SanDiegoSidemount
Contributor
In any event, as I wrote, I like, and appreciate, how PADI has structured its program to allow for the flexibility for the student.
I appreciate your perspective. This is certainly a very consumer-friendly approach, but it would drive me nuts to teach this way.
I'm not a fan of the on-line or self-study methods of doing the classroom work either. My wife and son tried this when they were certified, and the in-water instructor basically ended up having to repeat all the classroom stuff anyway in a "review session". (Unpaid?)
Trying different instructors and getting second opinions are certainly essential to rounding out a diver's eduction in the long run. However, I think for the initial OW experience, the safety benefits that come with knowledge of and rapport with a student outweigh the benefits of the second opinion. I think that ensuring continuity between pool and OW work also has a safety benefit, as well as a learning benefit for the student.
That said, it should be clear to all of us by now that it's the instructor, not the agency, that determines the quality of the training. These are all minor issues that give instructors something to bitch about over beers.