need advice on a diving course that is being offered

[Junzhe Davy Zou]

Hi all

A friend of mine is considering diving and found this groupon. The thing is I know pretty much all the dive shops in Montreal, and this one I have never ever heard of them beyond their groupon offerings. I have also yet to meet any of their students. (But maybe that's just because I generally dive with the english speaking population and their course is only offered in French.) And their certifciation agency is ADIP and PDIC. The offer is in french but basically it is just the course, no exams.

149$ pour 28 heures de Cours de Plongée Niveau 1 incluant équipement avec Le Monde Du Silence (valeur de 380$)

Are ADIP and PDIC certs good/widely accepted? What are your opinoin on this?

I am going to send my friend the thread for How to find an excellent SCUBA class and have her ask the shop. This shop is very proudly french and my friend actually speaks french.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I am not familiar with ADIP but PDIC has been around for decades and is a member of the RSTC. I looked at the page and the offer appears to meet PDIC minimum standards which I do know.

PDIC is owned by SEI and has some of the highest standards in the industry. Your friend will get a comprehensive skills and education based course. Rescue skills are required in the class and I like the time they are spending with free diving. That is the course I am teaching now to a family of four. Mine is actually 4 hours longer as I add some content to it in the classroom and pool but I am sure she is well served by going with this. The deal is very good. My only question would be to make absolutely clear if the checkout dives are included in that price. It;s not clear on the page using Google translate.

I'd also invite you to order her a copy of my book that has an additional 21 questions for the instructors and another 20 for the shop to ask during the interview. Unfortunately it's not available in French but is available using the links below on kindle as well as in print via amazon.

 

[tursiops]

This is the price for classroom/pool only; the open water certifications are not included, but are mentioned as being in either Cozumel or Quebec.
Even so, it is a pretty good price. I'd choose PDIC; ADIP appears to be Belgium-based and small.

 

[flots am]

> The offer is in french but basically it is just the course, no exams.

You need to be sure exactly what's being offered.

If the price doesn't include the written and Open Water (in water) test, and a certification card, it really isn't worth anything at all.

 

[jhnmdahl]

> The offer is in french but basically it is just the course, no exams.

You need to be sure exactly what's being offered.

If the price doesn't include the written and Open Water (in water) test, and a certification card, it really isn't worth anything at all.

Many dive shops in my area offer the pool and classroom work separately from the open water dives as a convenience to the students, because people who want to get certified in Minnesota between about October and May usually want to go somewhere else warm to do their open water dives or wait until summer. This is exactly what we did, as did most of my class.

Still, learning how much more is involved to get a certification card seems particularly important in his case, and will determine whether the Groupon is a good deal or not.

 

[lerpy]

These discounted rates for just the pool and classroom are all well and good, but you will find when you go somewhere to do the OW dives and the exams they are probably going to charge you the whole price for the course so you will end up pay a significant amount more. Just find the whole course to do.