There are several issues here I'll address. I ran into a similar situation teaching my last UW Nav class. I was in BPW, long hose and my students were in their Zeagle Express techs. One diving long hose and the other a conventional set up. There was another OW class being taught at the quarry. They do all their confined ans open water work in it as they have no pool. The instructor works for the owner of the quarry. I was politely pulled aside and told that I could not teach classes there while the other instructor was teaching as it confuses his students. They get certed in 4 days. classroom -some confined water work, classroom, another session on scuba where he goes over all the skills for first two days. Next weekend is classroom, final confined water of about an hour, then 2 dives in the after noon and 2 dives on Sunday and they are divers. They cannot swim without really messing up the bottom, one or two usually bolt during checkouts because they got lost from the group, and I was told by two people who took the class that they were going to get what they needed to dive with a group and that diving on their own would come with time.
What was confusing them was seeing how much time I was spending with my students and focusing on buoyancy, trim, and the gear we were using. The instructor was being asked questions he could not answer. OK. Why can't he answer them? I did not say that but agreed to keep any instruction I'm doing more low key and keep discussions away from his groups. We can go up there and dive any time. Just not look like I'm doing a class when he is. I started to get a little perturbed but kept my cool. Then I remembered he had another quarry across the road from this one that cannot be seen. I asked about using that one. He got all smiley and very nice and began to explain it to me. No boats sunk in it, no docks, just a gradual slope entry from the old road. 1/2 is shallow and 1/2 is deeper. We have to load tanks into a vehicle for fills because it's a 300 yd walk instead of 50 to the shop. Can I put temporary lines in for a weekend that I'd remove when I was done on Sunday? Sure no problem. So now what I have is a quarry that is 300 yds from the shop, no one but me using it, I can put lines in for my classes, and I'm not confusing his students! How friggin cool is that!!
Because he still gets the $5 a head from all the people I bring up, air fill income and tank rentals, wetsuit and other gear rentals, and the chance to sell something to them. The lesson is you need to find ways to work around things so that you don;t piss people off and not compromise your values.
With the instructor you are talking about I have to ask why you would want to train under him as someone else said. He is closed minded, uninformed, and not willing to expand his knowledge base. That is just sad. However if you choose to work with him you need to play by his rules.
You may not like this next line but what you are projecting with your I only dive DIR or Hogarthian attitude is the thing that turns many people off. I teach in BPW, Jacket, Back inflate, etc. A professional should be able to take ANY gear and make it look like it was made for them.
When I did the UW Nav class the first day I screwed up and in packing the truck I was distracted because I had a new student here and guess what I forgot? My BPW. I had no BC with me. I had to go up to the shop and borrow a ScubaPro poodle jacket with an AIR II and use it with my drysuit. I had never that particular model of BC before and I detest the AIR II. It felt like an elephants trunk hanging off of me. I went back thru my log book and found where I had last used a jacket BC with a different drysuit and undergarments and got a starting point for my weights. Loaded the BC about 4 lbs heavy and jumped in the water. It was close enough and within a few minutes was in trim and used to the BC. I have made a point of using as many different BC's and regs as I could. I've used ones that were way to small and ones that were two to three sizes too big. And I can dive them all and make it look easy. If you are subscribing to the PRINCIPLES of DIR or Hogarthian diving you should be able to do the same.
It is not about the gear. It is about control and mindset. I'd bet some one like Bob Sherwood or Andrew G could take two Clorox bottles for a BC, walmart snorkeling fins, with a reg cobbled together from 3 different sources and make it look good. I'm not there yet but working on it. Before this summer is out I'm going to be in a back pack with no BC and if possible a double hose reg just to see if I can and if I can I may do a workshop or two in them.
Now teaching in a BPW is fine I do it. I put my students in them. I also use jacket for a session or two as do they. Teach them how to dive without an attitude. DIR/Hogarthian is fine for some. For others maybe not. My boss and his wife are in their 60's. They are more comfortable in their jackets. Great. When you become an instructor if you want to do justice by your students remember that it really is not about you or your beliefs. It is about what is best for your students. You need to be able to put your biases aside and figure out what is best for them based on their needs and interests. Otherwise you are not doing them any favors.
If you can't do that stop the DM class right now. Get with GUE or UTD and go that route. Everyone will be happier in the end.
