I would bet that most of the dive guides for the bigger operators are also instructors.
I thought I would weigh in on the question of doing some or all of the certification at home.
I was an instructor in Colorado, where our ability to conduct OW dives is extremely limited. The overwhelming majority of our students did their classroom and pool work with us and then did the OW dives at some tropical resort. Consequently, we poured all our efforts into the class and pool work. I worked for two shops, and I assure you that the pool training was thorough in both. When we did the OW dives ourselves, it was usually in a very shallow, murky lake, where it was tough to do a meaningful dive.
I myself was certified fully in a tropical resort, and they were just the opposite. The pool work was done in a very shallow pool, too shallow to do some of the required skills, because that was all that was available to them at the resort. We just breezed through the most important skills and skipped the rest. I saw the same thing many times when I was in tropical locations and saw classes being conducted. The pool work barely qualified. On the other hand, the OW dives for the course can be excellent because they have really good diving sites, unlike the shallow murky ponds in Colorado.
While this is certainly not universally true, for many people living in locations with the kind of limitations we have in Colorado, the ideal situation is to get through the pool work at home and do the OW work on vacation.
I thought I would weigh in on the question of doing some or all of the certification at home.
I was an instructor in Colorado, where our ability to conduct OW dives is extremely limited. The overwhelming majority of our students did their classroom and pool work with us and then did the OW dives at some tropical resort. Consequently, we poured all our efforts into the class and pool work. I worked for two shops, and I assure you that the pool training was thorough in both. When we did the OW dives ourselves, it was usually in a very shallow, murky lake, where it was tough to do a meaningful dive.
I myself was certified fully in a tropical resort, and they were just the opposite. The pool work was done in a very shallow pool, too shallow to do some of the required skills, because that was all that was available to them at the resort. We just breezed through the most important skills and skipped the rest. I saw the same thing many times when I was in tropical locations and saw classes being conducted. The pool work barely qualified. On the other hand, the OW dives for the course can be excellent because they have really good diving sites, unlike the shallow murky ponds in Colorado.
While this is certainly not universally true, for many people living in locations with the kind of limitations we have in Colorado, the ideal situation is to get through the pool work at home and do the OW work on vacation.
