ScubaGalHolly
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I totally ago with miesemer, "Why not choose by instructor not agency". It's the instructor not the agency. But, if I ahd to choose it would be PADI. Hope it helps. Holly
PADI or SSI? And Why????
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jholley309
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To build on the general "it's the instructor, not the agency" idea, I submit to you that the style of presentation is a factor, too. Some important questions to ask yourself:
1. Do you learn efficiently and absorb information well by using independent study techniques? Both SSI and PADI use independent study, but PADI tends to put more emphasis on the "video course" approach, and less on the classroom (and I'm lumping the Confined Water dives in the pool into the classroom category, guys) than SSI does, from what I gather; I was certified through PADI, mainly because their approach worked for me. It may not be for everybody.
2. Are you going to be able to use your new skills immediately and often once you're certified? Like any other acquired skill, scuba skills are perishable; if you don't use 'em, you loose 'em. How often you are going to use them should be a condsideration of which course style you pick: if there's going to be a long lag time between certification and fun diving, you might want to go with the course/instructor thats going to take the time to make sure you've got it, rather than the one that just wants to see you demonstrate the skill once before deciding you're qualified.
3. Does one course or instructor spend significatly more time in the water than the other during the course? Again, this is related to your personal learning style and how often you're going to dive once certified. More time in the water means more time to get comfotable with the skills you'll need later.
Just my 2 pennies worth...
Cheers!
1. Do you learn efficiently and absorb information well by using independent study techniques? Both SSI and PADI use independent study, but PADI tends to put more emphasis on the "video course" approach, and less on the classroom (and I'm lumping the Confined Water dives in the pool into the classroom category, guys) than SSI does, from what I gather; I was certified through PADI, mainly because their approach worked for me. It may not be for everybody.
2. Are you going to be able to use your new skills immediately and often once you're certified? Like any other acquired skill, scuba skills are perishable; if you don't use 'em, you loose 'em. How often you are going to use them should be a condsideration of which course style you pick: if there's going to be a long lag time between certification and fun diving, you might want to go with the course/instructor thats going to take the time to make sure you've got it, rather than the one that just wants to see you demonstrate the skill once before deciding you're qualified.
3. Does one course or instructor spend significatly more time in the water than the other during the course? Again, this is related to your personal learning style and how often you're going to dive once certified. More time in the water means more time to get comfotable with the skills you'll need later.
Just my 2 pennies worth...
Cheers!
If you find an instructor that's also certified through a different agency than the course is being taught under, ask what else you'd need to do if you wanted the other certification - if all you have to do is pay a bit extra for the paperwork, and no additional class requirements, then the class might be taught the best (well, at least according to the instructor) techniques from both, and you might do more than you normally would if you'd just taken a typical spin on the PADI-wheel (or SSIcycle, NAUI-go-round, whatever you prefer to bash). Of course, they might also just sign off on stuff you haven't done, you never know.
Instructor to student ratios are good to look at, but a class with one instructor and four students, for example, can seem less chaotic in the water than two instructors and six students, simply because there's less people in the same place at once.
Getting certified while you're on vacation isn't always a bad thing, sometimes they'll be less likely to try and get you to buy gear, since they know you've got to carry it back, though you don't know until you get there whether they'll treat you worse than a local or already certified gear-lugging visitor, assuming that you're not going to generate any additional revenue for them unlike the others, or give you good service to encourage you to choose that place next time you're planning a vacation.
Same goes for whether they have a pool or not - better views while doing buoyancy drills and more familiarity with open water vs. higher potential for Something Bad Happening? There's not necessarily one "right" answer for everyone. Gut instinct can help, and I'm not aware that it reads acronyms on c-cards.
Instructor to student ratios are good to look at, but a class with one instructor and four students, for example, can seem less chaotic in the water than two instructors and six students, simply because there's less people in the same place at once.
Getting certified while you're on vacation isn't always a bad thing, sometimes they'll be less likely to try and get you to buy gear, since they know you've got to carry it back, though you don't know until you get there whether they'll treat you worse than a local or already certified gear-lugging visitor, assuming that you're not going to generate any additional revenue for them unlike the others, or give you good service to encourage you to choose that place next time you're planning a vacation.
Same goes for whether they have a pool or not - better views while doing buoyancy drills and more familiarity with open water vs. higher potential for Something Bad Happening? There's not necessarily one "right" answer for everyone. Gut instinct can help, and I'm not aware that it reads acronyms on c-cards.
asaara:
Maybe I am misreading the above statement, but it seems to me that the tacit implication of the above is that getting certified while on vacation is usually, or even often, a bad thing (my apologies if I misunderstood).
