I'm both an independent instructor and I work for a dive center. As an independent, I'm free to voice my opinion about equipment and give my students the best advice I can regarding purchases. When working at the shop, I don't really care if I get fired and they know that so I voice my opinion anyway because my objective is to gain the trust of my students and the trust of the customers in hopes of creating a long term relationship and have students and customers also become friends and dive buddies. When I run classes in the shop's time frame, I do my best to get the students through the course to meet or hopefully exceed standards, but if they don't I don't pass them and I set up private training days to meet the goals of my courses. Not every dive instructor working for a shop will find himself or herself with the freedom or apathy toward getting fired that will allow for recommending other product lines or other dive centers for equipment purchases or classes. Truth be known, dive stores are some of the worst places to seek instuction unless the dive center is more committed to education than sales. They exist, but they aren't the norm. If you have concerns about an instructor whether that instructor is independent or affiliated with a shop, ask to see a resume and talk to the instructor about his or her experience and teaching methods and philosophies. ScubaBoard and other message boards are places you can ask opinions about individuals and you can have information PMed to you rather than a public discussion. Independent instructors often put more time, more energy and more heart and soul into teaching. This is because many independents are not full-time, but teach out of love for the sport and believe that they can make a difference by giving divers a better education than can be found elsewhere, or if they know where that better education exists, they want your trust and admiration so they'll send you to instructors who may teach distinctive specialties in which you have an interest or even technical training. They are free to refer to the best people they trust outside the pressure of a dive center and free to give you their opinions. This isn't true of all independents. Some sell gear and want to unload product or retain students the same as a dive center, but the norm is that an independent will have more time to give you and won't be trying to sell you equipment, but simply teach you the best diving they can.
