My son & I are going to Oahu soon and will take a PADI open water cert course. I was NAUI certified but have not been diving for over 20 years therefore I will retake a full certification. I found a PADI course on Oahu that has mostly good reviews online but a few worrisome reviews. Does anyone have specific Oahu PADI shops to recommend? Thanks...
How do you choose a dive shop for Open Water certification?
- Thread starter jgt
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Kryssa
Contributor
Have you thought about certifying at home or at least doing to the book and pool work? Seems almost silly to go to Hawaii and then sit in a classroom and dive in a pool.
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Griffo
Contributor
THis is for Koh Tao, but it has valid points for any holiday dive location
How to choose a dive centre on Koh Tao? « Koh Tao Life « Master Divers
How to choose a dive centre on Koh Tao? « Koh Tao Life « Master Divers
The instructor is the key part not so much the dive shop, but while many instructors work specifically for dive shops there are also some independent instructors with no affiliation to a specific dive shop.
I would try to find out from other divers where you live who they can recommend, and do the course locally. As Kryssa said above who wants to sit in a classroom in Hawaii.
I would try to find out from other divers where you live who they can recommend, and do the course locally. As Kryssa said above who wants to sit in a classroom in Hawaii.
fire_diver
Contributor
I second the recommendation to take your diving locally before the trip. Also, even more important is to try to talk with local divers (who have been diving for years) and ask who they recommend as an instructor.
There are area subforums here on SB you can ask for a good shop / instructor.
There are area subforums here on SB you can ask for a good shop / instructor.
If you are able to, I advise people to interview the shop just as you would an instructor. That being as if you were hiring any employee that you were going to trust with your son's life. Posting from my phone I can't link to threads but in the new divers forum is a sticky at the top of the topic list on how to.choose a good.scuba class. Read it. Take the questions and adapt them to a shop. Get clear answers to them. And if you can do it by email that's great as you will then have a written record of what they promise. I have a much more extensive list of questions and the answers I'd want to hear. If you'll pm me I can tell you how to get it.
Some of the questions deal with class sizes, the chance to interview the instructor before you sign anything, what they include, what kind of standards they have above agency standards, etc.
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Some of the questions deal with class sizes, the chance to interview the instructor before you sign anything, what they include, what kind of standards they have above agency standards, etc.
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Kryssa is right IMHO. Also consider that for your 4 certification dives- they are not going to take you out to any really cool dive site because you have to demonstrate your skills and they need you to be fully focussed on what they want you to do and don't know what you can handle out there. MOst local dive shops, even those far inland, have a quarry or some other location where you can do the certification dives with far less expense. If you cannot do that, consider going to South Florida to do the cert dives. As Kryssa said, do the class work at home. Besides it is a good idea to get to know a local dive shop- you will need them in the future.
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Don't choose a dive shop ... choose a diving instructor.
There's an excellent thread right at the top of this forum that gives you some tremendous advice how to ...
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/287780-how-find-excellent-scuba-class.html
First rule ... if when inquiring about a class the shop won't let you talk directly with the instructor you'll be taking it from, keep looking ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
There's an excellent thread right at the top of this forum that gives you some tremendous advice how to ...
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/287780-how-find-excellent-scuba-class.html
First rule ... if when inquiring about a class the shop won't let you talk directly with the instructor you'll be taking it from, keep looking ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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I will also weigh in with my personal opinion:
Please do consider doing your training locally (at least the academics/pool work). I do not blame you for seeking nice warm tropical water for checkout dives, but after that vacation with whom and how often will you dive? How will you even meet other local divers? Where will you look to for future gear purchases or continuing classes? People who venture into local diving tend to dive much more often and continue diving regularly!
Please do consider doing your training locally (at least the academics/pool work). I do not blame you for seeking nice warm tropical water for checkout dives, but after that vacation with whom and how often will you dive? How will you even meet other local divers? Where will you look to for future gear purchases or continuing classes? People who venture into local diving tend to dive much more often and continue diving regularly!
arthurmnev
Registered
+1 for many advices to choose an instructor, not the shop.
