Certification is costly

[Mr. Ed]

are you the same person as @edhjr? And are there specific challenges that you are having that require extra pool sessions?

Yes that’s me

 

[Angelo Farina]

I paid in excess of $800.00 for eLearning, OWC, Drysuit and Nitrox Computer certification. The cost included 4 paid pool sessions. I had to buy a different BCD, Mask and Fins using 3 of the 4 pool sessions without any skills training. I am paying $50.00 for 2 hour weekly pool session not knowing how I have to pay before I can begin open water training.

Not knowing the total cost of pool sessions and the length time it will take is disturbing. It’s like throwing money to the wind not knowing where it will land. Other than this I have no complaints.

As many other said, it is very location-dependent
Are not diving clubs in your area? When I started diving, I did so at the local diving club. Instructors were not paid (volunteers), and with a minimal yearly fee (the equivalent of 50 USD) you had free access to the pools for 2h/week, all year around; renting the club's equipment (tanks and regulators) was incredibly cheap.
The OW course was more costly, the equivalent of 200 USD, more or less, but it lasted 6 months, and included training to deco diving with twin tanks, and CC rebreathers (pure oxygen). It also did include deep free diving and a lot of additional knowledge which is taught is separate expensive courses held by for-profit shops...
Of course this way you do not get a PADI cert, but a CMAS or BSAC cert, which indeed has the same, or better, value.

 

[Mr. Ed]

First BCD was an Aqualung Axiom that was too big for me, the original mask I bought leaked and the original fins were too long for my comfort.
I bought a drysuit rather than using a shop rental which did not fit properly.

I started out with PADI July, 2020, the instructor did not know anything about dive computers, nor did he keep a dive log of accomplished skills. I found another PADI dive shop 35 miles away, passed the fitness test October 2020 but was delayed for surgery and to be resumed May 2021. It took a long to recover from surgery, when May arrived to pickup where I left off, I forgot what I learned so I started over with SDI and lived happily ever after with minor setbacks.

I am comfortable in and under the water. I don’t have the leg strength I once had but I manage ok. I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and advice, it is all very helpful.

 

[VikingDives]

I paid in excess of $800.00 for eLearning, OWC, Drysuit and Nitrox Computer certification. The cost included 4 paid pool sessions. I had to buy a different BCD, Mask and Fins using 3 of the 4 pool sessions without any skills training. I am paying $50.00 for 2 hour weekly pool session not knowing how I have to pay before I can begin open water training.

Not knowing the total cost of pool sessions and the length time it will take is disturbing. It’s like throwing money to the wind not knowing where it will land. Other than this I have no complaints.

That's not that bad. Where I am, you could not do all those courses for 800. If you took those courses with me, it would be almost double, but you'd be a competent diver coming out of open water (good buoyancy, trim, skills before you ever hit the open water).

I charge $100 a day for extra pool time after open water if you are working with me.

If you were being trained to fly a plane, you'd be paying 44-50 dollars an hour to learn how to survive. How much is your life worth?

 

[Marie13]

As many other said, it is very location-dependent
Are not diving clubs in your area? When I started diving, I did so at the local diving club. Instructors were not paid (volunteers), and with a minimal yearly fee (the equivalent of 50 USD) you had free access to the pools for 2h/week, all year around; renting the club's equipment (tanks and regulators) was incredibly cheap.
The OW course was more costly, the equivalent of 200 USD, more or less, but it lasted 6 months, and included training to deco diving with twin tanks, and CC rebreathers (pure oxygen). It also did include deep free diving and a lot of additional knowledge which is taught is separate expensive courses held by for-profit shops...
Of course this way you do not get a PADI cert, but a CMAS or BSAC cert, which indeed has the same, or better, value.

The BSAC model, for example, is pretty much non-existent in the US.

 

[TMHeimer]

Well, I'm curious about the new BC-- you mean you had to buy one in order to take the course? It had to be new and not one of their used ones? I know things vary, but like many places, the shop where I got certified and worked at requires only that you have mask fins and snorkel to take OW-- and if you already own these you need not buy it from them. I THINK this is more the norm than not, at least in the Canada & US shops I've been in. But, I know things do vary by area.
Your courses--
OW, Nitrox, and Drysuit-- First, I should say that some folks skip the drysuit course and just read about it, buy one and go-- not that I recommend that.
So, 3 courses -- OW here runs about $400 and the other two maybe $150+?
That would seem to put the total cost of courses alone at least around what you mentioned it cost you.
I don't know what you really expect to pay. Costs are very low as it is, and partly because the OW course is no longer what it was (in lenghth anyway) decades ago. Ask any Instructor and ask them what they make.

 

[Rob9876]

I started over with SDI and lived happily ever after with minor setbacks.

I am comfortable in and under the water. I don’t have the leg strength I once had but I manage ok. I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and advice, it is all very helpful.

Glad you have recovered from your surgery. Like others said, I don't think $800 is necessarily out of line for OW, Dry Suit and Nitrox classes. However, I think you should have some idea of how long this goes.

