Apologies for not replying quickly to people. I've been busy all day and I'm just now able to get back to this. I appreciate all the replies.
Why is your account "Throwaway" seems like you have valid concerns I don't see the "obvious reason". am I missing something?
Because using my regular account would give my name and location, which would make it pretty easy to figure out who I'm discussing. If my friend decides to stick with this current instructor, so the nine hours of their life wasn't wasted, I don't want to cause them any additional headaches.
YES! Your friend can finish elsewhere...AND SHOULD! Without commenting on the instructor or facility, if a student diver is not comfortable, that student diver should make immediate changes, just like a certified diver who is uncomfortable on a dive. Sometimes even very good instructors just don't have a teaching style or personality that meshed with certain students, and that's ok. Its not ok to continue with those types of issues.
PADI has a referral process that is widely used.
From the 2018 PADI Instructor Manual
"Referral is the process of providing training documentation to another PADI Instructor when a student diver is part-way
through a course and wants to finish the course at another location."
Your friend should be able to get credit for all academics and confined water (pool) dives they did.
I hope this helps
It does. This is part of what I'm looking for. For reasons I'm not willing to get into, if my friend decides to continue elsewhere, we'd like to avoid any obvious confrontation. I was certified a long time ago and have no idea what I was given, at what stage, that proved what I had completed. Are students supposed to have a record of completion after each phase (class, confined, open) or does that only happen if you specifically request a referral?
Nobody wants to learn under a figjam.
TIL: FIGJAM.
Smells almost like Dunning-Kruger to me but I love this. I'm definitely going to add it to my library. 100% correct.
If you are going to be a scaredy-cat and tip toe around the issue and not have the will to face them and demand refund and an apology, no one is going to do it for you.
It's not about an apology or refund. The money isn't a big deal. Just trying to find out if my friend can avoid the hassle of confrontation and not have wasted all the hours. I'm not saying the instructor is bad. It's not my instructor, I'm not there, I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who have a great time with them. My friend definitely isn't one of those people and as someone who loves diving, it sucks that their first experience is not going well.
Personally, if they have already paid for the full course, I'd suggest they stick it out for the remaining 4 dives. The guy may be a total ass, but unless he is teaching them to do something unsafe, just finish and focus on developing skills and lots of diving afterwards.
That's definitely one of the options. Nothing I've heard is unsafe but the level of instruction seems to be lacking and as diving comes with risk, you really want it to be good. If my friend was comfortable with the instructor, these things could likely be corrected with a quick chat but that hasn't been the case.
Agreed. Anything that is signed off on the Student Record folder is transferable via referral. The one minor issue is if a module (group of skills) is only partially completed for some reason, you can't document and transfer partial module credit for individual skills.
Who should be holding the Student Record?
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Again, thanks to everyone who has replied. I'm looking forward to having another dive buddy and while I can help later, if they don't walk away from this feeling safe and secure in the water, it may be dead before it gets a chance to start.