Choosing a dive op

[love2godeep]

On another thread today, Mike Ferrara posted this salient observation:

"Why is it that people do more research and exercise more care in buying a loaf of bread than they do picking a dive instructor?"

I happen to be someone who cares about the ingredients in my loaf of bread. I also care very much about the dive op I use. Recently I spent quite a bit of time researching the dive ops on Kauai, but ended up being disappointed (to say the least).

So how do I avoid this in the future? What are your foolproof methods for finding a good dive instructor?

 

[jbd]

LOL!!! I can hear Mike saying that. I guess the best you or any of us can do is is to do the research and what we find is what we find. Each of us will have differing criteria to some degree that makes something acceptable to us. Hopefully your research prevented you from spending money on a trip that may have been a bowl of sour grapes. Many people don't do the research and then are quite disappointed after they have spent a bunch of money.

Without naming names can you tell us why those dive ops were so disappointing?

 

[DiveMaven]

I don't know if my method would be considered "foolproof", but here's what I did when we were ready to get our OW certification.

The first thing was do an internet search, using both regular search engines and PADI's website. Then I picked 5 from my research and sent a bunch of e-mails asking very specific questions. Once I had it narrowed down to about 2-3 (based on my correspondence and phone calls), I went to visit the shops and talk to people in person. Since we were in Maui at Christmas and planned to be certified on our return trip in April, this worked out well for us. At the shops we asked to look at the rental equipment, the classroom, and the dive boats. After visiting, talking, and getting the feel of the places, it was an easy answer for us and we chose our dive op.

After our OW training, it was a nobrainer for us to plan a return in a year to do our AOW with the same shop. They do run bigger boats than other ops, but the incredibly personalized attention and training from our dive instructor, made up for any disadvantage of a large boat. Plus, since I tend to get sea sick, the larger boat was a welcome plus for me.

 

[mjh]

I doubt there is a foolproof method. We do a couple of things:
1. We do check Rodales (I know many don’t care for this mag) “Reader’s Choice Guide”.
2. Research on the internet, look to see if they have websites.
3. Check various Websites for “Reader Reports”.
4. Email or call the Dive Ops with our specific questions, size of groups, do you limit bottom time? etc...
5 We try to email people who used specifc dive ops for their experiance, most are great and will give you very detailed info.

Even doing this we have run into 1-2 Dive Ops that once there we found were not exactly what we were looking for.

 

[Natasha]

First look for how squeezeable it is, look for soft but firm, and lastly smell... Oh that was for the bread.
For the instuctor..
I would say try hard to go to one of the several dive shows that travel the country every year. You can meet a wealth of divers this way. Several dive shops from all over the world go to these with their instructors.
If there is anyway, you can meet people face to face or talk on the phone first, this usually helps in picking the right person.
Good luck.

P.S. Remember wheat is better for you then white. :winky:

 

[MikeFerrara]

Picking a dive sharter or resort is different than picking an instructor.

If it's an instructor you're looking for I wouldn't recommend picking a shop and then allowing them to assign an unknown instructor. Pick the instructor and don't accept pinch hitters unless you approve of the substitution.

Several of us have posted lists of questions we think a diver could use to interview an instructor. Your most complete results might be through some searches on the board and lots of reading.

In the mean time I can look through my own files for my own list.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Here's a list of instructor questions that I had posted at one time. Some of these are kind of geared for evaluating an OW instructor so I'll adlib a few for more advanced classes.

Questions for instructors

Ask some general questions about the instructors experience and what kind of diving and training they have been involved in beyond their teaching.

Ask about the experience of the assistants.

Ask how much pool time you get in the class. Many classes are rushing through in 5 or 6 hours. I've never seen that work well. We 15 or so.

Ask if they teach trim

Ask if the assist you in actually getting correctly trimed in the water.

Ask if they will have you practice emergency management skills lik free flow breathing, mask clearing and air sharing midwater

Ask what finning techniques they teach. It should be more than just a flutter.

Ask for a general description of how the class is run and how skills are practiced.

Size of the class and number of assistants.

Ask about the number and length of the OW dives. If they're giving students 20 minute dives go someplace else.

Ask if they teach gas management

Ask if there's classroom discussuions beyond going over knowledge reviews. An instructor who doesn't have anything to say to a new diver doesn't know anything.

Ask if there's a class going on that you can watch

Ask if the instructor has any video of himself in the water. If an instructor can't dive it's likely he can't teach. You'll have to find some video of good divers and bad divers first as a comparisson. I actually include that in my class so students see what it looks like in the water.

Some things that I might add...

Ask about buddy procedures and how briefings are handled.
You already found this out but the students should be doing the diving and not just following along on a guided dive. The students should do the planning (after the instructor briefes the objectives and performance requirements). Part of a that dive plan is a briefing. That's students doing the briefing NOT the instructor. Remember that you're being trained and practicing to go diving on your own...or are you?

Two person buddy teams are easiest for most and with some practice you may also like diving in a three person team. When there are more than three I break them up into multiple teams. Multiple teams can hand together as a lose group but members of individual groups primary concern is their own team.

This "one big group following a instructor with a DM riding herd" is convenient for pushing lots of students through the certification process but it won't teach you anything and may just leave you abandoned as you already know.

It's ok to abort a dive without completing the dive objective. It's not ok to have the team fall apart. The first requires another dive. the second indicates lack of control and can be dangerous. Maintaining your team and agreed on sequence by far takes precedence over completing the dive objective.

Ask what skills and level is prerequisite and how you will be evaluated.
Lets face it, there just isn't any sense ijn going deep if you can't dive well shallow. It's just as easy to dive poorly deep as shallow there's just a little more rist. Even rocks will sink all the way to the bottom.

There's little sense in trying to do things like complex navigation if you're having trouble with basics like buoyancy control, ascents, descents and staying with a buddy.

Of course if you're learning to solo dive then some of the above don't apply.

 

[glbirch]

First look for how squeezeable it is, look for soft but firm, and lastly smell... Oh that was for the bread.

Actually, I wouldn't mind a dive guide that... ehem...uhm..

Anyway, just wanted to mention that even when you've had a good experience with a dive op don't get complacent. I was recently on holiday and booked with a shop that I had a great time with last time but found a little disappointing on this trip. The great guides I liked weren't there anymore, the owner was away and the guy managing in his absence didn't impress me with his service.

 

[jepuskar]

Mike,

Do you go over all of that in OW? Well I'm sure you do, but how many other instructors do you know that do?

 

[MikeFerrara]

Mike,

Do you go over all of that in OW?

Of course I do. How could I expect them to dive on their own if I didn't?

Well I'm sure you do, but how many other instructors do you know that do?

I never counted them but I know of a few.