PADI Poll

[DiveTub]

divedude once bubbled...
So why does PADI get trashed so much, if most people were introduced to this great sport by them

It's called "Tall Poppy Syndrome", the biggest is always the first to be knocked down

As long as you have the theory and skills to saftely conducted the planned dive, cares what agency you are certified with

 

[ColdH20diving]

Started out my open water and continued thru to my divemaster with PADI. I plan on taking additional PADI courses. I don't know why some of the people on this board are bashing PADI. It must be the "in" thing to do now.

 

[MgicTwnger]

I was originally certified by the Y in (gasp!) '68, re-certified by PADI a couple of years ago. I've also done AOW and a couple of specialty courses with PADI because my instructor is great, and PADI is the only show in town here in the middle of corn country.

 

[detroit diver]

divedude once bubbled...
So why does PADI get trashed so much, if most people were introduced to this great sport by them

Because successful marketing does not mean quality education.

 

[Walter]

"So why does PADI get trashed so much, if most people were introduced to this great sport by them"

You can certify the most divers if quality is not a major concern. If "As many as possible, as quickly as possible" is your theme, you'll certify more divers. You can do this to a degree with any agency and there are instructors from all agencies who reject the concept. OTOH, PADI's standards make it very easy for instructors to take this approach without violating standards. PADI gets trashed, from time to time, by people who care about quality training. People who see the poor quality of most PADI divers and associate it with the agency. They then express their opinions. There are excellent PADI instructors, but they are the ones who exceed standards.

 

[mikeh]

divedude once bubbled...
So why does PADI get trashed so much, if most people were introduced to this great sport by them

While I'm new to diving, this phenomenon is not limited to diving by any means. To mass produce anything requires standardization. To expand production beyond a certain level, one must accept a certain percentage of substandard product will make it out the door. After that, it is simple math. Intel plans chips with a failure rate of <2%. Two percent of 100 means only 2. When its 2% of 10 million....well, you get the idea.

Mass production of education along with speed of communication results in a poorer grade of service. If you disbelieve this, run a spellchecker through this board.

 

[raybo]

mikeh once bubbled....

Mass production of education along with speed of communication results in a poorer grade of service. If you disbelieve this, run a spellchecker through this board.

Y in '72, PADI O/W in '90, working through several PADI specialties now toward Master, which really doesn't seem to mean anything, but I'm getting what I wasnt out of the specialties, and it was a "package" deal with my LDS & instructor.

Looking to do DIR-F if I can get there over Easter weekend, and maybe IANTD advanced nitrox/deco later this spring or summer. Don't know how the family will take it, but would like to do cavern/cave and wreck training, but will have to travel for that. Won't be PADI.

Part of the reason PADI gets trashed so much is because anybody that either got certs in the early '70's or earlier, or has since taken a more advanced course via a more "technical" agency realizes that they hardly scratch the surface in PADI O/W. That's been my biggest dissapointment with them. Not that it was "bad", I just didn't find it to be very comprehensive &/or in depth.

Basically, I think the PADI courses are way too easy.

 

[Cave Diver]

I was certified BOW through PADI.

Did my IANTD Nitrox and PADI AOW shortly thereafter.

Completed PADI Rescue a few months after that.

Eventually did NACD Full Cave.

Did a GUE DIRF class.

Most recently did IANTD Deep Diver and Advanced Nitrox.

Have a NAUI Trimix class scheduled in a few more months.

Also currently working on PADI DM class, and considering instructor training. If I do decide to go that route, I will likely cross over to IANTD at a later date.

I have had a pretty good mix of classes from different agencies and instructors. My BOW instructor was very passionate about the sport, and that influenced me a lot to further my training and education. He's still one of my regular dive buddies to this day and we've done numerous trips together.

I think it's a lot more the instructor (and student) than the agency.

There are some great PADI instructors out there. But they are kinda like airplane crashes. You only hear about the bad ones, not all the ones that happen safely every day.

 

[luvdiving]

I was diving for over a year before I caught the PADI class. In the old days (Ha), you could buy everything from the PX without a C card.

After I had the class and learned things like tables and depth limits, I got a little scared. If I had it to do over, I WOULD NOT do it the same.:boom:

 

[Bren Tierney]

I guess I'm like a number of others here: I came up the PADI route (OW, AOW, Rescue, DM etc.) initially and then swapped to an organisation that better suited my diving needs and aspirations - TDI, which, incedently, I've found provides a better all round 'capability' for diving in UK conditions (temp, viz etc.).

What I will say (and NOT wanting to start a flame war here) is that, ironically, neither PADI, BSAC et al wanted anything to do with Nitrox (let alone other exotic mixes) when it was 1st introduced. Now that they can see a market for it they're in like Flynn - not surprisingly.

And aren't we missing something important in this inter-agency review? I don't know whether it's already been mooted (apologies if it has), but the diver training agency is NOT important (as long as it's a recognised body): the most important thing in teaching a diver good and safe diving practises (be that recreational or technical) is the Instructor in question.

Dive safe all - always.