Just finished my PADI Cert - you have GOT to be kidding me

[David P]

$550 does not sound outrageous. You have your "crewpack", rental gear, pool rental, dive boat, administrative costs, rent for the building you sat in to learn, oh yeah and what about 24 hours of your instructors time? Instructor alone your paying only $23 an hour. What sounds fair to you? Would you want to be an instructor when chances are you make $100 a student and have to lug around all those tanks?

 

[diver 85]

Welcome to the 'new' days of diving.....Glad we were certified(in '85) when diving was taught & not just sniffed by you..good luck.....now, get some experience & really learn how to dive....be safe & happy diving......

 

[cloudboy55]

$550 does not sound outrageous. You have your "crewpack", rental gear, pool rental, dive boat, administrative costs, rent for the building you sat in to learn, oh yeah and what about 24 hours of your instructors time? Instructor alone your paying only $23 an hour. What sounds fair to you? Would you want to be an instructor when chances are you make $100 a student and have to lug around all those tanks?

It certainly sounds outrageous to me. $130 to $180 will get you Padi certified in Tennessee, and that's with quality rental gear.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I would have worn my own gear and pointed out that when I dive with my brand new C-card, I'll be diving in my own gear. But if they are really concerned about my safety, they are free to inspect the gear to see if it's servicable, and we could do the same with the rest of the class' falling apart crap at the same time . . .

I'd report the shop to PADI. I dont' know what PADI's standards are, but using their brand name in an operation that intimidates students and places students in the water wearing gear in disrepair is probably not part of their vision of themselves.

 

[DaleHall]

Second Kingpatzer's comment. PADI only knows when things like this happen when the offending shop/instructor are reported. All shops, just like your businesses, are on their best behavior when they are being inspected. It's the everyday things like this the inspectors don't see. In all fariness to PADI, this isn't a PADI certification course issue as the OP's subject suggests, it's an issue with a PADI affiliated shop and they need to be reported.

 

[tedtim]

$550 does not sound outrageous. You have your "crewpack", rental gear, pool rental, dive boat, administrative costs, rent for the building you sat in to learn, oh yeah and what about 24 hours of your instructors time? Instructor alone your paying only $23 an hour. What sounds fair to you? Would you want to be an instructor when chances are you make $100 a student and have to lug around all those tanks?

It is $225 for the OW course in my area, plus gear rental for the OW weekend ($75). Of course, they don't pay the instructors $23 an hour. Must be the New York minimum, but none of the instructors I know do this for their primary source of income.

None, and I mean none of the instructors, did I say none of the instructors, lugs tanks around. The general rule is "one person, one kit." You folks in New York must cater to a different type of audience.

 

[DivingsInMyBlood]

The place kinda sounds like a little crazy if they wont look after the gear. sounds expensive I'm taking my ow padi course over here in canada in 2 weeks for 400 bucks (+ just over 100 for book), did that include your book as well because if it did i guess its not too bad.

chris

 

[HenrikBP]

I'm in that area and would like to know which shop you're talking about. PM me if you care to share the information.

Henrik

 

[caseybird]

How come half the posters on SB think training is too cheap and the other half think it is too expensive?

 

[creggur]

Half are giving the lessons......Other half are paying for them.....

Seriously though. My wife and I just finished our open water today, and though our instructor was awesome, the rental gear from the shop really did suck.....

It's funny to me to hear folks post in the gear sections telling people to rent a while before they buy....I can tell you there is no way in hell I would buy any of the crap I was rented during our training... I mean how long do the shops use this stuff, until it just absolutely won't work anymore????

My wife was just saying today after we finished our check dives if they had provided us with half-decent gear they could use our direct experience with their fine products to try and sell us gear....I look at it like this, if that's how they take care of there own gear, how are they going to treat mine when I bring it in for service??

This is another plus for the way that Scubatoys does business. I've seen Larry talk about the Riptide back inflate BCD's they use for there classes, and when I asked about fit for a Zeagle Zena for my wife he wrote that they sometimes us the XS ones when they have kids there. We didn't see anything nearing that quality during our training, it was all basic jacket style stuff, bottom end regulators, and it all looked like it had been through the ringer a few times.....

And as far as the price goes, my wife who is very cost concious, said she would have happily paid an upgrade charge for better gear to train in......