Fail! Weekend Certify-

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Gloria, I have to agree with Fellowtraveler. There are to sides to every story. I know for one, that on the front page of the student folder, there are instructor responsibilities, student responsibilities and together. Everything should have been explained there. This happens the first night of class when we seem to be throwing so much at students that it's incomprehensible. It would have been very prudent of the shop to give you most of the checkout requirements on a handout. That being said, talk to the shop owner and let him know you're not happy with his operation or style of checkouts. Then if you don't feel he cares or is being a jerk about it. Get on the SSI website, get the regional reps name, email and phone number and contact them. Have a discussion with them about what you can do or any options that you have. They can usually intervene and help out without having to get into a shouting match, but you will be burning bridges with that particular shop. Which I can't say that I blame you for.

If I can help any other way, feel free to PM me if you need to.

Thank you for the information.
Can I just say this much. I did the SSI online class work- I'm not sure if that makes a difference on anything here.

If anyone knows about this you can do the online classwork, then pick a dive shop they forward your work and you go in to do the final test.

With that said- I would like to let this be known. I did the online work- signed up for this shop, then went in and DID their whole course in the classroom. So I did it TWICE.
I felt I was very active in my education to learn as much as possible. I was ahead of my class, and everything in the classroom was review from what I already did.
How much more should I have known to do? I did expect the shop to fill in the things I would not have common knowledge from.

Thanks again for your helpful post
 
In many cases instructors have lost track of the details that make diving easy and enjoyable. They are consumed with teaching you to do the "skills" so they can check the boxes and fail to train divers to dive. There are some conditions that are above and beyond what an OW candidate should be subjected to.

Diving is very much an adapation, above and below the surface. I liken it to dancing and until, you master the steps it's awkward and painful. With a little guidance the learning process can be streamlined.

This day sounds like if had many oportunities for improvement. I'll also add that the trouble began before that day. As cold water divers the pool work should have been in hood and gloves and all gear like masks be tested with confidence.

Work this out and get certified. It will be worth the effort, trust me on this.

Pete
 
On SB we often side up after hearing only part of the story.

I know I was not as comfortable with my CO dives as I could have been. I rushed my decent, screwed up my ears, and generally was uncomfortable during parts of my four CO dives. Looking back, the mistakes made were mine not those of the shop or instructors.

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.

In any event, no one was hurt, and I would suggest to the OP to have a level headed discussion with the Dive Shop to arrange to do the last of the CERT dives. If you go to another shop expect to pay for the entire OW Cert part of the class, and I'm not sure you will get better service.

You are wrong to assume everything is 100% predictable. This dive shop did not tell me jack.
I went in for a mask swap and was turning around to walk out and he said 'hay don't forget your gear'. I then said, 'what'? He said your gear, you will need that. Up to that point I was never told I was hauling my gear. I had someone with me they were as much in shock as I was. And to the point, WHY would I know this fact? I am NOT a diver yet. This is new to me. I don't know what dive shops do or don't do. It is under the dive shops responsibility to TELL people what their responsibilities will be. Why would I think they would have me haul their equipment? This is my bigger point to the post, make sure let new divers know what to ask. Because apparently we new divers are somehow supposed to know how the system of diving works.

I was NEVER told to bring chairs/tarps. AS a matter of fact I took a fold out chair OUT of my mustang to make room for the tanks. And I know the instructor was listening at the shop when i was loading this stuff, when I said, 'when I get home I will take out my yoga mat and that fold up chair and it will give me more room. Because he said, 'yeah then you can lay all the tanks like this ( he motioned his hands, to show how to lay the tanks) ... So yes, I was NOT told, in fact I had a chair in there that was removed for the tanks. Not one mention during those exchange of words- of hay you might need that- NO.
So please, I understand what you think should be right, but I think the same way. But it didn't happen that way. I was at every step going 'why wasn't I told' ... this or that.

And I was hurt, maybe you didn't read that thoroughly. Really you don't know what happened and I don't want to go into details because I didnt want to get in a defensive.. oh well let me tell u this cycle in this forum. What you're doing is igniting almost, and I could say much more. That isn't my intention.

Like I said it is meant to help others.

Thanks for your response
 
[QUOTE=. Because apparently we new divers are somehow supposed to know how the system of diving works.

Can happen.
On a light note- Starting our first pool session the Instructor introduced "Dave, my Divemaster". I figured he was a big time supervisor who was there to observe the Instructor! THIS was not true.....
 
To Answer EVERYONES question that asked about or commented about letting the owner know about what happened. The OWNER/Dive Master of the shop was the one who was my buddy on my first dive. He is the one who left me behind. He went down under water and never came back up. Another instructor later came up seen me swimming towards the float where my son was waiting for me, he then proceeded to say 'hurry up', and whatever else he said then went back down to the bottom to do skills with kids. I continued swimming to the float listening to my son say I can't see them, hurry up I can't see them, as he would dip his mask down into the water. That is what happened.

