25 - 28 hours in confined water/pool over 9 sessions is a HUGE amount. What do you tech these people? Buoyancy control to the nearest 10cm of depth? Three ways of reversing? Seven ways of swimming forward? The dolphin kick? Free diving for 30--35m?
First three sessions are swimming skills evaluation/drown proofing training and free diving. The free diving training includes buddy assists and rescue (rescue of an unconscious non-breathing buddy on surface and submerged). Students can choose to get the NAUI "Free Diver" certification with additional fees and extra pool and half day of openwater work.
The remainder of the confined water work is intensive training on all required scuba skills including rescue of an unconscious non-breathing on surface and submerged buddy. The student must perform all skills at "mastery" level and are able to do them all with a "smile on their face" without any undue stress. They also do some "compounded" skills (octopus breathing without a mask for example). Strong emphasis on neutral buoyancy during all sessions of the confined water training (as well as during the openwater part). They do learn and master different fin kicks including dolphin kick. The final confined water/pool session is an intensive evaluation/testing session for all skin diving and scuba skills including a 1km skin diving swim (with surface dives and some surface skills) as well as performing buddy rescue (including unconscious non-breathing buddy rescue on surface and submerged for both skin and scuba diving).
It doesn't always take 28 hours, it maybe 20 but I gave you average time. I look for performance and comfort in students' performance first. I also also look for new ways and improvements in the program to be more efficient in time use to make the course shorter without sacrificing quality.
Nothing wrong with it, just less income.
I charge almost twice as much as what my most expensive competitor does for their course and usually 3 times more than what most others charge but I give much more training (including 8 - 10 openwater dives). If you divide what I charge for the whole course by the training time vs. the others, I am substantially less cost per contact hour than the other instructors.
My entry level program was recognized by NAUI and I received a letter of commendation from NAUI training manager a while back. Some of my students who were fortunate to be able to afford dive trips outside Libya, received complements on their training when they dove in the Red Sea. The dive operators there thought that these newly certified divers were actually "Special Forces" in the Libyan navy not newly certified entry level sport divers because they had their stuff together and how they dove compared with the other tourists they had there.
I have become known in my locale as the top instructor with the most challenging program and instruction. A c-card from NAUI with my name on it as the instructor has become something prestigious to have among divers in my area. People wait and save money until they can afford to take the course with me rather than go to the much cheaper competition here.
I do NOT teach swimming at all. If somebody needs swimming training, I refer them to an associate for swim lessons. My friend is a top swim instructor in the country who trains others to become swim instructors and who actually teaches Libyan Olympic swimmers to improve their technique. He knows what I want from my students and he does an excellent job and is a very humble person and easy to work with.
I teach based on how I want a loved one to be taught and trained and how I would teach my own precious little only daughter or one of my sons to dive.