I'd have to disagree with that. I know that learning to dive has traditionally had a bad rap, compared to learning to dive at home. However, IMO, that has more to do with the amount of time spent on the course - those 2 days certs arent very good, whether you do them in Caribbean or in New England. OTOH, there is something to be said for learning to dive on holiday where you get to spent 4 consecutive - and full -days in the water, and possibly a few more right afterwards. People tend to forget less than if they do 1 CW session this week, another 1-2 weeks later and so on. Also, they build up their comfort level quickly and so on.
Perhaps I am biased because I teach in a tropical holiday destination, but I certainly don't think learning to dive in a holiday spot means compromising your training. For example, I often read about students panicking in open water dives. Well, I've never - and this is after quite a few hundred OW certs - had a single student have any problem with a skill in open water. By the time they get to the OW, they know what to do.
Vacation dive centers - atleast the good ones - know that the only "product" they have to sell to a non-diver is the OW course, so they have every incentive to make it a good one. A happy customer - even if s/he doesnt return - is the best advertising a dive center can have.
My 2c,
Vandit
vkalia:
The implication is that a lot of people seem to consider it a bad thing, as if the only courses offered to tourists were the quickie "just add water" kinds, however I agree with everything you posted about it, having also not seen panicked divers in expected proportions based on what gets posted here about problems on first OW dives, pool dives, etc....of course, if people weren't having problems, they probably wouldn't post on that topic, so the statistics are likely a bit skewed, and as I'm not an instructor and so haven't seen as many classes in the water as you, my observations are rather limited.
I also wonder if people who take courses over a longer period of time might think they've spent more time at it and would rate their level of skill higher than people that have done the shorter courses, who might be more likely to think that even if their card reads "Advanced Open Water" that they've really only been diving for a week or so, and so can't really be all that advanced, leading them to a more realistic assessment of their own skills...have there been any polls on this?
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I can't say much about resort courses, but I see the product of 2-day Cruise Ship classes every year, and the best thing I can say is that it's not by accident that the cruise lines are owned by corporations in hard-to-sue locations.
Terry
Terry
asaara:
One reason why resort courses get a bad rap is because of a natural screening process.
People are on holiday, the sea is warm - everyone wants to try diving/learning to dive. A lot of these people fit the classic "dive 5 times a year" profile. They are not serious divers - which is fine, I dont think one has to be a hardcore diver to participate in the sport - and so obviously their skills never get as refined as those of someone who is a keen diver and dives regularly.
So even if the resort offers a really good OW program, if the student doesnt use that as a building block, those skills will atrophy.
On the other hand, you have to be a committed diver (or plain committed
) in order to learn to dive at some LDS-style locations. I did my DM in Boston, and when helping out on some OW courses, I was getting a bit chilled in my drysuit/fleece/dry gloves, while these poor OW students were chugging away in rental wetsuits. You really have to be into diving to go through that!
As for what Terry said - yer right. 2 day is simply not enough to learn to dive. I was in Zanzibar on holiday, and this dive center allowed me to do a rescue course with my friend there. While doing some beach exercises, we started talking to a couple of girls who wanted to learn to dive. They only had 2 days to spare - I'm like, aint gonna happen, no time. That was that. We met them a week later somewhere else, and they had both gotten certified in those 2 days. And they had never even snorkeled before! Now that's a scary thought.
Vandit
People are on holiday, the sea is warm - everyone wants to try diving/learning to dive. A lot of these people fit the classic "dive 5 times a year" profile. They are not serious divers - which is fine, I dont think one has to be a hardcore diver to participate in the sport - and so obviously their skills never get as refined as those of someone who is a keen diver and dives regularly.
So even if the resort offers a really good OW program, if the student doesnt use that as a building block, those skills will atrophy.
On the other hand, you have to be a committed diver (or plain committed
) in order to learn to dive at some LDS-style locations. I did my DM in Boston, and when helping out on some OW courses, I was getting a bit chilled in my drysuit/fleece/dry gloves, while these poor OW students were chugging away in rental wetsuits. You really have to be into diving to go through that!As for what Terry said - yer right. 2 day is simply not enough to learn to dive. I was in Zanzibar on holiday, and this dive center allowed me to do a rescue course with my friend there. While doing some beach exercises, we started talking to a couple of girls who wanted to learn to dive. They only had 2 days to spare - I'm like, aint gonna happen, no time. That was that. We met them a week later somewhere else, and they had both gotten certified in those 2 days. And they had never even snorkeled before! Now that's a scary thought.
Vandit
gangrel441
Contributor
ZenDiva:
He can call you Grasshopper all he wants...but if I'm on a dive, I don't wanna' see anyone snatching pebbles out of hands...
gangrel441:He can call you Grasshopper all he wants...but if I'm on a dive, I don't wanna' see anyone snatching pebbles out of hands...
ummmm there some type of scuba thing about pebbles I'm unaware of? cause I think this went wayyyy over my blonde head
*smile*
ZenDiva
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