PADI?

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Yeah, you're the guy I'd want as my instructor. I'd imagine the type of students you take on would be those who would also pay for the ideal longer course Angelo described.
 
I just add dry suit and nitrox and 8 OW dives over 3 weekends (last day is executing each of their dive plans for a dive site they haven’t seen). Since I have to manage their comfort, both psychological and physical (body temp and energy) so a third dive (no skills, just practicing finning, NB, having good trim) I may veto if it is Saturday as I don’t want my course to be a death march.

In an ideal case they’d get 12 dives over 4 days.
 
I keep seeing in my FB forums (along with the split fin argument) about people hating PADI. I think it is silly actually. As long as you are conscienous (sp) diver who cares about marine life and the general good will of the ocean, and practice safe diving - I dont think it matters what agency.
 
Many years ago, the PADI hate on ScubaBoard was much stronger than it is now. There was a very specific group of exactly 7 posters who made it their life's work to attack the organization repeatedly, especially in the New Divers and Basic Scuba threads. If a new diver came in and mentioned how excited he or she was to be starting scuba after getting PADI certification, they would be greeted my messages from those 7 telling them they were lucky to be alive. Concerned about what was going on, SB leadership created a new staff position--Board Guide. These were staff members with very little power whose job it was primarily to watch those sites and do what they could to prevent that sort of behavior, including alerting the real moderators. They were identified with their names in orange letters, and there were 4 of them. Two of them had usernames I didn't recognize and to my knowledge never participated in ScubaBoard again. One of them was Thalassamania. I was the 4th.

I took the job seriously and spent a lot of time on it. One of the things I noticed was the similarity to what I had observed in my previous role as a high school teacher--bullying. Those 7 bullies were quite active, but like high school bullies, they attracted wannabes. There were people who came and went who would join that bandwagon, clearly hoping the bullies would approve of their supportive behavior. They had no reason to act as they did except to gain that approval from their idols.

I decided that a lot of the PADI hate comes from just those sort of people, the people who don't know why they are piling on but know that it feels good to be in the group piling on.
 
The above post, while making some fair points and observations, also diminishes or sidesteps some of the very legitimate reasons to dislike PADI, as though they were nothing more than sour grapes from "bullies" and malcontents.
The reality is that PADI has become this bloated, behemoth organization whose primary focus has become the same as with any large bureaucracy, specifically, perpetuation of the organization's influence, and revenue accumulation, and much of that at the expense of gullible, enthusiastic new divers, that they con into buying all their stupid products, and their largely useless and idiotic "specialties".
And again, I say all that as a former PADI instructor, that's seen the best and the worst of the dive industry, so I'm not just shooting from the hip here. And I'll also state again, that my negative impressions of PADI developed over time, and were agreed with by the vast majority of other instructors I knew.
The expression "PADI = Put Another Dollar In" dates back many years, and they've only gotten worse.
 
The reality is that PADI has become this bloated, behemoth organization whose primary focus has become the same as with any large bureaucracy, specifically, perpetuation of the organization's influence, and revenue accumulation, and much of that at the expense of gullible, enthusiastic new divers, that they con into buying all their stupid products, and their largely useless and idiotic "specialties".
The reality is that PADI is a for-profit organization. A for-profit organization exists for one purpose only: to provide revenue for its shareholders. Which has its pros and cons. Being non-profit and thus not responsible for providing revenue to the shareholders also has its pros and cons. ISTM that not everyone is able to see this.

In an ideal world, any organization would be non-profit, but as effective and productive as a for-profit organization. However, the world is not ideal, and I don't know of any critter which is as effective as a well-driven for-profit organization while using all its revenue to provide better services for its customers. If anyone knows of such a creature, I'd be happy to be educated.
 
PADI has s solo course now?!?!
WOW !
They used to be totally anti solo to the core. What happened to bring this change?

Hello Eric,

I believe PADI calls their Solo Course, ''Self Reliant'', Which I'm assuming for their own liability purposes, doesn't exactly mean ''solo''

Being totally self reliant is something we should all be anyway.

Your dive partner is only as good as the first time you think you need them, and they're no where to be found, off exploring ''over there'', while you're in trouble ''over here''

In which case, you may not be self reliant, but you're certainly ''solo''

Rose.
 
Hello Eric,

I believe PADI calls their Solo Course, ''Self Reliant'', Which I'm assuming for their own liability purposes, doesn't exactly mean ''solo''

Being totally self reliant is something we should all be anyway.

Your dive partner is only as good as the first time you think you need them, and they're no where to be found, off exploring ''over there'', while you're in trouble ''over here''

In which case, you may not be self reliant, but you're certainly ''solo''

Rose.
There is language in the Self-Reliant instructor guide on solo diving.

It is just marketing. SSI has their program as "independent diver." SDI was simply the first that grabbed the name solo. Had another agency been first, they would have snagged solo instead.
 
There is language in the Self-Reliant instructor guide on solo diving.

It is just marketing. SSI has their program as "independent diver." SDI was simply the first that grabbed the name solo. Had another agency been first, they would have snagged solo instead.

W.

I'm more inclined to think it is liability reasoned. ''Solo'' is no more proprietary than ''Open Water''. They could have all said ''solo''.

Self reliant/independent, is still not saying solo/one/alone.

Having said that, I do accept your response.

Rose.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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