PADI Holds The New World's Record for Fastest OW Class

[Mustangfreak]

I went through PADI, and my course was 7 Days long. 5 classroom, and 2 days of diving.

 

[v4nity]

if not a fan of PADI what are the other alternatives for learning to dive???

 

[DandyDon]

If the agencies made the Aow course meaningful, they wouldn't sell as many cards - which is their primary business. :doh:

if not a fan of PADI what are the other alternatives for learning to dive???

There is a large number of certifying agencies (see partial list here ) that all adhere to the same convention of minimum standards. Still, you train with whomever you can find locally - or compare if you have more than one option, and hope for the best. It really depends on the Inst more. You try to learn enough to not have an accident while you really learn thru diving.

 

[RonFrank]

if not a fan of PADI what are the other alternatives for learning to dive???

You are not a fan of PADI because?

Don't judge an instructor based on the agency affiliation. By saying you are not a fan of PADI, you have basically eliminated likely 70%+ of the LDS's and instuctors in the market. That's a whole lot of talented people to take off your list because you have some predefined prejudice against the largest agency on the planet because of what, people trash talking them on the net?

If you have done the research, and have some specific goals that PADI does not meet, but NAUI does for example (what those would be is hard to say as ALL the agencies have a very similar framework) then certainly choose the agency that meets your needs.

There are good and bad instructors, and LDS's affiliated with EVERY certifying agency. I'd be more interested in finding a good LDS with recommended instructors vs. what agency they are working with.

Another thing you should consider, PADI is the biggest, and as a PADI certified Instructor that means you have more job opportunities. If you certify with SSI, for example, and you find a PADI shop you would love to work for, you will have to do a cross over class. Of course the opposite holds true, but your odds are better with PADI that an LDS you may want to work for is PADI vs. the other smaller agencies.

 

[nyprrthd]

OK already. I'm a new diver, and relatively new to this board; and I'm already getting tired of these PADI bashing, my agency is better than yours threads.

My OW certification is through PADI, and guess I was lucky enough to have extremely strict instructors. There is no skill listed on the requirements that we were not required to master, including all of the optional skills. I heard "try it again" several times during our pool sessions. We had to swim 200 yards in the ocean without fins or wetsuit, and then float/paddle for a full 10 minutes. Read the book, did the homework, sat and reviewed in class, and then watched the video. After all that, the test was simple.

I got suntan lotion in my eyes (I now know to not use it before diving) on my first OW dive, gasped, swallowed some water, and started for the surface. The instructor grabbed me, calmed me down, and made me work through the situation. She made it a point to tell me later that I would face challenges after I got certified, and needed to learn to work through any difficulties without panicing. After our initial certification dives, the head instructor suggested that we do at least one "fun" dive before we went home (no flooding masks or "losing" our regs). He was the DM on that dive, and didn't treat us like newbies. However, I did notice him watching every move we made. He also checked everyone's gear before we jumped off the boat, including the advanced divers on board.

The point is, as other posters have said, it's the quality of the instruction and the attitude of the student that make the biggest differences. We can argue semantics in an endless circle, but the name of a level of expertise means nothing. Those who work on improving their skills after certification should be helped by those with the experience. It's the only way that you folks with hundreds (or thousands) of dives under your belt will improve the quality of the divers you will invariably be sharing the ocean with.

The better I get, the more I enjoy diving. The folks on this board take their time to pass on a tremendous amount of knowledge, and give direction to those of us who want to continue to learn. Now, take that helpful attitude diving with you, and watch how the quality of divers increases. Instead of bashing PADI, or any other agency, lobby them to increase the quality and thoroughness of their instructors. The course material seems pretty complete IMHO.

'Nuff said, let's go diving.................

 

[scubaaaronh]

amen prrthd

 

[Storm]

You are not a fan of PADI because?

Don't judge an instructor based on the agency affiliation. By saying you are not a fan of PADI, you have basically eliminated likely 70%+ of the LDS's and instuctors in the market. That's a whole lot of talented people to take off your list because you have some predefined prejudice against the largest agency on the planet because of what, people trash talking them on the net?

If you have done the research, and have some specific goals that PADI does not meet, but NAUI does for example (what those would be is hard to say as ALL the agencies have a very similar framework) then certainly choose the agency that meets your needs.

There are good and bad instructors, and LDS's affiliated with EVERY certifying agency. I'd be more interested in finding a good LDS with recommended instructors vs. what agency they are working with.

Another thing you should consider, PADI is the biggest, and as a PADI certified Instructor that means you have more job opportunities. If you certify with SSI, for example, and you find a PADI shop you would love to work for, you will have to do a cross over class. Of course the opposite holds true, but your odds are better with PADI that an LDS you may want to work for is PADI vs. the other smaller agencies.

