Uncool PADI - as if we didn't know

[drbill]

Heck, I'm non-profit (not intentionally) but I'm not an agency and have no booth babes. Hmmm... maybe I should get some to sell my DVDs.

Interesting to hear that PADI is losing instructors and operators in Asia. When I was in Thailand I had a PADI instructor from Los Angeles ask me what agency my Los Angeles County c-card was from. He made me do a check out dive. I said "You're a PADI instructor, where do you think the founders of PADI came from?" I later got PADI AOW and Rescue cards just so their instructors wouldn't ask questions and make me waste a dive on a check out. Not really a PADI basher, but there are certainly better agencies (although probably none as "successful" in marketing their product."

 

[irishsquid]

Uhmmm......... Booth babes!

:worthless:

 

[Crowley]

Heck, I'm non-profit (not intentionally) but I'm not an agency and have no booth babes. Hmmm... maybe I should get some to sell my DVDs.

Interesting to hear that PADI is losing instructors and operators in Asia. When I was in Thailand I had a PADI instructor from Los Angeles ask me what agency my Los Angeles County c-card was from. He made me do a check out dive. I said "You're a PADI instructor, where do you think the founders of PADI came from?" I later got PADI AOW and Rescue cards just so their instructors wouldn't ask questions and make me waste a dive on a check out. Not really a PADI basher, but there are certainly better agencies (although probably none as "successful" in marketing their product."

We're way off topic but...

Asia is losing business hand over fist mainly because of the economic crisis, and also the fact that Thailand is having ongoing political problems that are being over-dramtised in the western press and this is also putting people off. PADI and SSI are the agencies most heavily represented in the area and therefore if there is no business, their instructors will leave.

Regarding the check dives, there's nothing in PADI standards that requires anybody to have a check dive unless you're about to undertake training, where instructors are required to pre-assess their divers beforehand. Check dives are more likely to be the policy of the centre with which you are diving. If a diver comes to my dive centre having never dived in the Red Sea before, instructor or not, 10 thousand dives or just 10, they would be required to make a check dive on our house reef before we take them to the boats. People quite reasonably disagree with that, but given that we are a high-volume dive centre, I would hope most people appreciate why we do it. And we have a very nice house reef indeed.

Regarding the OP: Some years ago, as a motorcycle rider and owner of a Suzuki GSX-R750, I was invited to a rally with food and drinks and a ride-out sponsored by Suzuki for Suzuki owners to check out some of the latest cool bike developments. Turning up on a Yamaha or a Honda would not really have been par for the course. Why should a dive company do any different?

Cheers

C.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It would have been a great chance to demonstrate the differences in the bikes though and what made the Suzuki a better ride. Used to ride a Yamaha back in my teens. Have a Kawasaki now only because I did not want the payments on a Harley.

As to diving I'd welcome a chance to demo skills in midwater in the pool or on the house reef as would any one of my OW students. I tell them to think of it as a chance to show off and show what a skills and education based program can turn out. Heck I have seen instructors I'd not want to say trained under me the way they dive. Those who think these dives are beneath them many times are the ones who should not be thinking anything like that when they can't control their buoyancy, use their arms to swim, and bicycle thru the water. I'd rather dive with an op that makes sure that train wrecks don't mess up dives that I've paid a lot of money to do.

 

[redacted]

Why should a dive company do any different?

Cheers

C.

Because they unnecessarily piss off customers who complain in threads like this and take their business elsewhere and influence others to do the same.

I don't see anything wrong with checkout dives as long as they are reasonable and advertised up front.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Agreed the first person I'd buy a drink for is the guy I'd see wearing the "competitions" shirt. Unless there was some reason to fear a comparison I'd want them to say "hey we may be different but they are ok people". Instead they get this kind of press.

 

[keithdiver]

While attending the Deep 2010 Indonesia show in Jakarta today (great consumer diving show!), a friend who is a major Komodo liveaboard operator invited me to the PADI booth for a beer. When she saw my SSI shirt, one of the PADI reps told me that the food and beverages were for members of PADI only, and then turned her back on me. Interesting that there were tens of people coming into booth to get free beer, and no one was asked to show PADI credentials. I turned to my friend and told him that this is why dive centers in Europe, Australia, Indonesia, Israel etc. are leaving PADI in droves. PADI have completely lost the plot when it comes to the camaraderie and being part of the diving community, they are just interested in $$$$$.

Jerome Fink
SSI Instructor 49813
PADI DM 983293

Jerome, i will agree with you 100% , they are just interested in $$ alone, and nothing elseI had a friend who was on vacation with his wife, and she swore up and down how afraid she was of diving. They met an instructor who was pidi, i mean padi cert. this guy promised her the world, he would hold her hand etc. They get in the water this idiot has her wait at the bottom of the ocean while he goes back to shop to get something he forgot. The instructor almost took the beating of a lifetime from the Husband. Now the wife will not even snorkel, thanks to this idiot.I Have no use for that organization at all, i only used them for my Rescue Class, and that being ssaid the guy in my area is a director and i know him personally, he really does care.

 

[jerome01]

Walter this was not a booth babe! believe me. Around 50 with US accent.

 

[GatorJoe]

wow, certification smack. this is a new one.

my wife and i are padi certified. our instructors have usually held instructor certs for many organizations. idont think i have ever met an instructor that was soley a PADI instructor....

 

[k ellis]

Walter this was not a booth babe! believe me. Around 50 with US accent.

Hey there are some ladies out there that are 50 and smoking Not to say she was but Im just saying