2nd week of OW, how's my instructor?

[Wendy]

You shouldn't feel pressured to buy gear. I didn't own my own gear for awhile after my ow cert, and even then, I bought a friends used gear until I knew what exactly it was what I wanted. I ended up going with the bp/wing set up. You should try out different gear and see how you like it. Alot of shops will let you test dive gear in the pool that you are thinking of getting. If you find something you like and don't like the price, you can always go to ebay and get some second hand stuff. Just make sure that you always have gear serviced that you bought on ebay. Ask the seller questions prior to bidding. I'm not suggesting that you take business away form your LDS, but I don't see anything wrong with buying a used bc until you know what you want to thrown done the big bucks on at your LDS.

Have fun in your class and let the instructor know that you will buy your gear when you are ready!

 

[MikeFerrara]

No need to rush anything. However, after renting you will appreciate your own equipment when you do buy. I don't try to get students to buy before certification. I have had students who had trips planned and chose to buy. It worked out well for them. It's a hoby but it's only fun if you do what you want. Get your presure at work. Students who plan to do a lot of diving after certification may find renting expensive and inconvenient
(depending on location). I doesn't take many rentals to buy. Where we are there isn't much in the way of rental. We are not at a dive site so we don't have a big rental demand. Therefore we have enough rental stuff for classes and a couple extra sets. In the summer there ussually isn't much available period. We don't buy more because the demand just isn't there. The rental stuff at the local dive site is junk. Here if you want to dive often you will need to buy but it can wait til after class.

 

[chris_b]

Originally posted by Jonathan
you think that's high pressure! I heard at the weekend that certain dive shops here in Tokyo send out recruiters (for want of a better description).

These are usually young Shibuya boys (surfer dude wanna be's and may not be divers themselves) ...

Here I thought for sure the "surfer dude" and "surfer girl" fashion would have blown away into Tokyo fashion oblivion by now. Sad to hear it's still popular

And what's more these places are very successful at what the do - not sure how good the divers are though that they turn out.

Jonathan

There was an outfit in Fukuoka that was advertising a get-certified-over-the-weekend-in-Okinawa package. In typical Japanese vacation fashion, everything was packed into as little time as possible. In fact, you did open water dives Sunday morning and flew out that evening. Yikes! :worried:

 

[flyingsherpa]

as an update... my instructor actually called me at home last night to ask "when would be a good time to come in and look at gear"? i decided to be up front and told him i thought it was a bad idea for me to spend a lot of money on gear before i really have done an OW dive. I told him I was going on a tropical dive drip in May and would decide what/if to buy after that.

He sounded kind of disappointed but did not press any further. so i'm guessing there will be no more pressure to buy. hooray!

i'm a tad frustrated because i did attempt to shop around before deciding on an LDS to train with. this guy was actually much better than some of the ones i spoke with (one guy just talked about how much fun he has on the bahama trips where they drink all night and dive all day and then hit all the strip clubs in town). i RAN from that guy. my instructor is better, but he pretty much just reads from the book in class and reads from his cards in the pool. no extra tips or instruction... i was hoping for more.

i will definitely try to find another shop when i go to buy gear (actually i just started to read the DIR 'bible' so maybe i will mail order some of it) or get further training.

thanks for all your advice

chris

 

[waterdogs]

Good going on handling the phone call. I really can't believe they did that, well nothing surprises me anymore.

Like the rest of the board say's, wait if you want, its' UP TO YOU when to buy and what to buy, not the instructor.

My instructor didn't pitch a thing, and i appreciated that and i have bought numerous items from their shop (fins,mask, snorkel, etc). After your class, do your research on gear from other LDS and this board, but its' still YOUR OWN DECISION.

Good luck with class.

waterdogs

 

[Jonathan]

Here I thought for sure the "surfer dude" and "surfer girl" fashion would have blown away into Tokyo fashion oblivion by now.

Still alive and kicking! Surfing is big here. You go down the Izu penisular at 8am on a Sunday morning and you will see literally hundreds of them waiting to catch that 2 footer!!

I was asking the equipment question at the weekend to my instructor as all new divers seem to have all the kit and he related me the story I posted in the earlier post. Most Japanese divers on the mainland here are pretty good which is more than can be said for their "holiday" divers in places like Okinawa and Guam. But then diving is more of a fashion thing out here it would appear.....

Jonathan

 

[NJdiver85]

Does anyone know if PADI has any standards regarding instructors strong-arming students into buying gear? I think it's okay for an instructor to push his shop's gear, but the kind of pressure placed on a new diver in this instance is insane! A diver first starting out has enough to think about in terms of learning the skills and getting comfortable with all the gear. When such pressure tactics affect the confidence and training experience of a new diver, this should become a PADI issue. (I am assuming that the course being taken is a PADI course, but the same should apply to any training organization).

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Originally posted by tbg
Does anyone know if PADI has any standards regarding instructors strong-arming students into buying gear? I think it's okay for an instructor to push his shop's gear, but the kind of pressure placed on a new diver in this instance is insane! A diver first starting out has enough to think about in terms of learning the skills and getting comfortable with all the gear. When such pressure tactics affect the confidence and training experience of a new diver, this should become a PADI issue. (I am assuming that the course being taken is a PADI course, but the same should apply to any training organization).

PADI has a couple policies which may be relevant. Instructors may not withhold any certification for financial reasons except if the student did not pay for the course as agreed. So certification cannot be withheld for not buying gear, or buying gear from another shop.

PADI encourages instructors to use real-life examples, which can be an opportunity to promote certain equipment. For instance, when discussing surface signalling devices, it is perfectly acceptable to haul out a safety sausage and demonstrate its value. Or when doing an initial introductory session and talking about the gear you will be using, it is a good idea to do this on a sales floor in a dive shop where the students can see BCDs, regs, fins, masks, etc...

The point isn't to force sales, but rather to demonstrate the value of equipment. If students see the value of the equipment, they are more likely to buy it.

 

[NINman]

I agree with U.P. that the instuctor should not have conned or forced students into buying gear until after you are certified. Would they give a full refund is for some reason you could not finish the open water section or failed the open water skill test. Most likely not, but who knows. My instructor owned a shop but when I gave him the list of what I wanted to buy after my OWC he really helped me save money by telling me what the difference between this one reg and the reg I wanted. (Same manufature) My other instuctor does not work for a shop either and the price of the course covers every thing but personal gear like Mask, Fins, snorkel, booties for fins. I would not be conforiable with an instructor that was forcing me into anything.


PS: Sorry about the spelling mistakes