PADI Poll

[Walter]

PADI is not a newcomer.

In response to

"There was no Padi then, no BCs, no safe seconds, no SPGs and my first reg had two hoses....."

Then yes, PADI is a relatively newcomer. LA County (1954), YMCA (1959), and NAUI (1960) were all well established by the time PADI came along. Sorry if "relatively" threw you. It was in comparison to Diversauras' comments and to the older agencies which may have (he didn't mention the year) been around when Diversauras started diving.

 

[plsdiver4377]

NAUI OW Aug. 2002, AOW Oct. 2002, Nitrox March 2003.
Plan on Rescue then Master sometime in the future. Seems to me it has as much or more to do with the instructor than the Org. since I've met really great PADI and NAUI instructors as well as bad ones and one of two SDI instructors which scared me to death.

 

[Diversauras]

Didn't mean to mis lead anyone, I guess I should have said that PADI and even NAUI were't what they are today. My first OK to dive came from New England Divers and was in '66, and it was not a certification by any standard, and there was no agency affiliation at that time. I don't know when agency affiliation became important. I dived all over the world and was never asked for any card or logbook though I did participate in almost a years worth of UK diving / BS-AC training in '80. I became a NAUI instructor in '82.

plsdiver4377: I too know divers and instructors from various agencies that scare me to death.

 

[Braunbehrens]

My OW class was a PADI class, and the instructor was actually pretty good. I took a couple of other PADI classes that were ok, and then some classes by other agencies, but I still did a lot of very stupid stuff and no one told me. Then I took a GUE class, and learned how to dive.

I know it's a cliché, but there's a reason why so many people say that.

I have heard a few horror stories about PADI. I'll recount my favorite one, which I heard from the guy it happend to.

This was an OW class in some quarry, and there were 5 students and only one instructor (he's already not following the rules). For the first dive, the visibility is very bad, so the instructor takes a rope and has everybody hold on to it in a big circle. The instructor tells them that whatever happens, don't let go of the rope.

As they go down, my friend realizes that the visibility is worse than he thought. He can't see anything at all, not his gauges, the rope, the other people, nothing. Finally he figures F-it, inflates his BC and pops to the surface. There is only one other guy on the surface. I'll let you guess who it is.

I think this story illustrates what's wrong with PADI, plus it's funny. Basically the organization is so big, and the standards so thin, that it's impossible to know that you'll get good instruction by taking a PADI class.

In the end, the best bet is to ask for recommendations for good instructors. I think GUE is still small enough where you can largely dispense with that, but it wouldn't hurt.

BTW, the story above was told to me the way I wrote it down. I have no way of verifying it's veracity, but why would the guy lie to me?