Instructor can't do open water... would anyone want to padi certify me?

[temet vince]

EDIT: C and J sports said they could do it for an extremely reasonable price. The guy on the phone was really nice. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to delete this thread. Do I have to have an admin do it?


I live around Joplin, Mo, but I have no issues driving a little ways. Beaver lake is pretty close too.

After I completed the entire padi open water course except for the open water dives, my instructor disappeared. I tracked him down at his day job and finally got him to be up front with me. He's got some major family issues going on (what I suspected based on things happening while I was in class.) He's going to fax me my paperwork so I can finish elsewhere as he won't even be able to think about doing the checkout dives for awhile.

I called Oronogo, Mo, and the guy there said he was going to charge around $150-175 just to do the open water dives. I asked him why it was so expensive and he said it included equipment rental. I told him I have my own equipment and he basically said he didn't care. I told him to have a nice day.

Do you know anyone who is a padi instructor that wouldn't mind doing some checkout dives? I have all my own equipment and everything (minus the tank rental.) I can even pay a little bit, but I can't pay anywhere near $175 since I already paid $$$ for the original class!

Thanks,

-Emmett

 

[Lone Frogman]

Sounds like your instructor owes you some money back.

 

[lowviz]

............After I completed the entire padi open water course except for the open water dives, my instructor disappeared. ...............

I have both PADI and NAUI OW certs just to see what the difference is. PADI is a very "rules-based" organization, this is in your favor.

At the risk of sounding overly obvious, -have you contacted PADI directly? They are surprisingly approachable for an organization of that size.

 

[oly5050user]

Depending on how your original course was structured you may not have paid for the ow training dives with the original instructor.What did the original course cost you??.Many LDS and instructors charge 1 price for the academic and confined water skills and another price for the training dives..The Oronogo guy was cheap for $150. Here in NY its $230. with rental equipment included.Plus entry fee to quarry or boat...Tips are appreciated

 

[MSltr]

Try Dive Stie Tulsa; here is there weblink. They are really easy to work with.

Scuba Dive Tulsa - PADI - homepage

 

[tstormdiver]

From students I've had do referrals (usually to warmer climes) $200- $275 is about the going rate to do referral dives.

 

[temet vince]

Thanks everyone.

We didn't really pay for the open water dives, but then again we didn't not pay for them either. I don't remember exactly how much the course was since it was a college credit course. However, our instructor always takes the students out afterwards and does the open water dives. But he's had some family issues lately. He will resume open water certs in the future, but I'm not willing to wait all summer and miss out on diving.

While New York may be expensive, it's important to remember that in the midwest everything is much cheaper. $150 isn't unreasonable, but it is still way too high, especially when you are furnishing all your own equipment. The very 2nd place I called offered to do it for $100, and I ended up getting it cheaper than that.

I'm getting certified tomorrow. I'll post back tomorrow to let everyone know how it went! Thank you all.

-Emmett

 

[SoccerJeni]

Good deal! I'm glad to know you figured something out! Good luck tomorrow, I'd love to hear how Beaver Lake was and how your cert dives went. I'm just a couple hours North of you, so I'm sure I'll see you sometime at Beaver Lake!

 

[temet vince]

Yay, I'm finally certified!

Thank you all for your help.

Jeni, I'm sure we'll end up running into each other sometime. I'm going to try to dive quite a bit with Kirby, so maybe we could do some group dives or something. Thanks for wishing me luck, as I needed it because:

Beaver Lake is horrible right now! I would say you could see 5 feet, but I wouldn't want to exaggerate or anything. I did manage to see a big bass, but that's just because he swam right up to us, and by the time I could tell my buddy to look, he was gone. We basically swam out to a single spot with a sunken metal platform, and dove straight down. We held on to the platform and did skills one by one on top of the platform, then we'd come back up. Every dive was like that. We couldn't even swim single file to go look at things; shoot, I couldn't even see someone 4 feet away.

It'll get better though!

We had a really small group, and everyone was confident and we did really well (for beginners of course). Once I got our buoyancy down, I started feeling that "flying" feeling that everyone keeps talking about. At one point, while we were stuck on the bottom waiting for the instructor to come back down from a CESA skill with another student, I challenged the Divemaster and another student to several games of paper rock scissors. That was fun, especially seeing the look on the DM's face when he finally figured out I wasn't hand signalling but rather making scissor, rock, and paper gestures in my hand. I also found some fishing equipment (no lures, sadly) that someone had lost on the platform.

Our safety stop was amazing. We all just chilled, hovering without needing to use the buoy line, for 3 minutes. Everyone had perfect buoyancy. Our instructor about went into cardiac arrest from pure shock.

So it was fun, despite having 4-5 foot vis. I stayed overnight at C and J's there by the Beaver Lake dam. Everyone was quite friendly, and Jim was very kind in his pricing. I think he felt a little sorry for me sitting at home every week knowing that I couldn't go diving. By the way, I asked him about air pricing, and if my friend and I buy our own tanks and go down on a weekend trip, we'll only save $4 a piece the entire weekend. His rentals are that cheap.

Again, thanks all!

 

[k ellis]

LOL Temet I had told SoccerJenni previously but keep an eye open localy because like I told her there are often diver get together events such as cleaning the lakes in Lake Tenkiller and Lake Beaver both usually occur in or around September and they are tons of fun. Also a great way to meet and great fellow divers. You both would have a blast there.

Last year I recall (May be wrong) but there was an estimated 3000 lbs of cans brought up out of Tenkiller alone among all the divers over the 2 day event. We found all kinds of things ranging from billfolds all the way to amazingly an old toilet in the water. Our group of divers (most of which are found on the aquanauts Tulsa Aquanauts (Tulsa, OK) - Meetup) have members in who come in from as far north as Ohio i believe with definate members in the Kansas City area, Joplin, Eureka Springs, Branson, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas Texas and western Oklahoma. All of which have one goal in common and thats to enjoy the water as much as you and I.

We also have great times with unique events such as they play under water poker and even have pumpkin carving contest in October so when we have these events you guys and any one else who wants to come should join us!!!

Anyway glad to hear you got certified and glad to hear everyone else is having a blast. See you guys around