Hello Freewillow,
I add a lot of your comments in the forum but this one
.is necessary to give a explication, when you say " they lost one " we can understand that they are not profesional, and this point is not true
I live in French polinesia and I work in the diving industry.Recently I add a new post about french rules and diving.
Like I said in my post I'm not here to talk bad or better about the dives shops. just I want to give my opinion like a profesional in the diving industry in french polinesia.
Let me explain you that after police investigation, was a heart attack the raison of death. The diver was a japanesse lady with more than 150 dives, she did also some dives before to do a drift dive, during the drift dive she did a heart attack under the water, the instructeur bring her to the boat and did the first emergency reponse, but was already too late, even the husband gives thanks to the instructeur because he did as maximum as posible . This kind of situation can happens to everybody. SO they don't lost one persone, they had a diving accident that finish sadly very bad.
---------- Post added April 13th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ----------
Yes, and also more so because you're diving with French jurisdiction and the French agency doesn't recognize or give Padi AOW much credibility, you need the next level (rescue diver) to qualify for French advanced diver recognition, so without Rescue diver cert you will be limited on your dive depth there. Exceptions are made like anywhere for those they recognize have abilities beyond their certification, but I wouldn't count on that as a certainty. French diving doesn't look at depth like PADI does, they dive deeper and deep diving is just part of what to expect. Kind of like drinking wine, they don't look it as a big a deal as we do in the States, not unusual for kids to drink wine at the table at a young age, it's just what they do, same with deeper diving, it's what they do and their training accounts for it earlier, but they look at PADI divers as under trained for it with only AOW. They routinely deco dive the pass too without batting an eye.
Hello mmmbellows, your are not far away to the problem, but is not exactly like you say,(let me invite you to take a look to my post " information about french polinesia"). The french instructeurs that you have in french polinesia are almost all of them also padi instructeurs, in all the dive centers you will have minimum one instructeur that is also OWSI PADI. so they know what Padi teach . Any way, level OPEN water and advance are allowed to go until 29m depth, rescue diver 49m and Dive master and OWSI 60m . That means open water and Advanced Level 1/5, rescue diver LEvel 2/5 dive master and OWSI 3/5 . But why? because the conditions of temperature , visibility of the water are very clear and confortable for the divers. In all the casses this point don't means that every dive will be a these depths!!. ARe you old, young, you dive erally regulary, you already did deep dives
?
Is depense wich destination of diving you choose the profils of diving will be really different also : In rangiroa to see many sharks is necessary many times to go deep, in fakarava is not really necessary because everything is there 20-30 m, tikehau more or less the same.
The most important is not your diving level card , what is important is your real experience in differents situations . What is better a Open water diver with 100 dives or a rescue diver with 30-40 ? For the french levels is the same situation, sometimes a diver have level 2 or 3 but few experience, in this case the guide don't bring the personne in the hard currents. we can dive very well in a dark and cold lake but is not a raison to be a very good diver in currents, and viceversa. What I want to say is that for the french instructeurs the card ( padi or french or other) is just a card that say that you are a diver, you have to show that you are a good diver ( good breathing, boyancy, briefing respect
) and don't worry they will bring you to the best places, if you are not a good diver, beginner, ears problems
. french or not they will bring you to wonderfull place but adpated to your real level
Tell to your dive shop your experience and they will organize the dives, they will begin easy
The most important is the security and the divers have to listen the guides and respect the rules, is nothing about padi or not padi, french or not french, is about the law . If a Guide don't bring you in a dive site is for your safety and for his responsability, because you are in a wild place, far away to the first real hospital, so if the guides are strict is for the safety of everybody.
FOr finish , just tell you that they don't look padi divers under trainning, Just Padi trainning is different than French because French make deco dives regulary so this point needs more trainnig and study. Each diver is a different world so every diver is checked, to know his real level and experience, and this is the probleme padi: divers don't know about french rules of diving and procedures and this situation creates a bad understanding about the diving rules. In all the cases you instructeur in FRench polinesia will be a real profesional, so listen to him, he is not crazy! follow his rules and enjoy your dives. ALl the levels of divers will enjoy in french polinesia waters.
I hope that is a little more clear, please if you have questions or doubts..i will be happy to answer you.
have nice bubbles