KnowledgeIsPower
Registered
Hi guys! I have been following these forums for quite a few months but just registered as I finally need some advice.
My wife and I booked a trip to the Maldives in November, and we wanted to make the most of it by getting certified and learning how to dive before we went. We completed our Open Water training in June and did a Nitrox course in July. Our plan was to do the AOW in August, not so we would "collect C-Cards" but rather we felt it would be good to have more training with a guided instructor. Particularly we felt that the current dive training would help us a little in the Maldives plus of course having more dives with an instructor wouldn't hurt!
After finishing our OW, our instructor told us he wanted us to do more dives before we registered for the AOW. We agreed with him and did 5 more dives on our own before the class. Of course with 5 dives after OW that is no where near perfection, but we felt confident enough to take the course (we went as deep as 55 ft and practiced buoyancy/slow ascents). Given many people take AOW right after OW we felt ready for the course.
Unfortunately after our first navigation dive, our instructor felt our buoyancy needed more practice and would not let us continue the course. I agree that we are no where near having perfect buoyancy, but I did not know we needed perfect buoyancy for this course? He wouldn't let us continue because he felt he could not take us on the deep dive if we didn't have our buoyancy under control. I personally disagreed with him because we felt pretty comfortable at 55 ft on our own and did not feel we were out of control, but who am I to argue with an instructor who has been diving for 30 years?
He was able to convince the dive shop to refund us most of our money, but they still charged us for rental for that day (this is fair I guess) and a small bit to cover the instructor's costs for that 1 dive. Clearly we are upset, but there is not much we can do about that. Personally we are putting it behind us and just moving on.
Right now we have 10 dives scheduled for the Maldives. We were considering maybe doing the AOW over there, but the problem with that is it would take away from our 10 dives, allowing us maybe only 5 or 6 dives instead of the 10 we paid for. What are people's opinion on this? We don't want the AOW just to get the card, but we feel doing it there will help us enjoy our vacation more, and plus it would probably be more fun to do it there than here in our freshwater lake...
And our dive operator told us that without the AOW he will not take us below 60 ft (which I know is fine for most diving anyways) but I can't help but feel that there will be some dives we won't be able to go on because we don't have the card.
My wife and I booked a trip to the Maldives in November, and we wanted to make the most of it by getting certified and learning how to dive before we went. We completed our Open Water training in June and did a Nitrox course in July. Our plan was to do the AOW in August, not so we would "collect C-Cards" but rather we felt it would be good to have more training with a guided instructor. Particularly we felt that the current dive training would help us a little in the Maldives plus of course having more dives with an instructor wouldn't hurt!
After finishing our OW, our instructor told us he wanted us to do more dives before we registered for the AOW. We agreed with him and did 5 more dives on our own before the class. Of course with 5 dives after OW that is no where near perfection, but we felt confident enough to take the course (we went as deep as 55 ft and practiced buoyancy/slow ascents). Given many people take AOW right after OW we felt ready for the course.
Unfortunately after our first navigation dive, our instructor felt our buoyancy needed more practice and would not let us continue the course. I agree that we are no where near having perfect buoyancy, but I did not know we needed perfect buoyancy for this course? He wouldn't let us continue because he felt he could not take us on the deep dive if we didn't have our buoyancy under control. I personally disagreed with him because we felt pretty comfortable at 55 ft on our own and did not feel we were out of control, but who am I to argue with an instructor who has been diving for 30 years?
He was able to convince the dive shop to refund us most of our money, but they still charged us for rental for that day (this is fair I guess) and a small bit to cover the instructor's costs for that 1 dive. Clearly we are upset, but there is not much we can do about that. Personally we are putting it behind us and just moving on.
Right now we have 10 dives scheduled for the Maldives. We were considering maybe doing the AOW over there, but the problem with that is it would take away from our 10 dives, allowing us maybe only 5 or 6 dives instead of the 10 we paid for. What are people's opinion on this? We don't want the AOW just to get the card, but we feel doing it there will help us enjoy our vacation more, and plus it would probably be more fun to do it there than here in our freshwater lake...
And our dive operator told us that without the AOW he will not take us below 60 ft (which I know is fine for most diving anyways) but I can't help but feel that there will be some dives we won't be able to go on because we don't have the card.