Dixie Divers in Deerfield Groupon

[Biggar]

My wife and I are joining the dive community soon!

I recently bought a groupon for a full SCUBA certification @ Dixie Dixie Divers in Deerfield for $169.00. Only catch....You need to bring your own mask,snorkel,fins, and weight belt. And the classes are tues,thurs,and sat for 2 weeks. 100.00 more for the weekend.

I hope the price is not a reflection of the quality of instruction and certification we receive.

Look forward to diving and maybe meeting some south florida divers in future.

 

[boulderjohn]

My wife and I are joining the dive community soon!

I recently bought a groupon for a full SCUBA certification @ Dixie Dixie Divers in Deerfield for $169.00. Only catch....You need to bring your own mask,snorkel,fins, and weight belt. And the classes are tues,thurs,and sat for 2 weeks. 100.00 more for the weekend.

Have a good time with it!

The requirement that you bring your own mask, fins, and snorkel is extremely common; in fact, I would say it is the more the norm than the exception. The weight belt requirement is, in my experience, a little unusual, but they are not very expensive. What they would really like is for you to show up at the shop and purchase them there. It's a pretty big shop with a lot of gear choices.

The instructor(s) who work with you will not care whether you paid the normal price or came in on a Groupon discount.

 

[danvolker]

My wife and I are joining the dive community soon!

I recently bought a groupon for a full SCUBA certification @ Dixie Dixie Divers in Deerfield for $169.00. Only catch....You need to bring your own mask,snorkel,fins, and weight belt. And the classes are tues,thurs,and sat for 2 weeks. 100.00 more for the weekend.

I hope the price is not a reflection of the quality of instruction and certification we receive.

Look forward to diving and maybe meeting some south florida divers in future.

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I will be shocked if you do not end up with a terrible excuse for dive instruction. Groupon is probably the best way there is to remove any chance you may have of getting quality dive instruction in South Florida.

The instructors training you are essentially losing money to train you, and will need to get you through the class as fast as they can..this is no way for you to get the chance to learn.

More than likely, Dixie divers will have to hire the worst instructor they can find, to run the Groupon classes.
Here is a typical Groupon class on an open water dive. Note that even the instructor is pathetically inept. silting-instruction - YouTube
Get your money back now, and sign up for a real class somewhere else.

 

[boulderjohn]

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I will be shocked if you do not end up with a terrible excuse for dive instruction. Groupon is probably the best way there is to remove any chance you may have of getting quality dive instruction in South Florida.

The instructors training you are essentially losing money to train you, and will need to get you through the class as fast as they can..this is no way for you to get the chance to learn.

More than likely, Dixie divers will have to hire the worst instructor they can find, to run the Groupon classes.
Here is a typical Groupon class on an open water dive. Note that even the instructor is pathetically inept. silting-instruction - YouTube
Get your money back now, and sign up for a real class somewhere else.

Wow! Talk about giant leaps to conclusions!

 

[danvolker]

John, maybe this is completely untrue outside of Florida...there is a totally different atmosphere for instruction in many other states....
One thing we have seen CONSTANTLY, is that if a shop does Groupon, and they show up at the BHB, it will be a travesty.
There is only the one conclusion for South Florida, as far as I can see.
I welcome your opinion on Groupon elsewhere, but this WAS a South Florida operation referred to by the OP, so the sheer volume of misuse we see here would be expected.

New divers need MORE time with instructors, less students per instructor, and better quality instruction....I can only see Groupon ruining all that is important, except maybe equipment purchases at a shop.

 

[danvolker]

Additionally...for the OP...If you watch the Groupon Class video, what you will see are some of the worst behaviors of instructors and students in diving.. { http://youtu.be/LGcGU-I2jK4 }
You should have learned how to find neutral bouyancy in a swimming pool, and should never be kneeling on a sandy and silty bottom, particulalry in a marine park with nudibranchs, octops, and a million other life forms all over the bottom where these pretenda divers are having the class. ( or see this http://youtu.be/dgdabfvr2B0?hd=1&t=57s )

You do not kick up silt like this, ever. There is no excuse.
The awareness of buddies is completely absent...this looks like a free for all, and the reality was worse thanthe video.

Gear is hanging everywhere, ideal for snagging and not functioning as expected by the students.

The instructor is not teaching. He is leading the last charge of the Light Brigade There is no instruction going on here, even of the value charged in the Groupon deal... If anything, many of these students will have had such a horrible time inhaling water, having their mask fog, and thrashing around on the surface, that they will never dive again.

If any of these students DO make it to a C - card, more than likely, they will be horribly under-prepared for real open water dives..and will really need to be trained all over again, from the very beginning.

There are a few people....maybe out of 1000 people that sign up for a dive class, maybe 1 in 10,000.....that really don't need instruction--they could read the book, watch a good diver, and that would be all they need. This kind of person might get through Groupon unscathed, though in all liklihood, they would probably be better off just reading the manual and finding someone to just give them a card....But this is not relevant to Groupon in the grand scheme of things....what is relevant, is that Groupon students are being lured into a situation where they will not recieve the quality training they had hoped for. Again, maybe in PA or CO or some other state where the shops are not busy all the time, Groupon will just create a class of 4 people, and the shop will find someway to pay the instructor for the time.....but this is not what happens in South Florida. If someone here in South Florida thinks they know of a shop doing Groupon, that is not sorry they ever began Groupon--that in fact, thinks they can do Groupon instruction to a high level of quality, I would love to know about it. I'd also want to show up for an open water checkout with my video camera

 

[boulderjohn]

The video does indeed show very poor technique. If I recall correctly, you have posted it before for discussion, but I cannot find the thread in which it was posted. Could you help me with that?

It would also be helpful if you can explain how you know the divers paid for their instruction via Groupon.

 

[danvolker]

Because I found out who the shop was...and also that when the shop owner saw the video, he fired the instructor...this was a good shop, that was very sorry they ever got into Groupon...and they got out of it as fast as they could.....I am not going to say who it was, because they DID DO THE RIGHT THING, afterwards. And they did do some extra instruction for the students.

The video is a perfect example of the "direction" in quality the half of half price concept in instruction fees, that Groupon tends to push shops or instructors toward.

John, I think the thread before was from back in July of last summer, when I actually shot this.
The plus side, was that after the fallout of the video and the talk betweenh dive shops and instructors, use of Groupon plummetted in Palm Beach.

 

[Fishpie]

$169 probably doesn't even cover the costs involved to the provider of the class (even a big class of 10 with couple of instructors and divemasters).
Make sure you know upfront if there are any extra charges for books, cert card processing or boat trips.
The shop is providing the class with the hope that you buy gear from them......nothing wrong with that and Dixie Divers does have a good selection and like all shops down here prices are very negotiable.
As for the quality of instruction.......Dan has a point, but classes like he describes are, unfortunately, not unique to Groupon.

 

[danvolker]

A good shop can make a mistake, and try Groupon....But if they are a good shop, I don't expect Groupon will remain with them much beyond the initial contract.