PhotoTJ once bubbled...
Anyone meet a new, good PDAI/NAUI instructor, that had them try new gear, at a LDS that they liked, followed by a great dive?
Since you asked... Here's the perspective of a tourist diver, and my 1st post here. I was certified 15 years ago, but stopped diving after my daughter was born and a couple of less-than-reassuring dives with met-on-the-boat buddies. I just re-certified from scratch with my daughter through a LDS a couple of weeks ago. Call us wimps if you will, but we'll probably dive only on vacations to warm spots and locally in the summer. Don't want to get too cold or too rusty. Our instructors were great.
Prior to the class, they told me I couldn't take the class without a physician's note, since I'd had a hernia repair a year earlier. Didn't matter that everything was uncomplicated and healed up. Same deal for my daughter, who was taking medication for acne. Made no difference that the medication had no implications for diving or that I was a physician. No note, no dive. Not even in the pool.
The first day of class, they toured us around the store, showed us equipment, pointed out advantages and disadvantages, and told us they didn't want us to consider this a sales pitch, just an opportunity to see what was what. And it didn't feel like a sales pitch. We were told that there was plenty of time to decide what to buy after completing the course and some experience with rented gear to see what we liked. The only things we were told we had to own to complete the course were fins, mask, and snorkel, which could be used for snorkeling anyway should we decide diving wasn't for us.
The instructors made sure that everyone in the class understood everything before moving on. This included spending extra time in the classroom and in the water to be sure everyone was up to speed. In the pool, there were 2 instructors for 8 students. In OW, there were 4 instructors for 8 students. The OW dives were quarry dives with about 8-10' vis, but it was a thrill to get into real water, actually experience the stuff we'd been reading about: buoyance control with a full wetsuit, finding your way with the compass, and seeing a few fish.
No one passed unless they successfully completed all the skills that were listed in the manuals the students got. We all had to swim 200m before the pool sessons started. One student had to come back for an extra pool session before doing the final OW dives. One couldn't do the hover thing in the OW after multiple tries and didn't get his card. Near the end of one of the OW dives, one of the students apparently got panicky and started hyperventilating. An instructor brought her up. He said it was the first time he'd seen that in 30 years of teaching, that they usually weeded out the panicky ones in the pool, and though she seemed fine once out of the water, he wasn't taking any chances and called an ambulance to take her for a medical evaluation. She didn't get her card either.
When we were done, the instructors made it clear that we were still rank beginners, and that we had to be sure to dive within the limits of our experience or go down with a guide. They offered more courses, but didn't push. And still no push to buy equipment. I finished the class with the impression that tables were more conservative 'cuz you can stay down longer with a computer on a multilevel dive. I wasn't aware that the majority of divers used computers until I came here.
I compare this experience to the one I had 15 years earlier, doing the class- and pool-work with the same LDS owner, and getting a referral for the OW dives in the Caymans. Some of the people just couldn't do all of the OW skills without the instructor doing part of it for them, but they all got their cards. Even though we had great vis, warm water, saw a ton of colorful coral and fish, I left the water feeling less confident and less inspired because of that.
Does it really matter what agency it was? No. It all depends on the instructor
and the student. Diving is fun, but it's serious too. A significant amount of personal responsibility is involved. That's why I'm re-reading my manuals and devouring all I can from this site before we venture out on a couple of boat dives in the FL keys in a couple of months. We're sticking to the novice-level dives. I bought a computer, but we'll be taking our tables and doing some comparisons. No doubt that some of the people these guys trained will still go out and do stupid things. But you can't blame the teacher for every crazy diver. I wasn't as careful 15 years ago as I am now.
