PADI Does Revoke Certifications

[chrpai]

I have to admit, you do your homework for these posts

it was about 2 years ago that I did my drysuit class, but if I recall correctly my instructor told me to ignore that.

(I'm sure you are going to have a field day with this one lol)

LOL. No, serious. I'm not a dry suit diver but I expect to be one by the end of the year. If you are telling me that an instructor says to skip that and learn using your BCD, I can accept that at face value. I really don't have an agenda or an axe to dive. I just read a lot of threads over the years talking about BCD vs Drysuit and I was filing that information away for the day that I was ready to go dry.

 

[fire_diver]

LOL. No, serious. I'm not a dry suit diver but I expect to be one by the end of the year. If you are telling me that an instructor says to skip that and learn using your BCD, I can accept that at face value. I really don't have an agenda or an axe to dive. I just read a lot of threads over the years talking about BCD vs Drysuit and I was filing that information away for the day that I was ready to go dry.

You don't need to take a class for DS. I took it and it was the only class I thought was a waste. After buying my drysuit I enrolled in the class but it took awhile for them to get enough students. In the mean time I read the entire DS class manual, and read everything I could find online. Then I put on my drysuit and got into the pool. After playing there I went to the lake and played there in about 6 feet until comfortable. Then I went to 15, then to 25. After about a dozen dives in my suit I felt fine using it. When the class finally happened, I trully learned NOTHING.

Drysuits aren't difficult to use.

Now back to the useless card bashing....

 

[chrpai]

Man! I can't make anyone happy. Some people get upset that I bash a class and some people get upset that I don't bash it!

(kidding...)

Ya, I might just find a good buddy. Then again, I might just kinda forget about diving for a little bit when football season starts up and then get back to diving in the spring.

 

[Simon-]

After trawling through all the posts, even the off topic ones, forgetting which agency I am an instructor with, I don't think PADI could be expected to do anymore for the OP than they are doing.

1. OP paid only for the PIC's. PADI are willing to credit those costs (no different to many shops worldwide)
2. Requesting the return of the issued cards. The cards were issued in error (not the OP's) and the OP is not entitled to them.
3. QA of the instructor. It appears that this is not an isolated case involving this instructor and as such I would expect PADI to remove the instructor form teaching status. Whether they do or not is another matter.

To the posters saying that the OP should keep the cards. Great advice. I suppose these are the same people that would say nothing if there was an extra category on their driving licence which they had not received instruction for, one they were not entitled to.

To the ones saying PADI should give the OP free training/refund the cost of the course etc. Why should they?

If I buy a car, for example a Mercedes. It is advertised as a C220 Cdi. I buy it but then find out it is a C190e. Do I expect Mercedes Benz to reimburse me or the car garage I bought it at? If the garage went bust, would I then expect Mercedes Benz to reimburse me? Not a chance.

 

[boulderjohn]

Why would PADI teach to use the drysuit as the primary buoyancy control device? That doesn't make any sense at all.

it was about 2 years ago that I did my drysuit class, but if I recall correctly my instructor told me to ignore that.

This gets discussed on SB from time to time. Here is a summary of pretty much of all of the threads:

1. Every agency identified in the past threads says the same thing in their dry suit classes--use the dry suit for buoyancy.
2. The book on dry suit diving written by the leadership of DUI says the same thing. The DUI book goes on to say that its advice is intended for new divers who are better off using only one device for buoyancy, but most experienced dry suit divers end up using both.
3. Many dry suit divers prefer to use the BCD and only have enough air in the dry suit to make it comfortable. Many of those are instructors who tell students to ignore the text.
4. On the other hand, many experienced dry suit divers have over the years found that they do indeed prefer to use their dry suits as the primary buoyancy control device, so it appears to be at least controversial to some degree.

In my experience, a lot depends upon your weighting. If I am diving steel doubles, for example, I start the dive so overweighted that I can't help but use the wing (BCD) for a lot of the buoyancy control, probably most of it. As the dive goes on and I am losing gas in my tanks (and thus weight), though, I use the dry suit more and more. I frequently prefer to add a puff of gas by touching the valve on my chest or lifting my arm slightly to make minor buoyancy changes.

 

[MarkHerm]

I am one of those vacation divers many like to complain about. I have about 65 dives, I have my OW, AOW and Nitrox certs from PADI. I am getting close to 6 decades old and started about 3 years ago. I will probably seek my Rescue Diver Cert when I get +/- 100 dives under my belt. I am safety minded, have probably done a dive or 2 that was over my abilities. I am going to seek more dive education as I feel is needed/possible. I haven't taken a course that I did not learn something. I am proud of the certifications I have achieved. I don't feel any of them are worthless, I did not do them for the card, I did them to gain knowledge and give me the means to achieve the dream of being able to swim around and look at pretty fishes safely.

I don't believe that you are one of those many like to complain about. You seem to take your classes at a reasonable pace and use and increase your knowledge in real world, non-classes dives in between (instead of barely fulfilling the already extremely low standards for somekind of Master rating or alike ). Can't imagine anyone could complain about this. Have fun!

 

[Majickyl]

TracyN -

I'm sorry you have had some difficult experiences with this instructor, but I generally, especially lately, try to look on the bright side of things and I am grateful that:


(1) You were never hurt. I can think of a few situations you have been in with her that could have easily ended much worse than they did. I'm glad they didn't.