If I had to redo my certs, I would find a dive shop that looks respectable, find out their standards, and .... wait for someone who is a customer of theirs and ask them in the parking lot what they think. Here is why:
My OW cert was done during one of the vacations, great instructor, practical teaching (as in he knew how to show not just books)
For my AOW cert, I figured I will go local -- cold water, NJ, tougher environment to dive in and (I assumed) better teaching.
My AOW classes from learning perspective were a waste of money. Sure, I got the card and learned one important thing: an instructor could be a very good diver, but if he cant explain, gets confused in basic words (expansion / contraction), loses 5 of 7 students under water, ends up in a wrong spot .... he cant teach you much of anything but to think of how to chose a better instructor. Later on, I was at the same shop buying some hoses, someone in the parking lot asked me what I thought of their certification program, and I provided the honest answer ... yes, the shop didn't get the business, but the person asking most certainly got better education elsewhere.
When I was "interviewing" the shop before, everything checked out and I was told point blank, the instructor we were getting was one of the better ones. He was a good guy, and I liked him personally, but he was not a good teacher.
If you can afford to, go for a private class. It will be more expensive (probably not by much) but he/she will likely pay attention to YOU. Also, I have a nagging feeling female instructors will be better than males -- it is a hunch with no scientific evidence behind it, but every time I worked with a woman who taught, she seemed more competent and much more focused than her male counterparts.
Also an independent instructor does not want to sell you anything but his or her service whereas a shop will try to get you to buy their gear. I, personally, hate that. When my briefing for AOW cert dive was interrupted by the shop owner with "lets give the group a break so they can buy stuff" I realized what I was in for (when they sold a guy a $600 flashlight for a single night dive, I felt sick). Finally, when I was told that weights for the dive (in addition to rented dry suit and tanks) will be sold to me for $5 per pound and I can return them for $4 after the dive, I realized that was the last business transaction I would enter with them.
The point here is that dive shops are in the business of selling service and equipment and they will push until you get both. An independent dive instructor wants to sell a service and hope that a good word of mouth will bring in more business.
If I had to redo my certs, I would find a dive shop that looks respectable, find out their standards, and .... wait for someone who is a customer of theirs and ask them in the parking lot what they think. Here is why:
My OW cert was done during one of the vacations, great instructor, practical teaching (as in he knew how to show not just books)
For my AOW cert, I figured I will go local -- cold water, NJ, tougher environment to dive in and (I assumed) better teaching.
My AOW classes from learning perspective were a waste of money. Sure, I got the card and learned one important thing: an instructor could be a very good diver, but if he cant explain, gets confused in basic words (expansion / contraction), loses 5 of 7 students under water, ends up in a wrong spot .... he cant teach you much of anything but to think of how to chose a better instructor. Later on, I was at the same shop buying some hoses, someone in the parking lot asked me what I thought of their certification program, and I provided the honest answer ... yes, the shop didn't get the business, but the person asking most certainly got better education elsewhere.
When I was "interviewing" the shop before, everything checked out and I was told point blank, the instructor we were getting was one of the better ones. He was a good guy, and I liked him personally, but he was not a good teacher.
If you can afford to, go for a private class. It will be more expensive (probably not by much) but he/she will likely pay attention to YOU. Also, I have a nagging feeling female instructors will be better than males -- it is a hunch with no scientific evidence behind it, but every time I worked with a woman who taught, she seemed more competent and much more focused than her male counterparts.
Also an independent instructor does not want to sell you anything but his or her service whereas a shop will try to get you to buy their gear. I, personally, hate that. When my briefing for AOW cert dive was interrupted by the shop owner with "lets give the group a break so they can buy stuff" I realized what I was in for (when they sold a guy a $600 flashlight for a single night dive, I felt sick). Finally, when I was told that weights for the dive (in addition to rented dry suit and tanks) will be sold to me for $5 per pound and I can return them for $4 after the dive, I realized that was the last business transaction I would enter with them.
The point here is that dive shops are in the business of selling service and equipment and they will push until you get both. An independent dive instructor wants to sell a service and hope that a good word of mouth will bring in more business.
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