In what way? What is it exactly you feel was missing?
I'll try to explain, without turning this into a rant about my nitrox course.
After 18 years of diving, on and off, i decided to go back to an instructor to udate/upgrade my knowledge. I wanted to go tech eventually, but i had to progress step by step. I looked for a reputable instructor in Hong Kong (admittedly, HK is not the place to go diving, but that is where I live, so I went for it).
I explained to my instructor my tech ambitions and my willingness to take my diving to the next level, he said that the place to start was Advanced OW and Nitrox course. I agreed, pointing out that I had already done night dives, deep dives, multi-level (what the hell is a multi-level specialty anyways??) and maybe wanted to learn something new (I had roughly 100 dives on my log). The response was:
"it doesn't matter if someone recklessly took you deeper than 18m without an AOW, you NEED AOW to go deeper than 18m, it's just not worth the risk". I kinda wanted to laugh in his face, but I thought that opening an argument with your instructor on day 1 was not the best strategy, I just nodded, shut up and let him say what he had to say.
He picked the specialties for me: I got deep dive, navigation, night, multi-level and peak-performance buoyancy. I tried to tell him i wanted to learn how do use a dry-suit, to no avail.
I asked about the Nitrox dive,
he said Basic Nitrox is theory-only, and that if I wanted I could do one of my AOW dives with a nitrox tank for an extra charge of USD 30.
After this, he suggested I buy a computer and pushed hard for me to buy a ZOOP. Nice computer, cheap, but no gas switches, I have sold it already.
The all course was a complete waste of time.
The deep dive was conducted at 17m for a total bottom time of 2 minutes. In my log I already had multiple 30m+ dives and one 44m dive. He never mentioned deep stops.
Multi-level dive: I am not sure what that is or why I did it.
Navigation: very useful skill I had never focussed on, but I didn't need an instructor for that, I just had to buy a compass and try.
Night dive: it's always fun to be out in the dark, even when you do it in 7m of mud like we did here. Not sure what I learned though.
Peak Perf Buoyancy: Ideally a great topic. Work on trim, moving weights up and down, swim balanced, non-silting kicks, maybe try a BP/W. VERY important,
BUT none of that has been covered. I was taken in the water together with other students that were doing other specialties and he asked me to show him I could float upside-down without moving. That was it. Bottom time 8 minutes.
He insisted on stamping an signing my log book. What the hell is that for? It's my log book, I can dive with whomever I want, and log whatever I want.
I don't need your rubber stamp.
Basic Nitrox was a multiple-choice test. I passed it, I got certified. Not that I am suggesting that learning from the internet is a good idea, but all the material in the Basic Nitrox booklet is pretty much covered on Wikipedia and multiple diving books.
After reading my material I asked my instructor one question:
"It seems to me that your air consumption should not change with Nitrox, because your SAC is driven by your need to expel carbon dioxide, so the % of oxygen in the tanks does not matter for your air consumption. Is that right?"
the response was "Carbon Dioxide has nothing to do with Nitrox, Nitrox is about nitrogen and oxygen". ::WTH::
Great. What did I learn during the course:
1 HK water is pretty **** and sometimes viz is so bad you cannot see yout feet
2 PADI specialties are mostly a waste of time
3 Some instructors are assholes and don't know very well what they are teaching
My Advanced Nitrox course was the complete opposite. I took it with TDI and I have had the luck to have a very experienced and passionate instructor that taught me a lot of stuff, had an answer for any of my question and in our time together he shared his experience and carefully pushed my limits. I left a better diver. The theoretical part about enriched air was 100% the same as basic Nitrox, what made the difference was spending time in the water with someone capable, who's passion is to make me a better diver. When I first met him, he didn't ask for my certification cards, he saw my gear, talked to me for 5 minutes and did a quick warmup dive, and we were all set. No paperwork. The morning after we were on a wreck, diving with doubles.
THAT is what I was expecting, and I left very happy.
Now you can argue that I cannot compare two different people, from different agencies, teaching different levels. Yes and no. Whatever the level, the attitude should be the same. I am paying an instructor for his time and experience. Knowledge is available on books,
I don't need an instructor to teach me oxygen toxicity, I know how to read. I am paying for a customized experience, for someone that can answer my questions, for someone that can safely take me beyond my comfort zone, someone that can help me trim my weights, even if it's a "night dive" specialty. That is what I want.
And sometimes you get more of that by diving with veterans than by taking a course with someone who has spent the last 17 years 5m deep teaching people how to clear a mask.
As i said, i love education. BUT I hate it when agencies try to police diving, regulating what certifications you need for this and that and standardize everything.
It's my life, I don't need PADI's approval, I don't need PADI (or whomever else) to stamp my logbook or to tell me where to go. Agencies should be there to teach you, to warn you and to mentor you: they are NOT the police. They try to make it all black and white in prepackaged boxes, but the world is NOT black and white.
I feel courses should offer a lot more. I expect instructors to be mentors, to guide me where I want to go, even if that looses them business. I
want to take their courses because they are great and teach me the stuff, NOT BECAUSE I need this or that card to do that dive. Enphasis should be on DIVING MORE and FINDING GOOD BUDDIES, rather than on selling cards.
And this all thread is not just about my nitrox course, it is a general statement. I have been discussing this with my parents. In the 70s, all these courses were not available. My dad has been in a cave hugging his tank, without a BCD. It's a no-mount dive, before it was called no-mount.
I have given him so much crap for having been in a cave without training. Now that I am learning about caves, I ralized that
HE KNOWS A LOT MORE ABOUT CAVING THAN ME. Sometimes I feel my parents should have received much more training than they did for the dives they have done, but now that I am going through a lot of that training myself, I am realizing that there isn't always that much value in it. Sometimes (not always), even after I took the courses, they still know much better than me.