Thought I wasn't watching eh?
I suppose I should be irritated by the regular statements such as " I hate to agree with seahunter, but..." or "For once I agree with seahunter...". What the hell is wrong with agreeing with me?
I certainly would be suspicious of anyone who agreed with everything I say but, is there a general assumption out there that I don't know what I'm talking about so shouldn't be listened too?
I'm being rhetorical of course and take as a compliment that some of my suggestions and idea are accepted even if reluctantly.
I just quickly read the last few posts and have little time so I'll just shoot in some throughts to get you going!
1. PADI standards are not the minimum or at least that's not the way to look at them. They are THE STANDARDS! The instructor must teach that material and those skills and nothing else. If he leaves out or inserts additional or personal information (other than personal experiences to enhance the PADI ideas) he is not following the PADI system. This method while it irriates the individual spirit of many instructors, is designed to ensure that every PADI diver at a certain level has the same knowledge and skills as every other other PADI diver at that level.
Having agreed that it's the individual instructor who really determines how bad or good the training is, PADI is simply trying to eliminate that factor. Good instructors can work within the PADI system to ensure good, consistent training while bad instructors have a guige to follow and hopefully get better or get kicked out.
Realize that PADI Instructor training requires you encourage further, additional training ASAP. Some of you will say that is just to make more money. Make up your mind - on one hand you say the divers need more training but you don't want PADI to encourage that because they might make a buck! You can't have it both ways unless you think that scuba instructors should teach for free in which case the sport is doomed. There's no way the industry can survive much less grow and no way the divers will have opportunities to learn and grow if it's run like a club.
UC, you, more than a lot, know exactly why the course fees are often low. A poorly run scuba business is desparate to pay the rent and thinks that a big sale of gear or courses will solve the problem. In fact, it's the first step to failure. In the meantime other equally-misinformed store owners panic and drop their prices.
The problem is not one of divers, PADI, material costs - it's one of great divers (but ****ty business people) trying to run a scuba store.
With respect to training standards, the numbers of instructors and other topics that have been touched on, it seems that some of you have fallen into the same trap - spouting off without knowing or ignoring for your own agenda the actual facts.
You say a good school should be able to charge more but many divers ask for the price only and choose the cheapest without digging further and yet you've made the same mistake, for example...
Guaranteed Certification is a great concept (I'm trying to be modest here) but does NOT mean that either the standards are lowered or that every scuba student gets certified whether good or bad! It is a simple marketing objective that assures the consumer he will get quality training AND consumer protection. IF HE IS NOT HAPPY OR SUCCESSFUL ON THE SCUBA COURSE, he will get his money back!! What wrong with that??
Rating the quality of scuba training based on the time frame to complete it is naive. Dozens of stores have 1 class a month with 15+ students, 1 instructor and a format that takes 8 to 10 weeks to complete the course PLUS another 4 or 5 days to do the O/W dives. It's just a damn waste of the students and instructors time!
Small classes (8 max), low ratios (4 students/instructor), effective use of all modern teaching methods, convenient facilities (pool/class/O/W) and the course can be taught properly and well in a fraction of that time PLUS the new divers are enthusiastic rather than impatient or bored.
It still angers me when someone says that 1 class a week over 8 weeks is better that the same course over 2 fulltime days. How arrogant for an instructor to think that his students listen to him for 3 hours on a Tuesday night and then read and review daily that information in preparation for the next lesson a week later when in fact, they have forgotten half of what he said by the next class. They are lucky to have remembered his name!!
Less than 1% of divers become instructors. Less than 1/2 of those actually teach. Maybe that's good but it certainly shows that there is NOT a tend to 'mass produce' instructors. Current instructor training requires about $3000. From open water to instructor besides the other requirements (time, dives, levels, etc) will require a total investment over $10K to $15K. Certainly the cost no guarantee of producing a good instructor but it does eliminate the wannabees and those not dedicated to a certain extent.
The preqequisites and the requirements for ALL training programs and most particularly the leadership levels (DM, AI and I) have been increasing reguarly. In 2002 and 2003 we saw the biggest jump in requirements to become an instructor that has occurred in several years. Perhaps y'all ought to get current!
MFA (Medic First Aid) and the current EFR )Emergency First Response) courses in first aid, CPR, AED, O2, etc are NOT PADI programs!! They are established medical training industry programs that PADI has made available for scuba instructors to teach. The materials, methods and standards are from the emergency medical training industry. PADI has simply decided that PADI leaders need to have consistently good medical training and has chosen these established programs. Red Cross, St. John's, etc are still accepted but the much more modern and more widely accepted (internationally) MFA and/or EFR are simply better! THEY ARE NOT PADI COURSES!! Perhaps y'all should read the back-up info that accompanies these programs rather than depending on heresay to!
Go nuts! I'm in a good mood! Take your best shot!!