Now as to mark ups on gear. The margins are not that different. Really. Depends on the shop or dealer and what they need to make and what the mfg will allow. Some mfg don;t care how much you mark something up if the customer will pay it. Get the right demographic that has more money than sense and you can sell em crap for premium prices. They do have MAP agreements as well to keep things even but may not care how little profit the dealer makes on gear that he or she already bought. That's why it pays to shop around and ask for deals. You never know what you may get.
What was confusing them was seeing how much time I was spending with my students and focusing on buoyancy, trim, and the gear we were using. The instructor was being asked questions he could not answer. OK. Why can't he answer them? I did not say that but agreed to keep any instruction I'm doing more low key and keep discussions away from his groups. We can go up there and dive any time. Just not look like I'm doing a class when he is. I started to get a little perturbed but kept my cool. Then I remembered he had another quarry across the road from this one that cannot be seen. I asked about using that one. He got all smiley and very nice and began to explain it to me. No boats sunk in it, no docks, just a gradual slope entry from the old road. 1/2 is shallow and 1/2 is deeper. We have to load tanks into a vehicle for fills because it's a 300 yd walk instead of 50 to the shop. Can I put temporary lines in for a weekend that I'd remove when I was done on Sunday? Sure no problem. So now what I have is a quarry that is 300 yds from the shop, no one but me using it, I can put lines in for my classes, and I'm not confusing his students! How friggin cool is that!!
Because he still gets the $5 a head from all the people I bring up, air fill income and tank rentals, wetsuit and other gear rentals, and the chance to sell something to them. The lesson is you need to find ways to work around things so that you don;t piss people off and not compromise your values.
With the instructor you are talking about I have to ask why you would want to train under him as someone else said. He is closed minded, uninformed, and not willing to expand his knowledge base. That is just sad. However if you choose to work with him you need to play by his rules.
You may not like this next line but what you are projecting with your I only dive DIR or Hogarthian attitude is the thing that turns many people off. I teach in BPW, Jacket, Back inflate, etc. A professional should be able to take ANY gear and make it look like it was made for them.
When I did the UW Nav class the first day I screwed up and in packing the truck I was distracted because I had a new student here and guess what I forgot? My BPW. I had no BC with me. I had to go up to the shop and borrow a ScubaPro poodle jacket with an AIR II and use it with my drysuit. I had never that particular model of BC before and I detest the AIR II. It felt like an elephants trunk hanging off of me. I went back thru my log book and found where I had last used a jacket BC with a different drysuit and undergarments and got a starting point for my weights. Loaded the BC about 4 lbs heavy and jumped in the water. It was close enough and within a few minutes was in trim and used to the BC. I have made a point of using as many different BC's and regs as I could. I've used ones that were way to small and ones that were two to three sizes too big. And I can dive them all and make it look easy. If you are subscribing to the PRINCIPLES of DIR or Hogarthian diving you should be able to do the same.
It is not about the gear. It is about control and mindset. I'd bet some one like Bob Sherwood or Andrew G could take two Clorox bottles for a BC, walmart snorkeling fins, with a reg cobbled together from 3 different sources and make it look good. I'm not there yet but working on it. Before this summer is out I'm going to be in a back pack with no BC and if possible a double hose reg just to see if I can and if I can I may do a workshop or two in them.
Now teaching in a BPW is fine I do it. I put my students in them. I also use jacket for a session or two as do they. Teach them how to dive without an attitude. DIR/Hogarthian is fine for some. For others maybe not. My boss and his wife are in their 60's. They are more comfortable in their jackets. Great. When you become an instructor if you want to do justice by your students remember that it really is not about you or your beliefs. It is about what is best for your students. You need to be able to put your biases aside and figure out what is best for them based on their needs and interests. Otherwise you are not doing them any favors.
If you can't do that stop the DM class right now. Get with GUE or UTD and go that route. Everyone will be happier in the end.
Now as to mark ups on gear. The margins are not that different. Really. Depends on the shop or dealer and what they need to make and what the mfg will allow. Some mfg don;t care how much you mark something up if the customer will pay it. Get the right demographic that has more money than sense and you can sell em crap for premium prices. They do have MAP agreements as well to keep things even but may not care how little profit the dealer makes on gear that he or she already bought. That's why it pays to shop around and ask for deals. You never know what you may get.
