The LDS of the future

[tstafford]

Here in NC fire departments are required to have Grade E air.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Boulder It went like this for me, Brendon threaten to come to seattle and kick my ass on a post, he just got on the board and I remember his first post of chad, he died doing a bounce to 200' al80. a naui Inst was with them steve is his name I think. brendons 1st post was I miss ya bro and I am having a hard time finding good instructors, something in that order.(you can look at his first post) So this is like 6 months or so, I seen the chip on shoulder and checked on chads accident and a brendon fowler came up. So I told Fdog brendon fowler I think.

His post were always a bit off, he whined again to me about something lately as he has ties in seattle area. Lighthouse is naui and I could call harry and find out I suppose what his story is. But it is not a big deal as all new divers and divers learn a certain way and do not think it is any other way. Experience is when it comes to you.

I have met and known many that give up and loose everything to make it in scuba and are very rude and upset about it. The funny thing is either own a dive shop and learn to make money the hard way and with great dives and be very self rounded to get along with and make all customers happy.

LDS future is the same Most people decide to go on vacation and go get certified. If you have been diving as long as I have religiously you will remember dive shops would not carry certain magazines cause it looked like LP website and you could buy a full set up for $500 and an instructor wanted me to come to cozumel with him way back when for $1200. Right below the gear was $259 for the same and plane was $300, told him I would give $750 but no more, he went on I said look here, he looked and never spoke to me again. Instructors had a great thing and divemasters also, book twenty spots on a plane and yours was free, and we know the same deals at the dive op. then once you know the places to eat and bars and bring a group they would take care of you.



LDS future is just that, the Future LDS.

 

[boulderjohn]

I am pretty sure I found Brendon. It took some sleuthing, starting with clues from previous posts on other threads. I will bet my house he now lives in the Boynton Beach area in Florida. I will even bet I know the shop he works for. I called that shop and they are indeed priced as he describes for NAUI courses. They try to do all instruction one-on-one, so these are private courses. The courses cost $1,295, which includes absolutely everything, including boat fees. If you want to have more than one person in the course, it will cost you $995.

This is not done by word of mouth referral, though. The shop has a very nice web page that details instructional alternatives. They also do PADI instruction, but they push the NAUI.

The NAUI site does not list them, though, and it only lists one NAUI instructor in the area. I suspect that the NAUI site needs updating.

It is very interesting to me that the shop seems to be doing well with a pricing and instructional policy that many people say cannot be done, and they are doing it in an area with scads of low priced alternatives.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Boulder It went like this for me, Brendon threaten to come to seattle and kick my ass on a post, he just got on the board and I remember his first post of chad, he died doing a bounce to 200' al80. a naui Inst was with them steve is his name I think. brendons 1st post was I miss ya bro and I am having a hard time finding good instructors, something in that order.(you can look at his first post) So this is like 6 months or so, I seen the chip on shoulder and checked on chads accident and a brendon fowler came up. So I told Fdog brendon fowler I think.

The instructor's name was Dave Graddon ... and he was permanently banned from NAUI for his role in that accident. Steve was the AOW student that Chad pulled off the bottom that night ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Jax]

I am pretty sure I found Brendon. It took some sleuthing, starting with clues from previous posts on other threads.

These days, nothing is hard to find.

 

[DiverG]

I am pretty sure I found Brendon. It took some sleuthing, starting with clues from previous posts on other threads. I will bet my house he now lives in the Boynton Beach area in Florida. I will even bet I know the shop he works for. I called that shop and they are indeed priced as he describes for NAUI courses. They try to do all instruction one-on-one, so these are private courses. The courses cost $1,295, which includes absolutely everything, including boat fees. If you want to have more than one person in the course, it will cost you $995.

This is not done by word of mouth referral, though. The shop has a very nice web page that details instructional alternatives. They also do PADI instruction, but they push the NAUI.

The NAUI site does not list them, though, and it only lists one NAUI instructor in the area. I suspect that the NAUI site needs updating.

It is very interesting to me that the shop seems to be doing well with a pricing and instructional policy that many people say cannot be done, and they are doing it in an area with scads of low priced alternatives.

Found the shop that he most likely works for by going back through his post history. Took all of a minute to do. Didn't find any pricing structure on the web site. From the web site I'm looking at the course fees:

"Price for each program above includes all instructor, pool, boat charter and certification fees; manuals and scuba equipment and sales tax. There are no hidden costs!"

Are the instructors really making $1k per student?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Does it matter?

If there are instructors out there who can provide a quality class for $1000 and can get enough students to make a go of it, then I wish them all the success in the world.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[flots am]

I've probably consulted with close to 800-1000 small business owners over the last 5 years and most of them were in identical situations. During boom times they made average to mediocre incomes but had to do little to maintain them.

By definition businesses that need a consultant are in trouble. You're like a mechanic that complains that all the cars he sees are broken.

Many like yourself beat their chests in riotousness about how "I have never advertised!!!!" as if it’s some badge of honor, then one by one they all cycled through the same scenarios, with dropping sales they suffered because repeat and referral is simply not a long term business plan for any business.

It's worked for me for 30 years. I have a nice income, zero debt of any kind, and am on track for a nice retirement although I don't think I actually want to retire. I have never advertised.

You can tell me it doesn't work for as long as makes you happy, but I'm pretty certain that my P&L for the last few decades would disagree.

flots.

 

[endurodog]

I have had a SB run in with Brandon, he is very full of himself. Hopefully now that he has been outted he will change his attitude.

To say that only crap companies advertise is really a stretch. Most if not all of the fortune 500 companies advertise. If you work in a field or have a base that is set and never have to advertise thats great, you have positioned yourself well. Advertising is a little more complicated than saying only bad companies do it.

On to the question I would be interested if a shop would offer 2 choices to their students.

Choice A- Highly recommended instructor in a course that is 4 times as long but more expensive. Knowing pricing varies for lots of reasons lets say complete cost $2000

Choice B- New instructor, standard length course now1 weekend confined, 1 weekend open water but cost $1000.

Pricing will vary and may be of greater difference but hope you all get the idea.

I wonder what the free market would make of this? I think there would be some that would want the longer course but the majority would want the shorter cheaper one.

 

[Jill from Phoenix]

I think you're right if that's the only information that they're provided. If you follow it up with the destination for each course then some may not choose an easier, cheaper route.