Now PADI gets involved in agency bashing

[BarryNL]

I found the following comment on PADI's website quality assurance page:

"I would like to thank my instructor, Oliver Sandford, for a memorable and most enjoyable experience. With his guidance and the pure experience of the dives i intend to carry on my training and gain as much experience as i as able to. I am pleased that I chose to use your organisation, as opposed to B.S.A.C, I feel that the quality of teaching was excellent whereas B.S.A.C seemed very poor. I was astonished to meet someone who had completed a B.S.A.C. course who didn’t even know what a dive planner was and he went on to say he had never even seen a dive planner. Furthermore, he didn't know about pressure groups and residual nitrogen."

I know there's a lot of agency bashing going on, but I never expected to see PADI using their website to bash the BSAC! Shame on you PADI.

 

[matts1w]

I found the following comment on PADI's website quality assurance page:

"I would like to thank my instructor, Oliver Sandford, for a memorable and most enjoyable experience. With his guidance and the pure experience of the dives i intend to carry on my training and gain as much experience as i as able to. I am pleased that I chose to use your organisation, as opposed to B.S.A.C, I feel that the quality of teaching was excellent whereas B.S.A.C seemed very poor. I was astonished to meet someone who had completed a B.S.A.C. course who didn’t even know what a dive planner was and he went on to say he had never even seen a dive planner. Furthermore, he didn't know about pressure groups and residual nitrogen."

I know there's a lot of agency bashing going on, but I never expected to see PADI using their website to bash the BSAC! Shame on you PADI.

"Hello pot."
"Hello kettle."
"Hey kettle. I do believe you are black."

 

[String]

Hmm. Could be more to this than meets the eye.

BSACs free monthly toilet paper err sorry "magazine" a few months ago had an article in the readers letters section which read near identical to this but with the agency names reversed.

Wonder if its a tiit-for-tat reaction.

As for not knowing what a diver planner is- im not surprised as its a PADI only thing. As for not knowing the pressure groups again im not surprised as they're called tissue codes on the BSAC '88 tables and they go from A-G. And as for not knowing what residual nitrogen is, again im not surprised as that doesn't exist on BSAC tables which work totally differently.
So its not entirely surprising a diver trained by a different agency with different tables and terminologies wouldnt be familiar with PADIs only tables and terms.

I can see the reverse of this:- "PADI training is poor. I met a padi diver that didnt know with a tissue code was, the definition of dive time was or how to use level 2 tables or altitude tables. he also didnt do a controlled buoyant lift as part of his open water course. So therefore all padi is bad because they dont know the bsac tables or train some stuff"


Im tempted to email PADI and mention this but i cant find anywhere on that site for feedback on what's published. My read is the guy never actually did bsac training and basis his entire speech on talking to a BSAC diver who wasn't familiar with the padi tables!

Edit:- I have now emailed PADI voicing my concerns about allowing a potentially derogatory post about another agency onto their site, especially when the comments are very poorly researched and based entirely on a lack of knowledge on the part of the original poster.

 

[deepblueme]

Don't seem like PADI is doing the bashing more like publishing a "I love PADI letter".

 

[DBailey]

I think someone at PADI showed poor judgement in posting that message, but I wouldn't go as far as "PADI bashes another agency".

I find it hilarious that posting such a message shows poor quality management on the quality management report page.

 

[Walter]

That's not an example of PADI participating in agency bashing.

 

[String]

I don't think PADI are bashing however they exercised poor judgement in not editing that comment and allowing it in full.
The original poster evidently is a newly qualified open water diver with absolutely no appreciation for the fact that not everything does it the PADI way. His complete lack of knowledge and experience led him to write that comment. THAT isn't PADIs fault.
However their lack of judgement in ensuring the accuracy and facts in the post in allowing it to be published in full is theirs.

I've put as much in an email to them anyway

"I love PADI" letters are fine. But "I love PADI" letters with "This agency is worse" added on the bottom takes it a bit close to the line.

 

[fisherdvm]

The decision to let that post get published might have been a low level employee. I imagine that a higher level person might not have allowed that. To me, it is in poor taste.

 

[emttim]

"Hello pot."
"Hello kettle."
"Hey kettle. I do believe you are black."

No kidding. I fail to see why everyone tries to villify PADI constantly. Sure, they try to nickel and dime you as much as possible with all the different certifications, but you know what, they're a business and businesses are out there to make money.

Hmm. Could be more to this than meets the eye.

BSACs free monthly toilet paper err sorry "magazine" a few months ago had an article in the readers letters section which read near identical to this but with the agency names reversed.

Wonder if its a tiit-for-tat reaction.

Wouldn't surprise me. It's a smart move on their part because in any sector, if a company is seen as weak, then that will damage their reputation and people may shy away from them. By returning the favor, and portraying themselves as a superior agency no less, they deflect any effects the negative article against them in BSAC's magazine may have caused. Although everyone on here trash talks PADI so much I'd say they're screwed on that front anyway.

Don't seem like PADI is doing the bashing more like publishing a "I love PADI letter".

Honestly, I do love PADI. It seems as if the big reason that a lot of you guys hate PADI is simply because they charge money for their courses, and you think some of them are useless, but you get out of the course what you put into it so that reflects poorly on you; not PADI. Their training standards may not be as rigorous as the other agencys such as NAUI, but if the diver is an idiot, then he/she is going to get themselves killed regardless. If the diver is not an idiot, then he/she is probably going to do what's necessary to dive conservatively and safely and therefore will most likely never have a serious issue caused by user error.

I don't want to start a fight but it's just childish and immature how many people I see on here bash PADI. Why don't we just start threads such as The Official PADI Bashing Thread, The Official NAUI Bashing Thread, etc. you get my point. I know! We can even make the responses short and sweet in those threads, maybe some variation of "no you!" so we /really/ sound like a bunch of children. I'm sure it'll make us divers look real good.

 

[String]

Im hunting for the magazine now but can't find it. Fairly sure i didn't dream the article.

It wasn't as blatant though. It just mentioned IIRC someone went to dive abroad and was in a group of people with people bouncing everywhere - standard resort PADI DSD it sounded like. Then he came to britain and got one on one training free with BSAC.

Remember thinking at the time it wasn't too wise but it wasn't anywhere near as directly criticising as this, more like criticising the type of outfit we've all seen with DSD factories.

Anyway i can't find it now so either i lose it or i dreamed it. It MAY have been in the Diver magazine which puts a new slant on it as that magazine is agency independent.