Open Water + Nx = ?

[CincyBengalsFan]

Hope Tom is doing well. I never really got much from YMCA SCUBA. I'm going to call them and raise a little. What did the letter say? PM it to me if you would.

Thanks

 

[Popeye]

CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...
Fellow Instructors,

Has anyone started to intergrate the Open Water Scuba Course with a Nitrox course? I know it can be done. Just wondering if anyone has done it yet. If so, What are you charging now for total classroom and open water dives? What do you pay instructors that do it?

Thanks for any positive input ONLY.

Cincy, FWIW, I took PADI OW in West Palm in late 97.

During the OW course, I learned about nitrox, and asked if I could get certified.

I was told that I could only do that through IANTD.

I asked, was not scammed, if there was any way we could do it, and this is what they did:

PADI OW $105

Crossover to IANTD OW $25

IANTD Nitrox $65

I did two extra checkout dives (nitrox/IANTD OW)

one extra confined water session (skills variation between agencies)

and did three written tests, for the three certs.

Keeping in mind the prices were for WPB, and 6 years ago.

I was very glad I did this, and have recommended that others do it.

 

[DiveTub]

I did a private course for 6 three weeks ago, they had all done a heap of reading and where convinced of the benefits of diving nitrox, so we worked out a price and combined the courses.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

PADI requires "To qualify for the PADI Enriched Air Diver course,an individual must:
1.Be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver or have a qualifying
certification from another training organization.
2.Be 15 years of age or older."

To me that would seem that you must complete all OW course requirements before starting a PADI EANx course. Of course you could launch straight into the nitrox material immediately upon completing OW.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

Drew, I've been a PADI instructor for 7 yrs now..Your exactly right with the Prerequisites.

But, we strive to train NAUI for all classes if possible. And NAUI allows us to combine the two courses.

My only trouble would be the other dive shop in town. They already only charge $113.00 for the O/W PADI course and that includes the manual. I charge $199.00 right now. Mainly because I want to pay my instructor something worth his time. I couldn't even imagine teaching for $25.00 a student or something like that.

If I combined the two It would increase the cost of the class to about $279.00. I feel this is still a BARGAIN but I don't think that would fly right now. Hell, I may give it a shot. I should probably drop the price of my class to about $69.00 for a month or two just to prove a point.

 

[jbd]

that wouldn't pay the hired help

 

[DiveTub]

Drew Sailbum once bubbled...
PADI requires "To qualify for the PADI Enriched Air Diver course,an individual must:
1.Be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver or have a qualifying
certification from another training organization.
2.Be 15 years of age or older."

To me that would seem that you must complete all OW course requirements before starting a PADI EANx course. Of course you could launch straight into the nitrox material immediately upon completing OW.

Exactley the Nitrox course just follows the OW course in sequence

 

[DiverBuoy]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
IANTD has such a program.

I also heard one riverside county organization that actually teaches college students for Scripts through IANTD or ANDI so they are rebreather trained by the final Open Water checkout dive. The Classroom time is 2x as intense but it has been a successful program from what I heard.