Cert. Agencies

[Bob DBF]

I also liked what BobDBF had to say about your role as mentor. (even if he doesn't log his dives- shame on you, Bob)

Between you and I, I have been logging dives for the past few years for the classes I picked up. The problem is that it askes for # of logged dives and for the 46 or so prior years when I have done most of my diving I have nada. I could take an educated guess but they are still not logged dives. This seemed like the best compromise.



Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

[LowDrag]

What's being said makes sense but at the same time neither my wife nor I are going to go out and just bang out a dive beyond our experience at this point. I have gained a new friend thru OW class whose girlfriend is getting OW certified with us. He is a well experienced diver and I can honestly say that we will more than likely dive with him quite often. My LDS manager/instructor has also said that he would be more than willing to dive with my wife and I to help us on our way to AOW and then Stress and Rescue. Plan the dive, dive the plan and know your capabilities. I don't like to go based on "Limitations" as that is negative and for me diving is a positive. I can dive a safe dive once certified as long as I follow the previous statement. Dos that mean something can not go wrong? Absolutely not, but I do have back up in an emergency situation.

[hmarashi]

Adding to this thread. I am SSI cert'd. I have taking classes through 2 different shops. The first one (that I got my c card through), had an outstanding instructor, who was also a tech diver. He taught everything by the book and then went in depth and gave us additional info. He touched on aspects of stress and rescue material as well.
The other instructors at this particular dive shop, did good jobs at teaching, but did not go into as much as the first instructor.
The second dive shop is even better. The keep up with you and have a very active dive club to keep the excitement and knowledge up.
Today, I saw 2 OW classes, where the DM's were just sloppy. Tanks not positioned correctly in BC, hoses wrapped and tangled, weight belts not secured. If their teaching is any indication of their gear set hp, I can only hope the students will take cues from better divers in the future, and learn correctly.
As stated before, I believe all of the agencies are very similar in their curriculum. The differences is the instructors.

[drrich2]

And you are ok with not having rescue skills? I would not allow anyone I cared about dive with someone who did not know how to support a diver at the surface, get control of a panicked diver, bring an unconscious diver up from depth, or tow an unconscious diver while stripping gear to shore or boat.

Jim's post reminds me that people differ in their 'frame of reference' for what's sufficient. Some people consider a diver well trained enough to dive with them good enough. I believe Jim's personal standard for certifying OW divers also involves whether he'd be comfortable letting them buddy dive with his loved ones (I hope I haven't misrepresented his point of view from other threads). Many people would have a different standard of competency for letting someone dive with them vs. buddy dive with their teenagers, in other words.

I realize the rescue training (& hopefully resultant competency) Jim advocates at the basic OW level is an asset, but at the same time, how analogous is that to saying I wouldn't let my loved one ride in a car with anyone who's not First Aid & CPR certified, in case there's a wreck with serious injury?

Richard.

[Jill from Phoenix]

There's a lot of people that I wouldn't ride in a car with

[USFpsychDiver]

All my certification thus far has been through NAUI. I chose NAUI because it's a non-profit. The primary responsibility of a for-profit entity is not the consumer, but rather to the owners/shareholders. This is not a bad thing, but it is the way the structure works. Many would argue that a for-profit entity has to provide a better level of service in order to remain competitive. However, I wanted my training done by an agency that did not have a primary responsibility to someone other than me.

That said, I have had three different instructors for my four NAUI certifications (OW, AOW, Nitrox, Cavern), and while I liked them all, there was a lot of variability in the quality, and the different instructors even, to some extent, challenged the quality of the others.

I am not wedded to NAUI; my next courses may not be through NAUI (rescue, advanced Nitrox & deco, cave). I'm looking first at NAUI shops for Rescue, but if I can't find a course that fits my schedule through one, I'll go to another agency. And for the more technical training, I'm leaning towards an agency that specialized in that aspect of training (cave: NACD or NSS-CDS, both non-profits).

[flots am]

Hope this is the right place for this...anyway...anyone have any cross-agency experience? I am a DM through PADI though it has been 6-7 years since I have done anything 'professional'.
. . .
Wondering more about the fundamentals embedded in the training programs.

Read this and ask the questions of both shops you're considering.

Whatever you get from SSI depends entirely on the standards the shop sets for itself and it's instructors. It's possible to get an awesome class that will have your son ready to jump off the back of a boat with his buddy, have a great, safe dive and come back smiling. It's also possible to find a class that will just shovel him through and hand out a card.

flots.

[Saxatilis]

I have found that the instructor is far more important than the agency used. The goal of every entry level scuba course is pretty much the same, to make you a safe diver. Each course may go about this in a slightly different way but its the instructor who determines if you skilled/knowledgeable enough to dive safely.