HELP Please-Cheap Dive Spot-Training questions

[CDNScubaMoose]

This is going to come across as harsh, but ...

Please consider the welfare of your future students. With your past instructing experience in other fields, I hope you can understand the value of a good instructor. Not saying that you won't be able to become one by going through the cheap route but I think the cards are stacked against you. If cold water isn't your thing then I can appreciate wanting to do your courses in warm water but IMHO your next item on your list should be the quality of instruction you are going to get instead of price. I tell my students that scuba isn't cheap and if they are looking for the cheap route then I strongly advise that scuba might not be for them ... the thought of an instructor wanting to do things on the cheap just baffles me. You have said that you are going through a mid-life crisis ... if you get less then quality instruction (due to cost cutting), how is your mental state going to hold up if you are responsible for the injury or death of future student?

 

[tndash]

The more threads I read, the more I understand many peoples view and how touchy the subject matter is. I too, preached the same to many students who wanted to do a crash course (no pun). In retrospect, I do not know if I was correct. I may have preached that way because I was unfamiliar with the fire hose concept at the time (never experienced it at that point) and had a biased viewpoint because I took the very long route. Was I a better instructor than my cohorts because it took me 3-4 years instead of 6 months? I believe I may have been (ego, but not because of a longer learning period. We all had equivalent time and experience, I just did it in a longer period. I had many different instructors teach me until I found a few that I felt were knowledgeable and competent. I didn’t train as often and my learning curve was slower. Some may argue that that is a better or worse way to learn because of either taking the time to know the material well or worse because of lack of reinforcement and repetition. That I believe is the difference. I plan to do the same, but my criteria may vary. Cost, dive accessibility/environment and instructor competence will come into play. If I get a bad vibe, and cost is not substantially different, that the choice is easy. I can always opt out midstream.
Years later (14), I look back on those who went to the fast track and then became airline pilots with 300 hours, who never actually learned to fly. I can equate that with what you are saying and, while these people did not have the experience of instructing and having a student try to kill them on a daily basis, I initially both disliked them and didn’t have much respect for their course of action. Now, I feel I was wrong. They didn’t want, nor need to teach to become proficient pilots. In fact, there is a counter argument about the primacy of learning poor traits when instructing as compared with that of a two person crew. Long story short (sorry-too late), I believe many of you are forming the same opinions that I once had that were not logic based. I do not mean this as an insult. One person stated “there is a difference between diving 180 dives and one dive 180 times”. That I understand and will try my best to have a variety.
I never did lose a student and do not want that to happen. Hopefully, I will be well trained and be able to prevent any such occurrence. However, doing noncompression dives doesn’t tend to be fatal(as compared to the overall frequency of dives). I have lost 5 friends in my industry and don’t believe the factor was their poor initial training. They were smart enough to know if and when they were lacking experience.
By the way- I finally got my OW cert-yea.

I have been reading many of these spots and while I appreciate all input, I am really looking for some info on the subject title. PLEASE help-if anyone has info on cheap dive shops/spots or a dive internship/work program, please let me know.

 

[AndyNZ]

If you can define cheap, it may be easier for people to help.

What's your total budget?

 

[Dave1981]

I think you'll find Honduras still cheap. I'm looking OWSI at the moment and think honduras is still slightly cheaper.

Somewhere like that with so many training divers you could go from 0 - DM in 2 months, work as DM to get the numbers up and pay for your cost of living before starting the IDC. If you're signed up as DMT you should be able to dive free and realistically could to 4-5 dives per day.

 

[tndash]

Andy- Im hoping to find a place to live, do all my training, have room and board paid for and only spend money on food and drink (plus maybe some books if not included) for a period of at least 6 months. To increase the variety of my experience, I may go to DM at one place and then another for OWSI. Im looking to pay roughly 4k for everything and put in hours(months) of work in exchange(both at a LSD and the water).

I have been emailling places in Honduras-will keep my fingers crossed. thx.

Theres 2 places I found that offer these concepts-on in the red sea and another in Thailand(I think). I am hoping to hear from them. It sees they vary in what they offer, but request time employed for free after certification.

 

[tndash]

Honduras came back with 5k(room, board, food, materials)-ow-owsi. Getting more details.

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

Hi TnDash (and Dave 81) --
Hi, I think you were hoping were the Thai company you were wanting to hear from

I'm from Aquanauts Dive Career Development Centre in Thailand. We operate the hugely successful Diving Instructor Training Internship program.

We actually offer three different internships, all aimed at different budgets and goals. Most our students take our full-featured Aquanauts COMPLETE internship, but the price tag puts that out of the reach of some people.

So last month we introduced the Aquanauts VALUE internship. It offers the same length and quality without all the bells and whistles. The result? A price tag that is 45% lower than our own Complete internship and $4,000 less than other programs in Thailand and Central America.

We are, in fact, less expensive than any comparable IDC package in Koh Tao, Thailand's cheapest dive spot; and Utila, the low-budget backpacker island in Honduras.

Please see details and prices at www.divinginstructortraining.com/internships/instructor-v.asp. You can also call me for free at 866-995-5959 and write directly to internships@divinginstructortraining.com.

Hope to hear from you soon,