Andy077
Contributor
I am the OP and I just wanted to follow up for all those that live in the Fairfield County Connecticut area and wanted to know what shop this was.
It was Saam Greenman of Captain Saam's in Stamford Connecticut. He continued to gives us problems afterwards and my girlfriend eventually had to seek instruction elsewhere. I also talked to several other dive shops in the area and they told me they constantly get students that quit his class and get OW instruction elsewhere for various reasons. So needless to say he has a bad reputation.
He also sells new/used dive equipment on Ebay. So buyer beware if you are looking at his items.
The guy is an ass. I did my cert there this spring/summer.
My actual open water dives? max depth 20 feet, 5 minutes or less of skills practice in each one, and then sit there while he collects clams. Every dive on the exact same spot, nothing but mud on the bottom of LI sound.
THEN, he won;t sign the logbook until you go back to the shop on another day, so he can try to upsell you on something, THEN again to get the card.
His whole business model is to get you into the shop as many times as possible and sell you crap you don't need. If I had a dollar for every time he pushed a BC/reg setup on me, i'd be able to afford them. Add to that his policy of no-return, period . Avoid the place if you can.