Best Certification Agency?

[lemke]

Pretty good advice so far, and a good class is going to be a function of the instructor, and secondly, a function of the facility.

Choose an instructor that makes (or has made) his or her living diving, aside from the classes they might teach.
Choose an instructor that is more than a few hundred dives ahead of you.
Choose an instructor that is older than you.
Choose an instructor that is intimately familiar with the gear that is going to keep you alive.
And, this one is a little tougher, get recommendations from the instructor's peers, not his students.

 

[boulderjohn]

Pretty good advice so far, and a good class is going to be a function of the instructor, and secondly, a function of the facility.

Choose an instructor that makes (or has made) his or her living diving, aside from the classes they might teach.
Choose an instructor that is more than a few hundred dives ahead of you.
Choose an instructor that is older than you.
Choose an instructor that is intimately familiar with the gear that is going to keep you alive.
And, this one is a little tougher, get recommendations from the instructor's peers, not his students.

Before people get too excited about this topic, I would like to point out that it has been more than 8 years since this thread ended before it was resurrected again.

 

[lemke]

Oooooooops... I didn't even notice, LOL. Oh well, never mind.

Ya know, I now believe you can suffer nitrogen narcosis by wading through the SB forum...

 

[EloiseNavarro]

You have to remember that dive shops are in competition with each other for your dollar so even within an agency, prices will differ from shop to shop. Shop around, find a place you feel comfortable with and train there. PADI , SSI , NAUI...whatever.

 

[alewar]

You can find the certification standards of all agencies online and make your own conclusions.

 

[Doc]

Before people get too excited about this topic, I would like to point out that it has been more than 8 years since this thread ended before it was resurrected again.

As which, you will now note, is of little relevance or concern.



PADI, by the way, has the best patches, so there's that.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Choose an instructor that makes (or has made) his or her living diving, aside from the classes they might teach.

Not necessarily ... lots of full-time instructors out there who have burned out, and although they know the curriculum thoroughly, the thrill is gone and they just go through the motions of teaching what they have to.

Choose an instructor that is more than a few hundred dives ahead of you.

Depends on the course and the instructor ... but I'll agree with the few hundred dives part. One of the biggest problems with dive instruction today are the 100-dive wonder instructors who six months ago were Open Water students.

Choose an instructor that is older than you.

Irrelevant ... I started diving at age 49 ... most of my instructors have been younger than me, and a lot of them are very good instructors.

Choose an instructor that is intimately familiar with the gear that is going to keep you alive.

As an instructor it's extremely important to know how dive gear should fit and function. But "intimately" suggests that the instructor should have dived in your equipment. Unless you're promoting standardized rigs, that's pretty unrealistic given all the different types of equipment available today.

And, this one is a little tougher, get recommendations from the instructor's peers, not his students.

It depends ... a lot of recommendations received this way will be more intended to steer you toward a particular business than give you an honest assessment of an instructor's abilities. A better idea might be seek opinions from an instructor's former students. Most of us tended to view our instructors as very good ... but the flaws in our instruction tend to make themselves evident as we gain experience and learn what we didn't know. That's when you can look back and give your dive instruction a more realistic assessment.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[gypsyjim]

No matter what "agency" you choose, remember that you are not locked into using only that particular agency for further training. You can always look around, and pick and choose the instructor you feel offers the best training in a particular area, who has a reputation for going the extra mile to really share their knowledge with other divers.

I started my training with a YMCA certification, but have also trained with PADI and GUE, and I fully intend to keep training, to hone and update skills in the future, and the "brand name" of the agency will make very little difference in my choices.

---------- Post added May 21st, 2014 at 08:48 AM ----------

Old zombie thread, or new, any good advice offered here is still of value to new readers seeking to learn.

 

[lemke]

Agreed Bob... In retrospect, I was very general in my "suggestions" and didn't consider all scenarios or common exceptions. "Intimately familiar" probably wasn't the best wording... a DI should know the "mechanics" of the gear and be able to diagnose (not necessarily fix on the spot) gear "problems". Agreed on an "older" instructor... my grandmother (many moons ago) was certified when she was 71, LOL. A DI that has made a living diving will be a wealth of information that is unavailable with any agencies curriculum, and will be able to answer the "why" and "what if" questions from students. Just my two cents... and I will give your change back.

 

[knotical]

You can find the certification standards of all agencies online and make your own conclusions.

I wish that were so. Maybe it's my poor search skills, but I've only been able to find standards for a couple of agencies, and they're invariably not the latest revisions. Or in one case, they're very top level with references to a document that is not available online.