Introducing others to diving

[XS-NRG]

Other comments have led me to wonder, when you get certified are you paying for the class, or the certification? To me, I feel like a good instructor shouldn't have a problem with giving some students some extra help, rather than failing them and making them take the whole course again.

You are paying for the class and instruction and the time it takes for an instructor to teach you. You are also getting pool time, manuals etc as well. If you took a night class at your college to learn another language and you fail to learn it does that mean you get your money back or that you should still be given a diploma/certification? No! Scuba is no different, although unfortunately some places are only in it for the money therefore with minimal skill and sometimes no skill you end up with a card because it's the easy way out for the dive shop. You get the card and they see the back of you without any additional time or work involved.

I think a good instructor (one that truly cares and is committed) should give you some help and perhaps at a minimal fee if any (that's their discretion). Also I don't see how they should outright fail you and expect the full fee again for the course. You should simply pay your portion of the pool rental and the instructors time for additional time needed to acquire the necessary skills. You may even be allowed to sit in on the next class and just watch the DVD again, read the book again and listen to instruction without paying any extra (provided there's room). If an instructor is fully committed then you should have nothing to worry about unless all avenues have been exhausted in which case diving probably isn't for you.

No idea on the time limit. I would guess you have a year to complete everything but I don't actually know that answer.

 

[nimoh]

My LDS refers to their classes as pass or practice, rather than pass or fail. Any student that doesn't meet all of the requirements for certification has the option of returning to join another class (free of charge) to finish up.

It is not common for students to need to do this, and I think the idea is that if their are students that just can't do it, they will probably give up rather than continuously coming back for free pool sessions.

 

[Rhone Man]

Just by way of anecdote - when I was a kid growing up in the Caribbean, we would often have family, friends or even my Dad's clients come out to stay. We would invariably take them out on the boat, and as often as not my Dad would ask them if they wanted to try scuba diving, show them "how to do it" (on the boat) and then take them diving. It was the polite thing to do as a host - similar to showing them how to water ski or how to sail a dinghy.

Nowadays people fall off their chair when I recount those stories, but mercifully no one ever died or got hurt. I think it just sort of reflects how things were a long time ago. If you wanted to learn how to dive, there were no "dive shops", so you asked someone who knew how to dive to show you.

Happily things are better organised (and safer) these days, and every Caribbean island has two dozen dive professionals tripping over each other to try and take prospective students out on a "resort course" to try diving under supervision.

 

[nimoh]

Just by way of anecdote - when I was a kid growing up in the Caribbean, we would often have family, friends or even my Dad's clients come out to stay. We would invariably take them out on the boat, and as often as not my Dad would ask them if they wanted to try scuba diving, show them "how to do it" (on the boat) and then take them diving. It was the polite thing to do as a host - similar to showing them how to water ski or how to sail a dinghy.

Nowadays people fall off their chair when I recount those stories, but mercifully no one ever died or got hurt. I think it just sort of reflects how things were a long time ago. If you wanted to learn how to dive, there were no "dive shops", so you asked someone who knew how to dive to show you.

Happily things are better organised (and safer) these days, and every Caribbean island has two dozen dive professionals tripping over each other to try and take prospective students out on a "resort course" to try diving under supervision.

Happy to see you say at the end of your post that you agree that things are better organised and safer these days. I have no doubt that there are people out there like your Dad that can do things like that safely, but there are just as many that do it unsafely. While nothing is stopping the safe ones from continuing to operate, the legal system is putting the bad ones out of business. The problem with this, is that the unsafe ones are always found too late.

Things aren't perfect yet, but I think it is always improving. Our goal as a community should be zero incidents.