Newly certified PADI OW w/ uncertified partner - best dive options?

[drrich2]

Depending on local conditions, where practical I suggest getting certified back home before you go. I think some people believe it would be 'fun and neat' to do training dives at a beautiful tropical location. And it can be!

You know what's even more fun? When you already did all that back home, no longer have to worry about whether you're going to 'make the cut' and get certified, don't want to worry about hovering underwater without a mask while your eyes are burning, etc..., and can just do the 'dive tourist' thing, swimming around with the group, admiring the fish and coral on every single dive.

Up to you guys. Have fun either way.

Richard.

 

[diver 85]

Get him certified NOW!!!!(can even have the 4 OW dives completed on Roatan)-or let him go & do the PADI discovery thingy(on Roatan)...Think he can dive to 40' WITH a instructor(maybe just a DM)....His 'ticket' will be good for about a month or so.....

 

[RTBDiver]

With the trip planned for less than a month from now it is highly likely a local shop may not be offering a class and check out dives within their time frame, hence my suggestion for the online and referral. Sure they need confined water which are still Caribbean ocean dives at many places in "pool like conditions AND most shops do the combined water and hen check out dives same day so it is only a couple days of "class" anyway, with a couple dives during those days

 

[oly5050user]

With the trip planned for less than a month from now it is highly likely a local shop may not be offering a class and check out dives within their time frame, hence my suggestion for the online and referral. Sure they need confined water which are still Caribbean ocean dives at many places in "pool like conditions AND most shops do the combined water and hen check out dives same day so it is only a couple days of "class" anyway, with a couple dives during those days

Still suggest getting academic and confined water done here in the states. My statement is based on what I have seen lately . Example is this week I had someone come in for a refresher. He is advance certified, did all his course work and ow dives on Roatan. Never saw this guy before. He owned no gear except for a mask,snkl,fins. He attempted to become a volunteer at NY aquarium and failed a skill check. Remember I said he has a AOW card. He could not do a partial mask clear, much less a mask removal replacement. I will not even comment on the rest of non existent skills. Spent 4HOURS in pool to remedy. Find a LDS that has its own onsite pool,this way scheduling is a no issue. Someone can walk into facility I teach out of and can start that day in the pool if they need to because of time commitments..whenever someone asks " is it possible, or can you" our answer is almost always YES. We can. That is called customer service and separates us from others in the area.

 

[txtroop07]

I don't think getting certified in a short time frame will be a problem in the Houston area. There are plenty of dive shops and places to do check out dives. I did all my certs before moving to the area but I've noticed there is no shortage of instructors around.

 

[RTBDiver]

To each their own, I know I would have much rather done my confined water in the calm clear waters of West End or West Bay or other similar areas rather than the pool we used, which at tmes was pushing it to even have top to bottom viz, and nice ocean check out dives with a real "tour for pleasure" rather than some lake or quarry and being able to do confined water and open water check outs the same day does not add any extra days as doing only check out dives

 

[eccokahlo]

I don't think getting certified in a short time frame will be a problem in the Houston area. There are plenty of dive shops and places to do check out dives. I did all my certs before moving to the area but I've noticed there is no shortage of instructors around.

Yep, I did mine with Gigglin' Marlin with Robert Reeves as my instructor and had a high quality experience.

 

[RTBDiver]

Yep, I did mine with Gigglin' Marlin with Robert Reeves as my instructor and had a high quality experience.

I am sure you had a great time and feel your instructor was top notch and I am not taking anything away from that, I am sure it was a great class , I do however know personally about 10 of the top three instructors in Florida and when folks tell me they had the greatest open water instructor they sometimes forget that in most cases he/she was their ONLY open water instructor so while they may be their best, by default, they are also the worst they ever had .. Hmmmm,

---------- Post added April 27th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ----------

Spent 4HOURS in pool to remedy. Find a LDS that has its own onsite pool,this way scheduling is a no issue..

So in only 4 hours you solved all his issues, that's great, Onsite pool is not needed when Confined water / pool like conditions are all that is required and Roatan has those conditions in many places around the Island, pool like except usually more interesting and more like what will be encountered in O/W Dives, . Sure, some slip by, I imagine a few have even been through the shop you teach at that never kept proficiency

 

[eccokahlo]

"...I do however know personally about 10 of the top three instructors in Florida" I'm sure you meant 3 of the top 10. So based on your above statement I assume that you have intimate knowledge of the skills of all instructors in Florida. It seems this would be the only way you would be able to definitely make that statement. Also, please note that I never said that I had the greatest instructor. Those are your words.

In regards to my experience with my instructor:
PADI material is highly standardized. My instructor was able to supplement that information with his own experiences/personal knowledge. He could have simply churned out the check dives and only checked the boxes. He went beyond this. I feel my original statement is accurate.

In addition, he has remained a resource after the class to help plan my trip and make suggestions of places/activities to check out while on Roatan. It is not necessary to have multiple experiences to know you have had a good one. Just as it is not necessary to have multiple experiences to know you've had a bad one.

 

[oly5050user]

ing

I am sure you had a great time and feel your instructor was top notch and I am not taking anything away from that, I am sure it was a great class , I do however know personally about 10 of the top three instructors in Florida and when folks tell me they had the greatest open water instructor they sometimes forget that in most cases he/she was their ONLY open water instructor so while they may be their best, by default, they are also the worst they ever had .. Hmmmm,

---------- Post added April 27th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ----------


So in only 4 hours you solved all his issues, that's great, Onsite pool is not needed when Confined water / pool like conditions are all that is required. Sure, some slip by, I imagine a few have even been through the shop you teach at that never kept proficiency

this person has only been certified barely a year. i will say again my experience with people who take their entire course work in places like Roatan and Thailand, and come to me to do a refresher are very often more times than not lacking in ability to plan a dive and dive safely. why are you so defensive?
Yeah, it took 4 hours here in New York in a heated salt water pool to get this person to a acceptable level so if we were conducting his ow training dives he would be allowed to go. Remember he has an advance certification from a instr on RoATAN ..does not matter if confined water skills conducted originally in pool or pool like conditions,training he received was bad. He could not even plan out a dive using a rdp and did not know that there is a "plan" setting on dive computers.
i recently ran a trip to Roatan. Two of my clients were there 2 days before me. I advised that it is ok if they wanted to start their dives with a local instr before I got there to maximize their trip. The local instructor did all 4 dives in 1 day, clear violation of standards.after I spoke to dive operation manager of the resort she came to me later that day explained that she did all 4 dives because she had things to do. She begged me not to file a QA..that incident only reinforced what I already felt about some 3rd world country attitudes toward dive training. I not only worked in NY as a instr but in St Thomas and Florida as well ..