Is the instructor partly to blame if you fail your OWC?

[Learner Diver]

I've been reading a lot of threads where people are saying to change instructors. How can you tell if your instructor is good or not? Do I wait at the last minute before cancelling my course? Will I get a refund? Are the reviews accurate concerning a dive centre? Do I take that person on face value? What decisions should I consider when I get there?

 

[runsongas]

Talk to them, if they have a good attitude and patience to be teaching. OW is basic enough you don't need the best instructor out there, but unless you really are just not suited for being in the water or put in no effort, yes it pretty much is on the instructor to make sure you complete the requirements.

you likely can switch to another instructor at the same shop without an issue, but if you try to switch shops, it is likely going to be an issue getting refunded. online reviews aren't always accurate, but if there is enough smoke, there probably is a fire.

for the uk, there is always the option to go with bsac instead.

 

[Edward3c]

I've been reading a lot of threads where people are saying to change instructors. How can you tell if your instructor is good or not? Do I wait at the last minute before cancelling my course? Will I get a refund? Are the reviews accurate concerning a dive centre? Do I take that person on face value? What decisions should I consider when I get there?

What exactly do you think your instructor isn’t doing right?

 

[justinthedeeps]

Ok bot. We know you are a bot now

 

[Learner Diver]

What exactly do you think your instructor isn’t doing right?

Just taking notes on correct training procedures. May need to make a complaint to the agency.

 

[rick00001967]

in fairness your posts seem to contradict each other.

pls be specific on your concern.

are you saying you have started a course and feel the instructor has not followed the agencies standards? if this is the case, you will need to provide specific examples and tell us which agency they teach for.

hard for a new student to know if the instructor is any good because they have nothing to base that on. typically we would hope most instructors are pretty decent. i would say it is most important that you feel comfortable with the instructor.

if you are not comfortable or feel you would be better to end the course early, that is a personal choice. i doubt you will get a refund unless you can show that there is good reason.

word of mouth from people you know might be the best way to judge whether you would train with a certain shop

 

[MidOH]

A true warrior has the war won, long before it starts.

The padi books are available to purchase online. Most of your training will be online before ever seeing your instructor.

Can you snorkel, and swim well?

Do you float in saltwater, can tread water or swim for an hour, no touching?

Can you flood and clear your mask while snorkeling?

Can you take off your mask, open your eyes, and swim in saltwater? Above and below surface?

Can you remember to never hold your breath, always exhale?

Do you have the chops to never panic in water with bathtub conditions?

If yes to the above, you'll slaughter your OW training even if the instructor is a dunce.

Hardest part of open water, if you can do the above:
-gearing up
-finding the damn shop or boat. This industry is insanely ignorant on this one.
-donning, doffing, underwater
-getting up the ladder, timing the waves
-air travel

Word of mouth is handy. But any decent dive shop in a 1st world country has a good chance of taking good care of you. (At least until you decide to buy tanks) SB is full of horror stories. Nearly nobody posts about good training

If the class kicks your butt, don't quit or try to get a refund. Muscle through it, learn as much as possible, then fail. Try again with another shop. You paid for the training, at least complete it.


Take a "discover scuba" thing in your local area. Usually just a pool session. Two people in my DS thing actually hated every aspect of scuba. So was money well spent for them.

The lady that instructed us during the DS, pulled us aside afterwards and gave us the finishing test for scuba certification. We passed all the drills before even scheduling training. Huge confidence boost.

 

[rick00001967]

Hardest part of open water, if you can do the above:
-finding the damn shop or boat. This industry is insanely ignorant on this one.

this sounds interesting. more details pls.

 

[boulderjohn]

this sounds interesting. more details pls.

I recently ran into another post by this gentleman in which he said that all through the dive industry, all the shops hide the part of the OW course that talks about hydrostatic inspection of tanks because all their tanks are out of hydro. When I challenged him on this, he said he didn't pay a lot of attention to that part of the course, and he referenced his experience with a specific shop's tanks.

Apparently he had trouble finding a dive shop one day, and so he opines that all dive shops with all agencies around the world intentionally make it hard to find their shops. Seems logical.

 

[MidOH]

this sounds interesting. more details pls.

Our training shop was a grass roof hut on a beach, only visible from the beach. We were lucky, we decided to cut our evening short on vacation, and find the actual location of the dive op the day before.



After certifying the next 4 weeks of scuba vacations was riddled with dive shop "kiosks" nearly impossible to find, boats in marina mazes, 3rd world addresses, manditory phone check in in a country our phones failed in, useless cab drivers, and not ONE single dive op that can put GPS coordinates on their website.

Apparently, even with massive giant tanks of helium onsite, flying a balloon is too hard to pull off. A hot dog stand has more sense than that.


If you're going to have a nice website, at least list the coordinates of your locations along with your address. It's not much to ask. The ops that do it, really make life better.

Then there's the old farts who can't handle constructive criticism. And can't see why they fail to provide a good experience.

In fact it seems there's a ton of people in this industry, that'll go out of their way to pigeon hole anyone with criticism.

It's a wonder that people survive all that and want to continue diving. When you guys ask "why people quit", the above is a great example.