PADI asked me to participate in a survey

[Walter]

Now, if only they'll listen. LOL!

 

[CrawfishDiver]

They have to have you come back and take more classes

Put
Another
Dollar
In

 

[Guba]

Wow. I'm really surprised (though I suppose I shouldn't be) that so many folks have had such bad training experiences. I understand that there are many pressures under which an instructor must operate, but I think all my instructors (I've had a different one for each PADI level) all did a very good job of preparing me for open water diving. My OW instructor took elaborate care in the classroom, making certain that we knew both the procedure for doing something as well as the rationale behind it. Confined water training was rigorous and thorough. Open water dives were the same and I didn't feel we rushed through anything. Subsequently, when my friends and I (we took the course together) went diving the first few times, we stayed within our training limits and felt perfectly comfortable with our dives. And we continued to dive, dive, dive and became more comfortable.
My AOW instructor might have lacked in "social skills" (Okay, he could be a jerk...) but he knew his diving and he taught us well.
The rescue diver instructors I learned from were gruelling, though not excessively so. The course greatly improved my understanding of why we do certain things, and it improved my diving skills immensely.
In short, I guess I'm just fortunate to have learned from the instructors I had. They were caring, intelligent, highly skilled professionals who took their time, worked well with their students, and believed that the best way to learn something was in repetitive performance.

 

[jbichsel]

They have to have you come back and take more classes

Put
Another
Dollar
In

Pay
And
Dive
Instantly

 

[jbichsel]

I wish they'd ask me to participate in a survey.

Come on Mike.

You would complete the survey and here is what PADI would get out of it:


PADI blah blah blah blah makes blah blah blah blah no blah blah blah blah blah mistakes blah blah blah more blah blah money blah blah blah blah good blah blah blah divers

 

[Maule]

I had what I considered excellent instructors for my OW and about all I learned was that I didnt learn near enough to go diving on my own. I have since taken the AOW and Rescue classes just to try to learn enough not to kill myself diving. Im scared for people that take the OW and go off diving at some resort.

 

[ScubaCatgirl]

I just recently completed my AOW & realized that my OW instructor taught us some AOW at the same time. He was an excellant instructor. Now I'm not bashing my AOW instructor, he was good too & I did gain some knowledge, but I know that I'll need to take rescue diver & divemaster or specialities to really gain more knowledge like what I was hoping for out of AOW.

 

[jbd]

As Abitton says, it's called the Scuba Diver Certification (In Padi parlance).

To me this is a cludge, but walks the fine line between making a client happy because he has a plastic card that say anything to the effect of "Scuba DIver" on it, but it has the limitations of forcing you to dive with a "pro".

That's what's going to happen in most cases anyway, but at least it may make that 'pro' a little more leary about where they take you and the level of attention you're likely to get.

How many of these can one "pro" take with them on a dive?

 

[victor]

I just recently completed my AOW & realized that my OW instructor taught us some AOW at the same time. He was an excellant instructor. Now I'm not bashing my AOW instructor, he was good too & I did gain some knowledge, but I know that I'll need to take rescue diver & divemaster or specialities to really gain more knowledge like what I was hoping for out of AOW.

Are you sure you want to become a professional (dive master). This is more about observing others dive, demonstrating diving, and organising dives than it is about your own diving ability and to enjoy diving.

I see and read about people doing certification after certification but never doing any diving.

It is not a race to see who can collect the most cards, its about have the best memories of dives you have enjoyed.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

How many of these can one "pro" take with them on a dive?

Uhoh!! lol