Sounds like the owner is part of the problem. I still think that you should talk with him about the whole bad experience, and that if he were to not offer anything positive then ask for a referral and do your checkout dives with another SSI shop. I'm sure there's more than one in the Sacramento area.

BTW, some shops offer to haul tanks for the students but expected the students to have everything else.
 
Those arguing with the gal need to go back and re-read my post that has the pictures to show you the conditions. It was an ugly day and one that our experienced dive team chose not to go out on. Personally I would not have a taken a newbie out in those conditions. The stress of just getting past the surf zone would suck up a lot of energy, let alone if they fell, which many did.

Maybe some of you are tropical divers and do not understand what we have to go through in order to dive here? Isn't diving supposed to be fun? There is no fun in those conditions. Here is a report posted by another DM. He can step up if he wants otherwise I will leave him nameless.

"Yeah, Sunday was pretty nasty. We let our students walk in, since getting past the waves quickly was key. It was actually the instructor who got hit the hardest, since he was watching the students instead of the ocean. I TRIED to warn him...
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It wasn't quite as bad on the other side of the beach since you avoided the little washing machine that gets created by the wall, so we entered there. Once under, nobody who called a dive missed much. It opened up to about 5' of vis around 40fsw, but any shallower than that it was <2' visibility, oftentimes dropping to <6" on the swim in. The surge was pretty stiff, and made the simple navigation exercise a bit more challenging for our students (to say the least).
"

So does anyone not see a problem with someone who told the DM and instructor multiple times they were not comfortable with the situation, that maybe it should have been handled differently? Rushing divers? We consider that a no no. Causes stress, and overheats a diver quickly. I could careless about them not mentioning lunch, taking the gear etc., it is the safety issues that were not addressed that is the problem here.

GIORia, I use a small car too. I have a Prius and will often load two people, two sets of double tanks, all of our gear, plus tow my Zodiac behind. The key is to put as much weight as you can forward. In other words our weight belts and tanks go right behind the front seats, not all the way in the back. Keep that in mind the next time you load your car.

Also if you do decide to change shops and want a private instructor, Brewski aka Ron that offered might be a viable option for you. He will make you become a better diver by covering things that this rag tag operation did not. For instance actually trying to get you weighted correctly. Teaching you different kicks, making sure you can control your buoyancy more (That one is huge to having a good time down the road), and other things that require a little more personal attention.

Sounds like you are still out to get Open Water Certified and I sure hope to see you around the dive sites :)
 
Most shops I've been involved with include rental gear with the OW class. The shop I went through checked out our gear and we were responsible for it for the entire four weeks of the class, including getting the tanks filled before each pool/beach session. One girl dropped out of the class after the second week because she had a hard time hauling a full set of gear and two tanks on the bus.
As far as conditions went, I have no respect for any diver, instructor, newbie or DIR wannabe who insists on diving in large surf. There will be better days to dive. You did the correct thing in calling your last dive.
 
GIORia, it sounds like a bad experience. If you're the kind of person who got all the on line work done before your class, I doubt you were so inattentive as to miss all the information on logistics. This may have been a case where they've done things so often that they just didn't realize what they hadn't passed along. An organized operation would have a printed sheet outlining where you were going, what to bring, and what options are nice -- but I can tell you that my husband does that for every OW class, and still has a LOT of people who don't bother to read the handouts, so that's where the dubious posts are coming from.

I don't know what you want to do about finishing your cert, and of course, you are in Sacramento and have already paid for the class there. But if you want a steady and kind hand to guide you through the process of learning to dive, I can't say enough good things about our own ae3753. He teaches in Monterey, and is as patient and encouraging an instructor as you could ask for. Yes, he is a personal friend and occasional dive buddy, but this is not written to support his business. It's written because you sound like someone who still wants to learn to dive, but needs a better quality experience than what you had.

BTW, I don't know about SSI, but under PADI standards, leaving students alone in the water ANYWHERE and doing ANYTHING is a violation of agency standards.
 
It wasn't quite as bad on the other side of the beach since you avoided the little washing machine that gets created by the wall, so we entered there. Once under, nobody who called a dive missed much. It opened up to about 5' of vis around 40fsw, but any shallower than that it was <2' visibility, oftentimes dropping to <6" on the swim in. The surge was pretty stiff, and made the simple navigation exercise a bit more challenging for our students (to say the least).

Those are sh*t conditions for any diver let alone a brand new/uncertified one. Add in cold, hood etc... that's a lot going on. I certified in calm conditions but 55ºF and with 7mm of hood gloves and such it was a challenge managing everything that was happening.

Like I said earlier, the water was going to be there the next week and the week after that. Sounds like they should have postponed.

To the OP - make arrangements to go to the tropics and do your check dives there :) Honestly, good luck, it gets better from here!
 
Hey---sounds like you got the 'hard ones' out the way early in your dive career, finish it up, & keep on a truckin'......It's all downhill from here.....
 
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