OH BOY!! Look What I Just Found on the Web!

[Ed Jewell]

Well, you knew this would eventually turn up. I'm just surprised that PADI wasn't the first to offer it.

www.scuba-training.net

For $49.95 anyone can now take the academic portion of the open water course right on line. This includes quizes and a final exam. Academic portions for advanced and specialty courses are also offered. Later the person can finish his/her training at an associated dive center.

I'll spare you the details and allow you to check the site out for yourselves.

Is anyone associated with any of the dive centers on the list that offer this training as an option or does anyone know someone who has opted for this method of training?

 

[jbd]

research the site but my question is----how much are the pool sessions? Sure the $49.95 is fine for the "classroom" portion. Do they charge $150 for the pool sessions?

Actually its kind of a interesting idea---get some one to pay you(the shop owner/instructor) while they sit at home and read and take quizzes while you do pretty much nothing.

 

[radagalf]

I really like the line under Bruno's dive shop:

"The Nations only SCUBA shop speacilizing in hockey equipment and skate sharpening."

Riiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhtttttt.........

hockey has SO much to do with Scuba...

What will they think of next???

Enjoy your training dives from the comfort of your home!!! Virtual pool dives, followed by your virtual ocean dives!!!

 

[Hooked4Life]

But it looks like you have to go to one of the affiliate dive shops to finish the training. Another thing is no reference materials if you ever want to look something up.

 

[Walter]

This was discussed months (Oct - Nov) ago in an instructor forum on another website. As I recall, one instructor was interested in the concept. I questioned their qualifications and almost everyone preferred to know their students strengths and weakness from actuall class time.

 

[mddolson]

I looked around the sight and browsed through some pages but couldn't find what the Certifying Agency is?

NAUI has CD-Rom based home study learning programs (by Top Hook) for entry level, advanded diver and master scuba diver courses.

I have conducted a few programs, using these, and the exam results have been excellent, 95 - 98% marks.

Mike D

 

[radagalf]

After I looked around the site, it seemed to me that the certification agency isn't really standard.

I checked out a few shops and/or read the blurbs underneath them on the "Scuba Exam Page". What I got from it was that there were a variety of stores which were associated with different agencies. I noticed the following agencies:

PADI
NAUI
TDI/SDI
IANTD

I found that one of the most common was stores associated with TDI/SDI... however, I did not look thoroughly at all the stores... I do have finals to study for... <sigh>

If anyone else knows anything more... let us know....

 

[MikeFerrara]

That figures!

 

[Waterborne]

I really like the line under Bruno's dive shop:

"The Nations only SCUBA shop speacilizing in hockey equipment and skate sharpening."

Riiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhtttttt.........

hockey has SO much to do with Scuba...

Bruno is a great guy with a great shop. So his other passion is hockey, BFD. I have been to Bruno's shop many times and I have always been happy doing business there. My OW instructor teaches out of there. I took the entire class so I don't know too much about this online class you're talking about. Bruno has always been an outstanding guy with excellent staff to match. So don't bash the guy just because he combined another passion into his scuba shop. We all know they don't make a killing owning and operating a scuba shop.

 

[Arnaud]

jbd once bubbled...
Do they charge $150 for the pool sessions?

Yes, but you need to upgrade the mother board. You also want to make sure your PC is waterproof and fits in your bathtub.