tank of air, because I have my Cert card. When I was getting certed the shop would not fill my tank and let me take it home, hoever since I was using it for the pool session they filled it up for that session and for the boat trip. I don't think I would support an LDS that does not do this small service.

As for the 4 foot wading pool, there are quite a few skills that must be done in water that is too deep to stand in. That means a minimum of 7 feet for most humans. So tell me how did you do neutral bouyancy in 4 feet of water? Essentially after module/chapter 1 pool you are in the deep end. Now they could do this in the ocean (as it is often done at resorts) providing the PADI 'rules' are followed. That mens that in conditions that are similar to pool conditions the skills are shown to the students and then the students show prificiency in the skills. They then move to unprotected ocean conditions that are typically 15 to 20 feet deep for dives 1 & 2 and demonstrate the skills. More information is required but it sound to me, based on your information, that standards have been violated. it is your duty, if you so choose, to report these apparent standards. IF you the student do not bring your concerns to PADi then they will not be able to investigate.

ptf