Certainly you want to have the skills and be comfortable (and you said you are comfortable in the water). I would think the normal time to complete those classes would often be around 8 full days or less (8 would seem to be on the high side). So, while you want to make sure you have the skills, you don't want to be strung along with no idea how or when you'll finish.

 

[Stoo]

I was talking about this with a newer diver guy I just met online two nights ago. He received my calendar in the mail and it has some images from a wreck I kinda found and haven't disclosed the location. It's not super deep, but it's beyond that magical "recreational limit" line. He's logged 100 dives or so and is eventually wanting to dive some of our deeper (200+) wrecks. He'd spoken to a couple of shops about how to get from "there to here" and was floored by the cost of the training, let alone the gear. He has a somewhat modest job where he's never likely to earn more than "just enough".

I suppose diving has never been cheap, but it just seems like there are so many classes now, all designed to boost the coffers of the major training organizations. Ya I'm old, but I took a "Basic SCUBA" course, then an AI after a few hundred dives, became and instructor shortly after and taught for 20-odd years. Somewhere along the way after I'd retired from teaching, other instructor friends "granted" advanced nitrox and solo to me, since I'd been using it and diving like that for decades. The rest we figured out on our own, including trimix. Forty Seven years and 6000 dives later, I just keep plugging away.

I'm not suggesting this is an ideal scenario, but perhaps something in the middle. This sport is slowly withering away and I think a HUGE part of that is because it's become a rich persons activity. For a young person to get serious about it, it just requires massive sums of money. There is a great deal of competition for recreational dollars from all sectors and I think diving is slowly but surely pricing itself out of existence. In my dive town, Tobermory, we have done from four shops to one. Because Tobermory is home to a national marine park, diver visits are tracked, and they're a fraction of what they were 30 years ago.

I guess I'm just a cynical old bastard, but some of the courses are just BS, and seem like they're designed to fix the problems that were left from the previous training. Peak Buoyancy comes to mind. Why isn't that just part of an entry level program? Oh right, because the "basic" programs cover "just enough" to get a new diver in over his head.... Why train 'em properly, when you can just keep charging them.

Anyway, I'll shut up.

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

Drinking and smoking is costly

 

[Marie13]

I was talking about this with a newer diver guy I just met online two nights ago. He received my calendar in the mail and it has some images from a wreck I kinda found and haven't disclosed the location. It's not super deep, but it's beyond that magical "recreational limit" line. He's logged 100 dives or so and is eventually wanting to dive some of our deeper (200+) wrecks. He'd spoken to a couple of shops about how to get from "there to here" and was floored by the cost of the training, let alone the gear. He has a somewhat modest job where he's never likely to earn more than "just enough".

I suppose diving has never been cheap, but it just seems like there are so many classes now, all designed to boost the coffers of the major training organizations. Ya I'm old, but I took a "Basic SCUBA" course, then an AI after a few hundred dives, became and instructor shortly after and taught for 20-odd years. Somewhere along the way after I'd retired from teaching, other instructor friends "granted" advanced nitrox and solo to me, since I'd been using it and diving like that for decades. The rest we figured out on our own, including trimix. Forty Seven years and 6000 dives later, I just keep plugging away.

I'm not suggesting this is an ideal scenario, but perhaps something in the middle. This sport is slowly withering away and I think a HUGE part of that is because it's become a rich persons activity. For a young person to get serious about it, it just requires massive sums of money. There is a great deal of competition for recreational dollars from all sectors and I think diving is slowly but surely pricing itself out of existence. In my dive town, Tobermory, we have done from four shops to one. Because Tobermory is home to a national marine park, diver visits are tracked, and they're a fraction of what they were 30 years ago.

I guess I'm just a cynical old bastard, but some of the courses are just BS, and seem like they're designed to fix the problems that were left from the previous training. Peak Buoyancy comes to mind. Why isn't that just part of an entry level program? Oh right, because the "basic" programs cover "just enough" to get a new diver in over his head.... Why train 'em properly, when you can just keep charging them.

Anyway, I'll shut up.

I was talking with someone recently who has a decent set of tech gear and he was saying it had hardly gotten wet. He kept moaning about lack of buddies, having to drive more than an hour to get to dive sites, being married now (no kids). I told him to quit with the excuses. There are plenty of ways around it. You have to make it a priority. I know several younger divers who work second jobs in the winter to be able to afford diving.

I think a lot of divers have gotten OW/AOW with cheapo classes. They rent gear. They have little conception of what new recreational gear costs, let alone tech gear. So if you’re used to cheapo recreational classes, no wonder there’s sticker shock when they’re looking into tech classes.

If you want to afford it, you’ll make the sacrifices in order to do so. Like taking lunch to work every day and making tea or coffee at home in the morning rather than swinging by McD’s. People see the custom DUI drysuit, good regs, and multiple sets of tanks, and think I’m rolling in dough. I make a good salary, but I’m also damned frugal outside of my diving. Diving either has priority or it doesn’t.