(2) It's all added up to a situation that has essentially resulted in her being run outta town... And less of her around town is probably a good thing. Less potential for hurting more people, or hurting them more seriously.


(3) It's caused you to sever ties with her. So thankful for that... Safe diving not only has to do with your own judgement, training, and self sufficiency, but also has a lot to do with the team you're a part of. I'm glad she's not on yours anymore.


(4) Maybe it's made you less trusting - also a good thing I think. As much as I like you as a person and have SO enjoyed seeing your passion for diving, I have always been wary of your judgement. A lot of it has to do with something that happened in the water long ago, a few decisions you made affected my team in a negative way and it pissed me off. I know that since then you have become a drastically different diver, but a lot of the stories I've heard, the two worst of which involved Ms. Treanor, made me question whether, though your diving had most definitely improved, your judgement had. If you take away anything from this situation, being careful who you trust is not a bad lesson.


I hope your actions are not too much out of spite and instead come from an honest respect for the sport and the dangers of poor training, especially at your level. I know you dive a lot, and you have been trained by some very good people (and some bad) both formally and informally, I hope you find you can use that training to make sound judgements about your own diving, and then trust your own judgement more than the guidance of others who may not be as trustworthy.

I hope that didn't come off preachy - I bet you have gotten tired of being preached at and I really am not trying to do that. I mean it sincerely as a friend - I really hope you are a safer diver for all this. I don't want to see you die, and I'm glad you cut ties with her because I was afraid that if you continued diving the way you did with her you might end up dead one day.

 

[TracyN]

TracyN -

I'm sorry you have had some difficult experiences with this instructor, but I generally, especially lately, try to look on the bright side of things and I am grateful that:


(1) You were never hurt. I can think of a few situations you have been in with her that could have easily ended much worse than they did. I'm glad they didn't.


(2) It's all added up to a situation that has essentially resulted in her being run outta town... And less of her around town is probably a good thing. Less potential for hurting more people, or hurting them more seriously.


(3) It's caused you to sever ties with her. So thankful for that... Safe diving not only has to do with your own judgement, training, and self sufficiency, but also has a lot to do with the team you're a part of. I'm glad she's not on yours anymore.


(4) Maybe it's made you less trusting - also a good thing I think. As much as I like you as a person and have SO enjoyed seeing your passion for diving, I have always been wary of your judgement. A lot of it has to do with something that happened in the water long ago, a few decisions you made affected my team in a negative way and it pissed me off. I know that since then you have become a drastically different diver, but a lot of the stories I've heard, the two worst of which involved Ms. Treanor, made me question whether, though your diving had most definitely improved, your judgement had. If you take away anything from this situation, being careful who you trust is not a bad lesson.


I hope your actions are not too much out of spite and instead come from an honest respect for the sport and the dangers of poor training, especially at your level. I know you dive a lot, and you have been trained by some very good people (and some bad) both formally and informally, I hope you find you can use that training to make sound judgements about your own diving, and then trust your own judgement more than the guidance of others who may not be as trustworthy.

I hope that didn't come off preachy - I bet you have gotten tired of being preached at and I really am not trying to do that. I mean it sincerely as a friend - I really hope you are a safer diver for all this. I don't want to see you die, and I'm glad you cut ties with her because I was afraid that if you continued diving the way you did with her you might end up dead one day.

Thanks Tina. I appreciate you concern and I didn't take it as being preachy. I fully understand where you are coming from. In the beginning if someone had given me these two certifications I probably would have just accepted them. Now that I've gained training and experience I saw that what this instructor did was not only unethical but flat out unsafe. If she did this to a new diver they may think that they could now go out and safely conduct the dives that these certifications allow them to do. This is the primary reason I decided to report her. Someone will eventually get hurt. Her judgement as an instructor was severly flawed not only in this instance but the other instances we were involved in.

I now have a good, solid group of dive buddies and mentors. I think I've learned my lessons. Hopefully we will be able to go on a dive once you get cleared to dive again.

 

[jIM STEELE]

I still don't understand. Did your or did you NOT pay for Drysuit and Deep Specialty class? It seems to me you only pay for the fees for PADI to print the card.

It sounds to me that you bought a drysuit from a PADI instructor, NOT any classes. And the instructor offered to give you a drysuit intro. At the end of the dives, she thought you have a good understanding of drysuit diving and gave your a Drysuit card. And since the dive happen to reach 90ft, she also give your a Deep Specialty cert. You didn't register or pay for any official PADI class. You only pay the $27.50 for PADI to print the card. Did I get this right?

Your inst charged how much for a dry suit class ???

---------- Post added April 12th, 2013 at 04:17 AM ----------

After 299 to 499 dives how much dry suit training do you need? how deep have you ever gone? have you ever gone diving with your inst. or crew for just for fun? take her to small clams if you have a case.

 

[SubMariner]

Your inst charged how much for a dry suit class ???

---------- Post added April 12th, 2013 at 04:17 AM ----------

After 299 to 499 dives how much dry suit training do you need? how deep have you ever gone? have you ever gone diving with your inst. or crew for just for fun? take her to small clams if you have a case.

Just thought I'd point out that you are responding to a thread where the last post was almost a year ago.... :cheeky: