Florida Atty Gen.: Miami guy sells fake course, PADI cards

[mjrob]

Where's Carl Hiaasen when you need him?

 

[Shasta_man]

Let's see...hmmm...I can make up to $400 per person!....it's 10-15 grand per person if I get popped.... hmmm... if my costs were zero, which they aren't, I just need 25 people to pay off the fine for one, for which I would have a fine of 250 grand... damn, this Kleenex boat is sinking fast.

 

[RJP]

Let's see...hmmm...I can make up to $400 per person!....it's 10-15 grand per person if I get popped.... hmmm... if my costs were zero, which they aren't, I just need 25 people to pay off the fine for one, for which I would have a fine of 250 grand... damn, this Kleenex boat is sinking fast.

I'm sure he didn't get into the fraud business because he was a genius.

 

[Phil_C]

Does anyone know if this guy has ever been a PADI or other agency instructor? It certainly seems he is not now, but it is possible he may have been at some point in the past.

I would also be interested to know what was he teaching in his courses - P

 

[W.]

DumpsterDiver: I don't believe that is what it means. I believe the AG is simply saying they either issued fraudulent and worthless cards, or they failed to issue any cards at all. The owners of the shop were not authorized to give instruction and were not PADI instructors, so there is nothing to suggest they gave anything close to a certification course.

 

[Rich Keller]

Some might argue that PADI has been issuing bogus cards for decades.

 

[Superlyte27]

Some might argue that PADI has been issuing bogus cards for decades.

LOL, that is funny.

 

[Yarbrough]

Some might argue that PADI has been issuing bogus cards for decades.

Some might argue that about instructors from any of the recreational training agencies. The standards set by the agencies are all pretty similar, and if the courses are conducted to standards, some very good divers can come out of them regardless of the initials attached to it.
If short cuts are taken, then you wind up with sub par divers who are afraid to practice what they have "learned" but this is not the fault of the agency providing the card, but the fault of the instructor not putting in the time and energy that it takes to actually teach someone to dive. I will step off my soap box now.

 

[wetphotographer]

so the guy was probably an experienced diver and "could" train people how to dive but didn't have the legal qualifications to do so?

Yeah this is quite awful. I'm sure he's qualified but that's dangerous. It's almost as horrifying as if he were pretending to be a doctor. Though that would be impressive to pull off.

 

[NAM001]

I don't think you have to get down form the box. There are a lot of what you mention going on. Ive seen it a lot. More than a small percentage become instabuddy's. Unless they go back to get further training from the SAME instructor,,,, there is a reasonable chance that follow on instructors can fix them. I may be tainted in my opinion but I seem to run into a lot of them that lack basics like mask clearing. I have literally dove with those who dive till thier mask fully floods in 5 minutes of so, then they blindly surface pull the mask dump the water and down they go again. They say they did not know they had to hold the top of the mask when they cleared. Mask clearing is far fromt he end of the list. I once in a lake went with a couple and we surface swam to the bouy and down we went. Every one was ok on the platform. I take the lead to go exlore and they wont follow. signaled and every one still ok. we went up and to my surprise. Thier reason was,,, they never left the platform or line in class. and was afraid if they left the platform they would get lost and run out of air. So i ask what they were going to do on thier vacation trip. They said they will get on the boat follow the line down to the platform and watch the fish swim. They felt really screwed when I told them that boat trips do not have platforms at the bottom of the line. They said they have to because you have to have the platform to hold on to to watch fish otherwise the fish would get you. ...... There are a lot of them out there. Fortunately just not to that degree.

Some might argue that about instructors from any of the recreational training agencies. The standards set by the agencies are all pretty similar, and if the courses are conducted to standards, some very good divers can come out of them regardless of the initials attached to it.
If short cuts are taken, then you wind up with sub par divers who are afraid to practice what they have "learned" but this is not the fault of the agency providing the card, but the fault of the instructor not putting in the time and energy that it takes to actually teach someone to dive. I will step off my soap box now.