Inspired by a report about starting scuba diving training a couple of posts ago here is my story about how NOT to start scuba diving.
From my early childhood on I loved being in the water. I learned how to swim at an early age. My parents gave me a mask and a snorkel, later on some fins. From that point on they could hardly get my out of the water during vacation times. Growing up I always wanted but never managed to get proper training for scuba diving, not during college times and not in my postdoc program.
In January of 2006 I decided to go on a vacation to the Dominican Republic. Since travel times from Europe are a little bit longer than from the U.S. or Canada we decided to stay at a well-known hotel area in Punta Cana for almost 3 weeks. Beforehand it never crossed my mind that there would be an opportunity to find scuba-diving training.
What does the promotion video of a big training agency say these days? Inspiration hit while I was hanging around at the pool when a guy from the hotel dive center showed up with two sets of equipment offering tryout scuba diving in the pool. I liked it very much and here my mistake began. Instead of postponing my training to the next vacation, getting more information on courses, prerequisites and quality marks for scuba courses I immediately started taking an OWD course with that dive center.
The instructor came from the Netherlands o at least we were able to talk in German. Teaching the theoretical parts was limited to a self-study of the OWD video footage and the book. No class, no real opportunity to ask questions about the things I had seen or that I had read. The 10-minute floating test was not supervised, and I cannot remember whether I had to swim 200 meters at all. Pool sessions were limited to two, and I did not have the feeling that I mastered all those exercises. My longest training dive in open waters lasted 32 minutes, and my ears were ringing days after since I had problems to equalize. I did not get any feeling for buoyancy besides I never understood the concept itself. At the end I got my certification and did two or three more dives with that dive center. I never felt well, and I never enjoyed the dives.
Now why did that happen that way? The instructor told me that she was getting paid a low fixed salary. On top of that she had to earn money by collection points. Those points were awarded by the dive center for guiding dive trips, conducting courses and discover scuba activities at the pool, but also for acquiring new customers or doing work at the dive center. Instead of individually assessing my needs as a customer to get me the training I needed her mind was always focussed on the next opportunity or activity that could get her points. I understood her dilemma but the training that I felt was less than poor kept me away from scuba diving at home and for another year.
For all those considering scuba diving training:
After some 400 dives I am still mad at myself that I did not get enough information at the beginning to get training of high quality fitting my needs. So before you decide to take your training in one of these big resort diving centers that you can find in Mexico or the Dominican Republic or at other travel destinations use all available sources to get more information down to your future individual instructor. Use online review platforms or your friends who might recommend a good instructor to you. You usually get just one chance to feel well under the seas.
From my early childhood on I loved being in the water. I learned how to swim at an early age. My parents gave me a mask and a snorkel, later on some fins. From that point on they could hardly get my out of the water during vacation times. Growing up I always wanted but never managed to get proper training for scuba diving, not during college times and not in my postdoc program.
In January of 2006 I decided to go on a vacation to the Dominican Republic. Since travel times from Europe are a little bit longer than from the U.S. or Canada we decided to stay at a well-known hotel area in Punta Cana for almost 3 weeks. Beforehand it never crossed my mind that there would be an opportunity to find scuba-diving training.
What does the promotion video of a big training agency say these days? Inspiration hit while I was hanging around at the pool when a guy from the hotel dive center showed up with two sets of equipment offering tryout scuba diving in the pool. I liked it very much and here my mistake began. Instead of postponing my training to the next vacation, getting more information on courses, prerequisites and quality marks for scuba courses I immediately started taking an OWD course with that dive center.
The instructor came from the Netherlands o at least we were able to talk in German. Teaching the theoretical parts was limited to a self-study of the OWD video footage and the book. No class, no real opportunity to ask questions about the things I had seen or that I had read. The 10-minute floating test was not supervised, and I cannot remember whether I had to swim 200 meters at all. Pool sessions were limited to two, and I did not have the feeling that I mastered all those exercises. My longest training dive in open waters lasted 32 minutes, and my ears were ringing days after since I had problems to equalize. I did not get any feeling for buoyancy besides I never understood the concept itself. At the end I got my certification and did two or three more dives with that dive center. I never felt well, and I never enjoyed the dives.
Now why did that happen that way? The instructor told me that she was getting paid a low fixed salary. On top of that she had to earn money by collection points. Those points were awarded by the dive center for guiding dive trips, conducting courses and discover scuba activities at the pool, but also for acquiring new customers or doing work at the dive center. Instead of individually assessing my needs as a customer to get me the training I needed her mind was always focussed on the next opportunity or activity that could get her points. I understood her dilemma but the training that I felt was less than poor kept me away from scuba diving at home and for another year.
For all those considering scuba diving training:
After some 400 dives I am still mad at myself that I did not get enough information at the beginning to get training of high quality fitting my needs. So before you decide to take your training in one of these big resort diving centers that you can find in Mexico or the Dominican Republic or at other travel destinations use all available sources to get more information down to your future individual instructor. Use online review platforms or your friends who might recommend a good instructor to you. You usually get just one chance to feel well under the seas.
