Question New to scuba diving, is it a bad instructor?

[Pearl0123]

Can someone help me understand something here? The link on TripAdvisor goes to Dive Aruba, and that is where she posted her comments. Then I see the references to DiveZone Aruba, with the name of the person listed as expelled by PADI.

I dived with Dive Aruba years ago, and it was a one-man operation run by a man named Clive Paula. Are we talking about the same operation? The Trip advisor link to Dive Aruba has comments mentioning a man named Greg, not Clive.

Dive Aruba has been sold by Clive to Greg

 

[elgringoperdido]

Saddened to learn of this. I happen to be wearing my "I dive with Clive" T-shirt right now, from Dive Aruba. None of this sounds like Clive, but maybe there's a different instructor.

Edit: I have read further in the thread and I see it was a man called Greg, not Clive. You did the right thing by informing PADI. No one should have to put up with that. I'd say that on Day 1 it should have been obvious. Reminds me of this episode:

 

[johndiver999]

That clip was freaking hilarious! I've never seen it!
I'm so glad the OP was able to identify the culprit.

 

[Kimela]

Thanks everyone, Here is an update.
PADI has contacted me and told me they had expelled the Instructor. I chose to expose him so female & other new diver can be aware. I want to prevent this situation to happen in the future.

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g147248-d1075568-r956115722-Dive_Aruba-Oranjestad_Aruba.html

Expelled PADI Professionals | PADI

List of former PADI Instructors and Divemasters who have been expelled from PADI within the last few years

www.padi.com

Good for you! I wonder how PADI will enforce the expulsion since he still has PADI on his website? How will anyone know to avoid him without seeing the TripAdvisor (so glad you did that review with links). Hopefully, other PADI professionals in Aruba will become aware and help steer people away from him.

 

[boulderjohn]

Good for you! I wonder how PADI will enforce the expulsion since he still has PADI on his website? How will anyone know to avoid him without seeing the TripAdvisor (so glad you did that review with links). Hopefully, other PADI professionals in Aruba will become aware and help steer people away from him.

Enforcement is a problem because no agency has legal authority to do anything about such advertising. The only thing they can do is keep the expelled instructor from certifying students. The TripAdvisor comments mention another individual who may also be a PADI instructor. If so, then the company can still offer PADI instruction through that other instructor.

Another factor is that there is a difference between a dive shop being PADI-affiliated and a dive shop offering PADI instruction through an employee or someone they happen to know. Many years ago, before I was a professional, I reported the worst standards violation I have still ever seen (in Fiji). I got a lengthy response from PADI. It explained that they could only take steps against the instructor (which they did), but the shop was also advertising themselves as a PADI shop, which they were not. There was little PADI could do about that, since they could not control the laws in Fiji. They told the shop not to advertise themselves as a PADI shop, but they had no power to enforce that.

I saw a similar thing in the United States a few years ago. I noticed that a dive operator in Florida that I used frequently had a sign in the story that advertised them as a GUE instructor training facility, yet I never saw them provide any instruction other than through SSI or TDI. I asked the manager about it, and he explained that while no employee of the shop had any GUE instructor credentials, if you wanted to get GUE training, they had the necessary phone number and could call a guy who could provide it. That was apparently fine with GUE.

 

[Kimela]

Enforcement is a problem because no agency has legal authority to do anything about such advertising. The only thing they can do is keep the expelled instructor from certifying students. The TripAdvisor comments mention another individual who may also be a PADI instructor. If so, then the company can still offer PADI instruction through that other instructor.

Another factor is that there is a difference between a dive shop being PADI-affiliated and a dive shop offering PADI instruction through an employee or someone they happen to know. Many years ago, before I was a professional, I reported the worst standards violation I have still ever seen (in Fiji). I got a lengthy response from PADI. It explained that they could only take steps against the instructor (which they did), but the shop was also advertising themselves as a PADI shop, which they were not. There was little PADI could do about that, since they could not control the laws in Fiji. They told the shop not to advertise themselves as a PADI shop, but they had no power to enforce that.

I saw a similar thing in the United States a few years ago. I noticed that a dive operator in Florida that I used frequently had a sign in the story that advertised them as a GUE instructor training facility, yet I never saw them provide any instruction other than through SSI or TDI. I asked the manager about it, and he explained that while no employee of the shop had any GUE instructor credentials, if you wanted to get GUE training, they had the necessary phone number and could call a guy who could provide it. That was apparently fine with GUE.

Wow. It's hard enough to get judges orders enforced in the US, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I think like a typical American, in terms of 'copyright infringement', etc. There are laws, and we are supposed to follow them. But someone who would commit such a disgusting assault isn't worried about laws in Aruba, the US or elsewhere.

 

[boulderjohn]

Wow. It's hard enough to get judges orders enforced in the US, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I think like a typical American, in terms of 'copyright infringement', etc. There are laws, and we are supposed to follow them. But someone who would commit such a disgusting assault isn't worried about laws in Aruba, the US or elsewhere.

Remember that he was expelled by PADI. PADI is not a court of law. He is not in any legal trouble. There is no reason he can't continue to operate. He just can't certify students. He can actually even go on to instruct them and just have someone else sign off.

There is an instructor in Arizona who was expelled by NAUI years ago. He just formed a new, bogus certification agency and went on. The last I checked (years ago), the official address of his agency was a vacant lot.