Fail! Weekend Certify-

[Wantonmien]

As one of the first to see GIORia iniital post and account of problems, I've just read the whole topic and pretty interesting for me to read how it works in the States from my base here in Taiwan and of course good to see encouragement, offers and advise from so many Pro's over there.

I'm sure GIORia will look back on the 'events' as a good learning experience and in time will benefit from knowing when to abort a dive. Good on you GIORia, and when you find an alternative instructor I am sure you will fly through your Open Water and keep on learning to get to be a safe reliable diver, so do make sure you tell us all how your next dives go.

Am sure when we all look back at training times we had little problems to over come, one of mine was finding a reputable Instructor, made a little harder here by my also having to find one who spoke enough English for me to understand the training ~ as my Chinese language skills are nowhere near as reliable as my underwater sign language skills !

Also interesting to see the pics of the used dive site there, and thought you might like to see the way facilities are provided here in Taiwan for studying and training to dive ... nice huh, those are high and low tide shots, and after initial familiarity dives in the roped area, training dives are made just outside the rocks !!

cheers

 

[GI0Ria]

As one of the first to see GIORia iniital post and account of problems, I've just read the whole topic and pretty interesting for me to read how it works in the States from my base here in Taiwan and of course good to see encouragement, offers and advise from so many Pro's over there.

I'm sure GIORia will look back on the 'events' as a good learning experience and in time will benefit from knowing when to abort a dive. Good on you GIORia, and when you find an alternative instructor I am sure you will fly through your Open Water and keep on learning to get to be a safe reliable diver, so do make sure you tell us all how your next dives go.

Am sure when we all look back at training times we had little problems to over come, one of mine was finding a reputable Instructor, made a little harder here by my also having to find one who spoke enough English for me to understand the training ~ as my Chinese language skills are nowhere near as reliable as my underwater sign language skills !

Also interesting to see the pics of the used dive site there, and thought you might like to see the way facilities are provided here in Taiwan for studying and training to dive ... nice huh, those are high and low tide shots, and after initial familiarity dives in the roped area, training dives are made just outside the rocks !!

cheers

That diving area is freakn sweet! looks ideal. A little far to go to certify- but I like that set up, looks more suitable for new divers.

 

[=C=]

Uhhh it sounds like a bad day for a dive. Why didnt you call it off?

 

[Lead_carrier]

So lets break this down. How many dive shops fail to tell the students that they need to haul there own gear? How many fail to tell them they need to bring food? How many fail to tell the students to bring tarps/chairs? From my experience... none. She was not paying much attention apparently as I could see a shop forgetting to tell students for example about bringing a tarp, but I KNOW they told them about tank hauling because they would have expected the students to pick up their gear.

No dive shop that I am aware of hauls gear for students, or at least not in a group setting.

.

Not trying to start anything with you Ron, but I actually know of 3 or 4 shops that haul equipment for students. One even has everything loaded on the trailer or van ready to go for their students. Of course there is an extra charge for that service and you cannot turn it down.

 

[rstofer]

Honestly, I can't imagine the headaches of running OW classes from a shop in Sacramento, with OW dives in Monterey. That's a LONG way for people to drive, and you add lodging and meals to the cost, and then you have the unpredictable winter weather. But aren't the swell forecasts available well ahead of time? I know my Monterey friends have been fussing and sulking over the predictions, and scrubbing dives. It seems as though a shop would have the option to do that -- but maybe they hope against hope that it will be better that the forecast says. I'd sure be bent majorly out of shape if I drove all the way from Sacramento to Monterey and the instructor turned around and said, "Nope, not diving today -- let's see if we can reschedule this in a few weeks . . . "

During the winter, Monterey is one of the most used venues simply because the others are really grim. However, training is also done at Lake Tahoe (considerably closer to Sacramento) and a couple of other lakes. I'm not sure what the water temperature is right now but around June or so Lake Tahoe is pretty decent. Certainly by August it is quite nice.

My grandson did his OW at Lake Natoma near Folsom, CA. Freezing cold and zero viz. The viz really impacted on his navigation dive. Very grim, but he got through it.

Lake Tulloch is another site for diving but I'm not sure if it is used for training. When the lake is full, it's pretty nice with ladders down into the water and cabanas with picnic benches: Lake Tulloch Campground and Marina Again, if the lake is full, the kick-out is about 100 feet and the water is probably 6' deep right at the ladder. How easy is that? Twenty feet from the picnic table to the water. My kind of diving!

Richard

 

[TechBlue]

Not trying to start anything with you Ron, but I actually know of 3 or 4 shops that haul equipment for students. One even has everything loaded on the trailer or van ready to go for their students. Of course there is an extra charge for that service and you cannot turn it down.

I also had the same experience with all the shops I worked with in NJ they hauled all the gear for the students, although I don't see hauling your own gear as being a major issue, if you have a small car normally somebody else in the group woudl have room. But that has nothing to do with the quality of the class does it?

 

[rstofer]

If I owned a shop, I would be reluctant to haul tanks. It seems that 49 CFR 172.101 states that compressed air is a Division 2.2 Hazardous Material. As a result, hauling it is subject to both Federal and State requirements. Yes, there are quantity limits and I believe if the load is less than 1000# there is no problem but that's only about 25 cylinders.

The absolute last thing I would want to do in the wee early hours before dawn is argue with the California Highway Patrol about the transportation of hazardous materials. Let the divers carry their own tanks.

Richard

 

[TechBlue]

If I owned a shop, I would be reluctant to haul tanks. It seems that 49 CFR 172.101 states that compressed air is a Division 2.2 Hazardous Material. As a result, hauling it is subject to both Federal and State requirements. Yes, there are quantity limits and I believe if the load is less than 1000# there is no problem but that's only about 25 cylinders.

The absolute last thing I would want to do in the wee early hours before dawn is argue with the California Highway Patrol about the transportation of hazardous materials. Let the divers carry their own tanks.

Richard

Don't even go down that road Here in Mallorca (Spain) we have to deal with the ever expanding EU regulations and the retarded Spanish regulations already in place. Technically as a commercial business you are absolutely forbidden to transport HP cylinders, mostly the Guardia tend to look the other way but should they choose.....your goose is cooked.

 

[GI0Ria]

Uhhh it sounds like a bad day for a dive. Why didnt you call it off?

I wasn't the instructor? And I did- I refused to go back in after I fell and cut myself on a rock- meanwhile they took others in until they started refusing as well.

 

[GI0Ria]

During the winter, Monterey is one of the most used venues simply because the others are really grim. However, training is also done at Lake Tahoe (considerably closer to Sacramento) and a couple of other lakes. I'm not sure what the water temperature is right now but around June or so Lake Tahoe is pretty decent. Certainly by August it is quite nice.

My grandson did his OW at Lake Natoma near Folsom, CA. Freezing cold and zero viz. The viz really impacted on his navigation dive. Very grim, but he got through it.

Lake Tulloch is another site for diving but I'm not sure if it is used for training. When the lake is full, it's pretty nice with ladders down into the water and cabanas with picnic benches: Lake Tulloch Campground and Marina Again, if the lake is full, the kick-out is about 100 feet and the water is probably 6' deep right at the ladder. How easy is that? Twenty feet from the picnic table to the water. My kind of diving!

Richard

Do you know about folsom lake? I always wondered about there, if they were diving out there. I seen divers at the American river but not folsom, well not that I can remember.