As in my original post, there is a shop listed on my c card, but I've never seen it or been there or heard of it before I started my course or know anyone who has.
Are you asking me to name the shop on my Certification card?
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- Thread starter rexman24
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Shop and instructor I believe he means. Also I would contact Steve Lewis who is VP of Marketing for Raid and is a personal friend of mine. I don't know any of the other key people personally or I would tell you to contact them as well.
They would not like to have this instructor on their roles and I suspect would follow up quickly with you.
There is also the risk factor to you. While you may have the standards, there are things that a competent tech instructor will add to the course that are based on real world experience. You can't put a price on that.
It sounds like you did not get what you paid for and some of that could possibly put you in real danger.
Steve's email is slewis@diveraid.com
Some other people to contact
CHRIS HASLAM chris@diveraid.com
DIRECTOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT | QUALITY ASSURANCE
PJ PRINSLOO pj@diveraid.com
VP TRAINING (GLOBAL)
The dive raid web page says tech 40:
MUST participate in at least one confined water skill session and 5 open water dives.
Less than that and a definite standards violation. Report it to Raid.
But…. I’ve read all over scubaboard that such things only happen with instructors for a different agency.
Back to being serious, please report it. You’ll help the instructors future students.
MUST participate in at least one confined water skill session and 5 open water dives.
Less than that and a definite standards violation. Report it to Raid.
But…. I’ve read all over scubaboard that such things only happen with instructors for a different agency.
Back to being serious, please report it. You’ll help the instructors future students.
Sounds like an awesome instructor. It may be beneficial to let people know how you learned about this instructor and shop. Its not meant as a jab at you but there are alot of people who want to learn to tech dive and find a shop near them that does "tech diving" and sign up with them. A good example is EZ Scuba in Tampa Bay. Alot of people go to them because they advertise as a technical shop. While they do have "tech instructors" I've yet to meet a halfway decent student of theirs. They have had a bad reputation in the tech community here for a long time, but people not in the community yet don't know about the realities of their shop. I hope they've improved, but I doubt it. They get a lot of tech students who just google local tech shops. So your story of how you learned and chose your instructor could benefit other people. Though its never fun to have to relive negative experiences.
I agree, but in this case I would say first take it up with someone at RAID to find out if there were really things skipped that aren't allowed to be passed over. As a first time tech student there may have been something he missed himself. Based on the story I highly doubt it, but I'd say he should get all his eggs in a row before blabbing. Just in case he's wrong about what happened so he doesn't have to eat crow. But once he's sure, sing it on the mountain top. Too many people are hush hush about bad experiences with bad instructors and shop.
Though I do understand people not wanting trouble. I've been honest and vocal about a shop located in the vicinity of major springs (not in high springs) who myself and many others have had horrible experiences with. I am intentionally being vague (of course most cave divers will figure it out in 2 seconds) because the owner decided to some how track me down, call my business multiple times and harrass my staff (telling them how horrible a person I am for voicing an opinion on forums and how could they work for someone like me), leaving my business false negative reviews, and getting their buddies to do the same. I was also warned I could face "legal issues" but any bozo with half a brain knows there's no legal leg to stand on against me. Eventuallly the bs stopped because someone else gave them a bad review and he became their new target.
Saddest part is I gave the shop 3 or 4 opportunities to not treat me and my buddies like crap, yet it was still all "my fault" for being honest on a couple forums when their names came up. Much much worse stuff is said about them on some of the unregulated facebook pages.
Same thing happened with Rob from Protec Playa. He treated the female divers in my group horrifically and was just a complete a-hole. I've been honest here on scubaboard about it and he tracked me down here and got his panties in a wad.
But I 100% agree, share your experiences. I personally take every negative business review seriously because at the end of the day I may actually have done something wrong and if I'm not told I'll never know.
Thank you Jim,
You have been very helpful!
I really appreciate it.
The shop name is TEC N REC DIVERS.
The training was in the Southern part of Negros Island in the Philippines.
I have numerous reasons for not directly naming the instructor and exact location in a public forum, safety being the primary.
This is what was not done:
1.300 yd underwater swim figuring SAC
2. 150 yd inert diver tow
3. Dry stress test
4.Unresponsive diver ascent
5.SMB deployment
The additional action I think is not right is dives 2 and 3 where done as one dive. This omits much of the setup, planning, checks, etc for the second dive. I now think it was done just to save his money on renting 4 more tanks and to lessen the time he had to spend training me. I do think he added personal thoughts and ideas at times, as you suggested.
I want to give him a chance to respond before going over his head, but I am not willing to be subjected to the way he talks down to me anymore. So he is the cause of that conversation not happening.
As far as my safety. I have done all the omitted skills with my diving friends. I know the training materials inside and out. I am an experienced(345), relaxed, catious, and confident recreational diver. I am happy underwater and dive slow and deliberately. I am not prone to panic and understand reasoning through issues and thinking ahead. Activities like auto racing, caving, and riding motorcycles in my previous life have made me calm, deliberate and pragmatic. So I am not overly concerned that these issues, I've listed have made things more dangerous for me.
I think I should contact RAID about this, and I will.
Thanks again Jim!!!!
I have sent Steve and PJ a link to this thread, DM sent to OP.
OP, I don't know if you ever get to Bali (or UAE) but I will redo the course for you for free if you ever get into my neck of the woods.
I would have to believe that they have some kind of reporting concerns system like PADI does - you know the standards - if they were not taught, that is an issue. Those simple items are core items that you build from in my opinion and really should not be taken lightly - I've deployed a SMB 1000 times but if it's a standard, we are doing it again....
Instead of the first reaction of taking it to the internet, follow the channels with the certifying agency and follow up with their findings. The only way to correct something an instructor is missing or a student misunderstands is thru review, you might find that everything he did was ok or you might find that there were critical errors - either out come is a learning experience for both parties.
Instead of the first reaction of taking it to the internet, follow the channels with the certifying agency and follow up with their findings. The only way to correct something an instructor is missing or a student misunderstands is thru review, you might find that everything he did was ok or you might find that there were critical errors - either out come is a learning experience for both parties.
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