Charters not accepting certain agencies?

[The Chairman]

I wonder how old that copy on the website is? That was the attitude of many dive ops back around the turn of the century in regards to online training.

 

[EireDiver606]

Sounds like captains I'd like to avoid.

Get me - safely - to the site, brief me about the site, don't run me over, provide assistance if I'm in a bind, make sure I'm on the boat when you turn ashore (or else, call 911/112 or send out a pan-pan) and otherwise be a nice guy, and I'll eagerly patronize your business. I don't ask for more, and seriously, I don't think that's too much to ask for.

EDIT: Dang, most of the stuff I'm asking for is firmly in the "goes without saying" category...

I think you’re not getting the point that a dive captain is a lot more than just a taxi driver.

There is a lot that a dive boat captain does that goes on behind the scenes which customers don’t or rarely see.

He’s basically seeing, to my understanding, that a dive boat charter captain has a lot more responsibility as the water is a more hostile place.

 

[kelemvor]

If the certifying agency were always considered to be liable for the screwups of DMs and instructors, all agencies would be out of business in no time.

That's one possibility. The other is that agencies would get on top of their representatives lickedy split. You can bet PADI as a 700M dollar company would quickly form a large organization to police their agents (dm's instructors etc).

My bet is that some would be gone as you say, others would reform and continue to exist.

 

[Cert1967]

I wonder how old that copy on the website is? That was the attitude of many dive ops back around the turn of the century in regards to online training.

@The Chairman

Teaching in a neutral style? Kneepads?

Dive Training

 

[Marie13]

Their mention of SDI (although why not PADI) and the requirements (X number of classroom hours, etc) begins to make a bit more sense when I looked at Viking's training page on their website.

Dive Training

They tout the original YMCA diving program (now SEI).

"Viking Diving and SCUBA Educators International offers the most extensive diver training on the entire Gulf Coast. SCUBA Educators International is the original diver certification agency that started in 1959 with the first 20 dive instructors in the world certified at the Chicago YMCA. The YMCA SCUBA Program was born and over the years has changed its management from being independent of the YMCA of the USA, to being managed by the National YMCA offices in Chicago and renamed YSCUBA, then most recently we moved back outside of the YMCA of the USA and we are now managed and controlled by SCUBA Professionals who have worked their entire careers to maintain the highest standards that we first started with the original YMCA SCUBA Program back in 1959. Now renamed SCUBA Educators International (SEI Diving), we are still the oldest and most professional diver training agency in the world. Certainly, our dive courses are longer than what is offered through local dive shops, but our focus is not on just selling you a bunch of gear. We have prided ourselves on making sure that every student gets the knowledge and skills to be a safe and confident diver. 60 feet underwater is not the place to find out that you didn't get the proper training. We specialize in small groups of students and personal attention to your education in diving. Do Not buy any equipment before you start your training. We provide everything you will need, and we want to teach you what to look for so you don't waste your money on purchasing the wrong stuff. Let us show you what it is like to learn to dive from the true Diving Professionals on the Gulf Coast. Viking Diving and SCUBA Educators International."

 

[Cert1967]

Their mention of SDI (although why not PADI) and the requirements (X number of classroom hours, etc) begins to make a bit more sense when I looked at Viking's training page on their website.
Dive Training
They tout the original YMCA diving program (now SEI).
"

Top Scuba Certification Chicago - Learn To Dive in Chicago IL

So, if you train at DRIS and get an SDI cert - leading to dives in Lake Michigan's bathtub like conditions - Viking won't honor the cert.

Really - DRIS training in cold and dark quarries, earning and SDI cert, followed by a few Lake Michigan trips and its not good enough for Viking?

SDI seems to like DRIS.

Perhaps its the competition?

MBT Divers - Pensacola Scuba Diving Training, Equipment, and Service

SDI Open Water Certification Course for $259
To complete the SDI Open water certification course for $259, you can sign up in person, over the phone, or you can enroll directly online. If you sign up via the link below, SDI will bill you $129.95 for enrolling and you will receive credit toward the total cost of the course. The balance of $130.00 will be charged when you come in for the orientation session. We offer SDI open water classes every week! Click the link below and select MBT Divers Pensacola as your selected training facility to get started right away!​

Viking is $650, $350 extra for "open water plus"

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Operators can make rules. If we don't like them we can go elsewhere.

 

[Marie13]

So, if you train at DRIS and get an SDI cert - leading to dives in Lake Michigan's bathtub like conditions - Viking won't honor the cert.

Really - DRIS training in cold and dark quarries, earning and SDI cert, followed by a few Lake Michigan trips and its not good enough for Viking?

SDI seems to like DRIS.

Lake Michigan's conditions are not bathtub like! Unless you were going for sarcasm there...

Last year friends were trying to talk me into a saltwater trip. A dive op had multiple mentions of needing ocean experience on their website. I emailed and asked about Great Lakes diving experience. I was told any Great Lakes diving experience was "worthless." Screw that.

 

[tomfcrist]

They don’t like SDI because their biggest competitor is MBT....the shop with the market share of pretty much anything scuba related in PCola...and one of the 2 shops in Pensacola that doesn’t resemble a shack filled with random disorganized stacks of outdated gear at top dollar prices.

 

[A. Boyette]

A couple of years ago I took my tanks into a shop in Florida I had not used before. They looked at my sticker and asked who inspected it because they did not recognize it. they would have accepted any of the local shop's stickers with no problem, but this strange one...they didn't know. "WHo inspected this?" they asked, suspiciously.

""I did," I answered. I then explained that the sticker was from PSI/PCI, and the certifying inspector's number on it was mine. I then had to explain what PSI/PCI was.

LOL. I had a similar incident. Local shop fill monkey looks at my VIP sticker and turns his nose up and said he'd offer me a "quick VIP" for twenty bucks. I inquired as to why and he said that they "couldn't verify that I was inspecting to their standards for safety". I said (rather loudly in a room full of divers waiting to get on their boat) "Well, since I was in the same PSI class on April 14th as YOUR inspector James ******* was, and I scored higher on the final exam than he did, does that mean YOUR vip sticker isn't valid either?"

The boat cap'n/owner of the shop was standing in the room and he came running over real fast and smiled and did some quick butt-kissing to hush me up and looked at his fill monkey and sternly told him to go fill my tank.

Haven't had a problem there since.