certifying agency

[scubabrn]

I'd like to hear from everyone about the agency and type of diving ed.they got. I am in a toss up of furthering my diving (currently advanced open water) with my original NAUI instructor or going with another agency. The price I got from NAUI seemed a bit high but had a nice sales pitch to go along with it. It also had a "mandatory" membership to their aquatic center added in. Any help will be appreciated, peace.

 

[SmileMon]

you'll find that discussion a few hundred times in scubaboard.

Short and to the point, NAUI is the only agency I know that AOW means you can go 130 feet, in my humble opinion, going to 130 feet on air is dumb, then again, there are people here that did 180 feet or more on air, when I dive I rather have a clear head, some people like getting narc'ed beyond reason.. I think airfill is cheaper than drugs..

Other than that, comparing agencies is dumb, NAUI is more information based, PADI is more "get to the c-card" based and SSI.. well they are kinda in between.
In any case, the course will give you basic information, if you are curious, read books and articles, enrich your knowledge outside the course.

Ofcurse there will be people here that will say I'm a complete idiot for saying that and they are entitled for their own opinion, but I will say this, choose the instructor carefully, as the agency is just guidelines but the instructor is the one who teach.

 

[Jason Ooi]

You must look for good Instructor not agency, many Instructor carry 2 to 3 agent license.
You pay what you get

 

[divingjd]

Actually, SSI does not have any depth limit based on certification level (OW vs. AOW). The recreational diving limit is 130 and SSI recommends a 100 foot limit. SSI encourages the Deep Diving course for depths in excess of 80, but does not tell open water divers they have a different limit than advanced open water divers.

From what I have heard from other instructors, there are differences between agencies, but I don't think you are going to find consistenly higher or lower fees from one agency to another. The fees are generally up to the instructor dive shop. If you have an instructor or dive shop you are comfortable with, that is probably more important than the agency.

 

[pterantula]

in my humble opinion, going to 130 feet on air is dumb, then again, there are people here that did 180 feet or more on air

Please forgive my ignorance, but what else would you dive at those depths? (Nitrox has pretty strict depth limits, no? So...?)

Thanx!

 

[pterantula]

In my personal case, I went with SSI. Why?
1: the shop in question is closer than the nearest PADI certifying center,
2: I got complete and reliable information from their staff up front, regardless of topic, and I got some misinformation and runaround form the other place,
3: the SSI study kits are COMPLETE (for OW at least, including divelog and dvd); the PADI kits are the same $ with less goods,
4: SSI's stated policy is that instructors must be affiliated with a dive center - which is comforting to me as then I know there will be direct, active oversight and culpability.

My 2 psi (to quote another 'boarder).

 

[SmileMon]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what else would you dive at those depths? (Nitrox has pretty strict depth limits, no? So...?)

Thanx!

Rec Trimix.

But as I said, people go deeper than that on air, its just my personal preference not to be too narc'ed.

Also, different people deal differently with being narc'ed, making them less 'dumb' at deeper depths on air.

It also makes difference in deco times, bottom times, etc' (Nitrogen is harder to off-gas than Helium).

On the negative side, I've heard (and don't know if its true) that Helium - because it comes out of solution faster than Nitrogen, is more dangerous for people with bad bouyancy control.

Just for the record, I'm not trimix certified.

 

[TSandM]

If I'm reading the original post properly, the poster already has done AOW.

The question is, what do you want to do to advance your diving? Where do you see yourself going? What are you dissatisfied with about what you know and what you can do right now? Those questions will really lead you to the right classes and the right instructors.

Virtually everybody on SB knows that it was a big eye-opener for me to take DIR-F (GUE's intro level class). To find out how well someone can control his buoyancy, and how someone can pass through the underwater environment without impacting it, and how calmly and composedly someone can deal with issues underwater, was amazing, even though I was prepared for it. Taking that class gives you a whole new frame of reference for what diving skill is.

But it isn't for everybody, and the class has significant equipment requirements.

The only real advanced recreational diving classes I know of are taught by Breakthru Diving in Monterey -- but even there, there are equipment requirements. It's worth taking a look at their website, though. It will at least give you an idea of what can be done.

 

[Melicertes]

I'd like to hear from everyone about the agency and type of diving ed.they got. I am in a toss up of furthering my diving (currently advanced open water) with my original NAUI instructor or going with another agency. The price I got from NAUI seemed a bit high but had a nice sales pitch to go along with it. It also had a "mandatory" membership to their aquatic center added in. Any help will be appreciated, peace.

I've written and rewritten this reply now three times and I realize that no matter how diplomatic I'd like it to be, I'm still probably going to get flamed for it. So here goes...

Despite the fact that both my wife and I are PADI instructors, we have come to recognize over the years that many of our friends who have qualifications from other agencies are not as ignorant as we'd like to believe :11:

My wife completed her 2-star and nitrox certs with a CMAS instructor who happened to also be one of the team members on Nuno Gomes' (the guy that set the world scuba diving record at 318.25m in June, 2005, at the Red Sea) technical team. His courses for both her 2-star and nitrox was way, let me say that again, waaaaay more comprehensive than the PADI off the shelf course would ever have been on it's own.

I also have had some of my training from an IANTD instructor who've also done some pretty interesting things in his lifetime, and courses like my nitrox specialty turned out to be a whole lot more comprehensive despite the fact that it was still cert'ed as a PADI course. The point I am trying to make is that you might want to look past the certifying agency and look at the guy/gal doing the actual teaching part. In the end you might still only have the PADI/NAUI/SSI/etc cert card, but what is of greater importance is the actual *proper* understanding of the subject material you got in your head, and the experience you gain from applying that knowledge. Find a *good* instructor who will teach you *well*, and the label you have on your C-card won't matter, besides perhaps keeping the dive resorts happy that you are indeed certified.

My intention here is *not* to off other die hard PADI professionals or anything, we're proudly PADI supporters too, hot damn I invested enough money to at least own some shares I'd recon! I am just saying that our courses were taken to a whole new level by our higher qualified and better experienced instructors, they still included all the PADI requirements - trust me I checked them up in my standards and procedures - but they expanded on the subject far beyond the normal scopes. They brought a whole plethora of information and real world experience to our courses that otherwise would not have been taught in an off the shelf course from your LDS by a PADI OWSI without any other background.

Now give me a minute to run and go hide behind a wall before you start shooting at me okay!

 

[serambin]

You must look for good Instructor not agency, many Instructor carry 2 to 3 agent license.
You pay what you get

Sometimes you get more, some times you get less, and sometimes you get just right.

Stan