Actually I DO hold PADI to blame for some of the problems, as do I hold the individual instructor as well, but I also put the majority of the blame on myself. It was our decision to fasttrack, nobody put a gun to our heads. That being said, what I was eluding to was the fact that without any minimum logged dive pre-requisites ebtween the OW and AOW, students can fasttrack and that can lead to dives like the one I experienced.

I have no issue with my OW DI. He did a great job in teaching us to assemble and use our gear, and the safetly skills necessary to survive a dive iisue. This was evident in the fact that both my wife followed proper procedures and got to the surface safely despite the OOA on the AOW. It's PADI's allowance of students to fasttrack straight from from the OW to AOW WITHOUT any further diving experience required and the fact that, from what I've been able to find through diver interviews, the majority of AOW courses are merely "trust me" dives, with little to no skills review, or skill enhancements. The types of dive only expose the studet ot the different types od diving possible, but do not really enhance their quality as divers.

Most students straight out of their OW course do not know nearly enough about diving to make an informed decison as to whether or not they should jump into an AOW course. Gas management, dive planning, basic skills like bouyancy control, proper trim, are not stressed enough during the limited time that the OW course current allows. An simulated OOA at 20 feet followed by a shallow attempt at a CESA during the OW open water check out is quite different from and OOA at 98 feet. Trust me I know from first hand experience.

I've talked to many divers and they've said the same thing, they got control over these skills during practical dives AFTER OW the course , and BEOFRE they attempted the AOW. Of the many divers I've interviewd, they averaged between ten and fifteen dives, with mentors touring wreck and practicing basic skills BEFORe they attempted the AOW. All I am saying is that if that is the average number of dives being done by the majority of the divers out there, then padi SHOULD make it an official pre-requisite.

Don't get me wrong, I am not totally soured on PADI, but I think they should take a long look at the limited amount of practical diving they require before taking the AOW and add minnimum logged dives requirements to the AOW pre-requisites.


Scuba_Steve.

While out if site out of mind is not the best way to look at it, that particular DI is no longer in our area teaching (he's moved out of the area)....so there's one less out there now. I've notified PADI about my experience, not that it amount to any changes, and also gave them my opinions as to where they could improve upon their training plan with regards to minimum dive requisites before allowing students to attend the AOW, but again I doubt that it will make any difference. It would slow down their program and reduce the amount of cash they rake in.

See you in the water, buddy.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

........I've notified PADI about my experience, not that it amount to any changes, and also gave them my opinions as to where they could improve upon their training plan with regards to minimum dive requisites before allowing students to attend the AOW, but again I doubt that it will make any difference. It would slow down their program and reduce the amount of cash they rake in.

See you in the water, buddy.

LOL, yeah they stuffed your comments right beside mine. I'm sure the round file is getting quite full

Good job man, I'm glad you did the follow-up and did your part.

The rest from that point on is not your problem. You'd think the amount of money some pro's pay to an agency, not to mention the amount of money they bring in for them would indeed amount to some amount of decent representation once in a while.

Glad you stuck with it, and can now do a proper Instructor qualification through appropriate question and answers of your own.

Too bad some don't get a second chance.

Dive safe bud.

 

[Walter]

There is a large number of certifying agencies (see partial list here ) that all adhere to the same convention of minimum standards.

That's very misleading, Don. Most of those do not belong to RSTC and even of those that do, there are big differences in standards.

If you have done the research, and have some specific goals that PADI does not meet, but NAUI does for example (what those would be is hard to say as ALL the agencies have a very similar framework) then certainly choose the agency that meets your needs.

All agencies do NOT have a similar framework. They teach some of the same things, but some teach what others leave out. They have different philosophies which leads to different standards and different skills taught.

Another thing you should consider, PADI is the biggest, and as a PADI certified Instructor that means you have more job opportunities. If you certify with SSI, for example, and you find a PADI shop you would love to work for, you will have to do a cross over class. Of course the opposite holds true, but your odds are better with PADI that an LDS you may want to work for is PADI vs. the other smaller agencies.

That only applies to SSI and only because SSI requires instructors to be affiliated with an SSI shop. The only time you'd need a PADI cert is to teach at at PADI 5 star facility.

 

[DallasNewbie]

Since everybody seems to think that a 1/2 day of class plenty, maybe we should reduce it to an hour. Or eliminate it entirely and have the student read the book at home and fill out the test on a computer and do the pool sessions in the bathtub.

An hour is more than enough, if the student understands the material. I don't understand the hangup on classroom time. My wife and I were certified with a private instructor (non-PADI) at a well known and respected LDS. We watched the video and read the book beforehand. The instructor quizzed us on a few things, went over tables again, and gave us the test. It was probably all done in about an hour. Should he have re-taught us what we obviously already knew, just to increase the classroom time? Would that have made us better divers?