American Pro Divers? GRRR!

[pickens_46929]

I guess you shouldn't have been late. Frankly, nothing pisses me off more than people not being on time per instructions.

I recently had a student wanting to take a nitrox course. Set a date and time, confirmed, no show. No call to say can't make it or running late, nothing. Called a couple of days later to reschedule. Same thing. No show. Both times I showed up to the shop from my real job just to teach the class. He tried to reschedule again and I refused to call back. He was scheduled to dive the following weekend on a full boat. We had other divers wanting to go, no problem. Cross him of the list and insert more reliable diver. One thing to call and advise of not coming or running late, but to show late just shows selfishness and inconsideration.

Man I feel bad when I cancel like 5 days to a week in advance...

 

[del_mo]

When this post was mentioned during the phone conversation my Mother was told that the Scubaboard members that posted here were just late and inconsiderate like my family is, and their opinions were not to be counted for.

Yeah, right.

 

[Missdirected]

Yeah, right.

Actually, that would not be on mark from what I experienced. There have been others but who is to know for certain except those that were present. We certainly shouldn't shred one another. They both made their statements.

 

[Ed Jackson1]

Mr. Jackson,

Are you doing guided open water trips to the "Eagle's Nest"?

No,why do you ask? I do all my dives for fun. The deco stop has a thread about American Pro offering guided dives to Eagles nest and Buford Sink. I do not work for any scuba shop, but I have been to Buford twice.

Buford is a very pristine site where I would not want to bring an open water diver. Here is a nice picture.

http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6415&cat=500&page=1

Here is what happens when you are not careful in the site.

http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6414&cat=500&page=1


Open water divers in Eagles nest is just crazy.

 

[sarita75]

Here is what happens when you are not careful in the site.
http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6414&cat=500&page=1

As someone who is going to be doing my first spring dive (devil's den and blue grotto) this is a pretty big concern of mine and so I have been working on better buoyancy control, etc. etc. etc. I am always amazed at the divers who have so little respect for the conditions, marine life, etc. That picture is a great reminder. thanks.

 

[Missdirected]

Ed, that first pic is stunningly beautiful!

 

[pickens_46929]

Devil's Den is a neat dive though shallow... 20' to 30' maybe... nothing fancy but a unique experience... catfish in there are pretty neat.

Blue Grotto is definitely worth it. Multiple dives easily. Also a unique experience. Blue Grotto is a good place to experiment and fine tune buoyancy for several reasons: 1) there's a platform at 20' so you can do fin pivots at the start of the dive to check buoyancy or tune it up a bit, then it's deep enough you can use up some significant air in your tank, and repeat at 20' with 700 psi or 1000 psi or something low (relatively speaking) and see how you do...; 2) the way the cavern is formed, you can hunt for fossils in the walls, it's got horizontal deposits so you can use it as a visual reference to see how you maintain buoyancy while searching for critters and fossils... and it's big enough too that you get a decent dive about... not just 20' back and forth... you can actual take one whole dive and go around slowly, taking your time and not be bored.

I think I did both of these dives either right after AOW with 50 dives under my belt.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I honestly feel the opposite. I feel Devils Den is a much more unique diving condition with a sink only half filled with water. I hit 53' on my two last dives at DD and found several fossilized critters in the walls. There isn't much life in it, bream, catfish, pretty much it... but Blue Grotto doesn't exactly shine in that aspect as well. Blue Grotto's cavern was a glorified overhang with scared up walls(diver graffiti). Sure it gets deeper, but so what?

 

[jeandiver]

I'll let the other forum handle the Eagles nest business but ...
The comment made above is that the level of training needed for Eagles Nest was not REQUIRED , only Suggested.

Well , er
(sigh)

I guess I'll go away now.
All my cave training wasted.
All that hard work and effort and practice.

Is it just me????

"Lord , keep me Prudent , always Prudent"

Jean

P.S. However , after seeing the NACD letter that was sent out to the diving community , I feel better. At least it isn't just me that feels this way.

 

[stangd1909]

Me and my buddies got certified at American Pro Divers....it was awesome. They were very helpful and friendly people. We drove 2 hours and spent 2 nights in a hotel to get certified there. It was well worth it and we plan on going back to do a few other dives.