PADI OW and BPW
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Scott that is a great point. PADI Corp will be fine with it. I have also asked this question. However, one finds pain points if the dive shop you affiliate yourself with does not sell the equipment you own, E.g., BP/W with Long hose configuration, or they do not know how to use the equipment. This is where ruffled feathers come into play. I've heard everything from an "S-drill breaks PADI standards because it is not on the E-learning or video" to "I don't think my insurance will cover those skills." and even worse, "I don't want to buy into those brands because they won't sell in my shop."
Not many dive stores have BP/wings in the rental/teaching classes. I owned a store for 30 years. If I had a chance to start again, I would have gone BP/wing because it will allow me to teach with the equipment that I dive with today. As a retailer it does cause a problem on your bottom line. If a diver make 20-5- dives a year they will need a new BCD in 5 years. I have had my BP/wings since 2000 and I have only replaced my straps once because chlorine degraded the material. The logistics of sizing and adjusting the BP/wing was also an issue. Halcyon introduced a system that allows the time for adjustment to go quicker. Even though we taught with standard back flotation BCD's (Seaquest Balance and Libra) we sold more BP/wing systems. We would spend the time to adjust and teach them how to dive the system in the pool. So if you are instructor and want to teach with a BP/wing you have to convert the dive store owner first. Or you can just buy your own sets and teach as an independent instructor.
You make some great points. however, I would argue more stores are coming around to the idea, E.g., Zen Dive Co. in CA, Dive Alaska, and of course, the old standbys Extreme Exposure, Hollywood Divers, and Zero Gravity. I have since gone independent and am planning my own shop, which we will only carry certain brands and BP/W because, IMHO, that is what works best going from OW all the way into tech. I shouldn't have to survive on BC turn around; that tells my customer I carry unreliable equipment. We should earn money on the continued progression of courses, mentorship, and the idea of creating a community around the shop.
That is an excellent point. I often forget those issues being self-employed.
Students are often told something isn't allowed or isn't good because the shop doesn't offer it. I always prefer to be honest with customers and often refer them to other instructors/shops if I can't meet their needs. If you see a style of equipment for sale in lots of places but your shop is telling you it isn't authorized by whatever training agency then someone is probably lying to you and you should check around and maybe find a different instructor who offers what you want.
You should look at how Dive Right In outside of Chicago manages their operation. Not necessarily for the online store, but the philosophy beyond their local shop (now shops), which is to create active local divers.
To start with all classes are taught in drysuits, even OW. Then they give free equipment rentals for a month after certification and they organize a lot of local dives. This obviously is a major upfront cost, but the payoff is huge. Creating local divers means they sell a lot of drysuits, tanks, fills, lights, and advanced classes. Another advantage is they use and sell so many drysuits that they added the people and equipment to service and repair them. This gives them a national presence as well as making it easier for locals to keep diving.
They are also really friendly with walk-ins. Pre-covid, I stopped by with my kids and the manager (I think co-owner) spent almost a half hour showing us through the whole operation.
Contrast this with the shop where I took my initial training where the philosophy appeared to be to extract the maximum amount of cash possible selling gear to their students heading for a vacation referral.
Speaking of which. Does your location mean something too clever for me to understand or did you just misspell Champaign, IL?
There's your reason.
It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that I lived through while being the only technical instructor for a shop. The owner was terrified about unsold inventory, so although he would be happy to sell that gear to my students if they special-ordered it, he had nothing on display, nothing in inventory. When my students needed to buy their gear (many thousands of dollars worth), they had to choose between waiting for weeks for a special order to get in or getting it in a couple days from an online vendor. This pissed the owner off, as he pointed out that none of my students were buying gear from the shop.
Even if the shop has the gear in inventory and on display, the customers will buy after having a shop employee give the pros and cons of the various options. If that employee is not a BP/W kind of diver, nobody's going to buy it.
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