Tipping

[CajunDiva]

Good one DD...way to lighten things up

 

[k ellis]

I fail to see the point in continuing this. You are not even reading my posts. I said the woman had 35 dives and had not dived in a year. I think that is acceptable.
At the end of the day Scuba Divers can go on guided dives with only 2 dives under their belt. So to take a qualified diver with 35 dives on a dive to 50 feet seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Pride in failing people? Hardly. I take pride in my work and teaching. I am liable for 7 years for any student I have taught and that is a huge burden, especially as I'm applying for the Course Director course 2 years from now. I primarily teach in a resort environment. Students normally have 3 maybe 4 days to do the course and then are normally off continuing their backpacking. This gives very little room for error. I have to be focused and strict on who can progress through the course and for those who cannot. Admittedly there are many who could pass the course given a longer time frame, but I rarely have this luxury. In fact the dive center in Roatan questioned me when courses ran into a 4th day.
I aim to train good divers. I do it for the pleasure of training. I do not work for tips, although the are welcome. But if my sole aim was simply to garner $$ then it would be time to find another job.

Now thats someone I would honestly tip well. As I said earlier I believe in tipping based on how gracious I am.

I was In Hawaii not long ago and I went on a dive trip. Low and behold there was a beautiful young lady who identified herself as the Dive Master. Of course looks alone would have got me to buy the golden gate bridge but on to the real story

We were on a dive with about 6 people I was the veteran of the group even over the Dive Masters themselves. The other 5 paying customers had less then 75 dives each. As we went into the water the dive master I had Really was supperb. She really was everything PADI teaches in that she was helpful, pointed out great sights and the list goes on.

We found a wonderful cavern that was newbie friendly and in about 60 feet range. This is where things got a little out of synch. As we were down there her flash light had died on her and of course no newbie had one on their person. So Me being the ever resourceful diver I am loaned her mine and she continued on with my light attached via a lanyard and pointed out great sites.

We had a couple of newer folks though just not comfy with going into the caverns so they followed above as there were openings and the second dive master was with them.

After we surfaced we had a small SI that was more then suffice and then got back in for dive number 2. This dive went amazingly well and I spent well over one hour on this dive with her. This was the first time in my dive passion that I ever been on a 2 tank dive and managed to stay down that long. Most times they are rushing for time to go back in. (I do understand guys there may be another group waiting so I am not bashing)

After the second dive we were en route back to shore when we saw a huge manta ray. She pointed it out and we literaly stopped the boat to turn around and pull along side. Very wonderful and knowledgeable staff. I had already made my mind up at this point a 50 was in order but was waiting on them to make the usual announcement.

As we were coming back to the pier I asked her why no one had mentioned anything about tip and how we would be able to tip them. To my dismay the crew all said that the dive had been botched from the get go with divers not getting to see much of the caverns and a couple actually aborting early on due to air hogging and a few other instances. They told all of us dont worry because they really wanted to show us that they appreciated us giving them a chance.

LOL I dont think they knew what to say when I tipped 100. of course they tried to talk me out of it but I was impressed. No pressure to give a tip. No fancy we will die with out it speaches. This lady made the dive the most spectacular I had in terms of no pressure and willingness to work with us on our comfort and schedule. The added Manta Ray It felt more like a bunch of my best friends all getting on a boat and just making a day out of it.

They said buisness was slow so they were not in no hurry as no one booked an evening excursion but the whole family atmosphere made it worth while!

 

[RTBDiver]

At the end of the day Scuba Divers can go on guided dives with only 2 dives under their belt. So to take a qualified diver with 35 dives on a dive to 50 feet seems perfectly reasonable to me.

.

The problem is from the way you have described this diver, they were not qualified, perhaps they had been certified at some point but they certainly do not sound qualified. I guess your definition of qualified and mine are quite different yet you say you are thourough when you teach