I had a conversation with SEI headquarters yesterday morning on my way to teach an intro to tech class. It was confirmed that PDIC and SEI had merged and that SEI HQ will be handling the processing of PDIC certification cards and will be providing PDIC professionals with needed materials. This merger will be a good move for each agency at this point. PDIC members will find the customer service through SEI HQ to be professional and friendly while SEI will find representation once again at RSTC and WRSTC meetings.
Reading this thread has always made me sad. For most reading this thread PDIC is just another agency in an alphabet soup of agencies. Some have never heard of PDIC before seeing it in this thread. Others remember PDIC as an agency that stood for quality and one that tried to fight the good fight against a changing industry in which marketing has replaced education; an industry which has become politically polarized and which has been divided by the schism of recreational vs. technical diving.
It made me sad to hear that a woman was treated so negatively by PDIC HQ and it made me sad to read that a former PDIC instructor with a reputation I hold in high regard could use the word, "suck," when referring to an agency of which I was always proud.
I started with PDIC as a 13 year-old boy when an illness kept me from going on vacation with my family and a fateful trip to Kentucky Fried Chicken with my grandfather took us past a dive shop that turned out to be PDIC's retail dive center. Snorkeling was my primary joy throughout childhood and I had no idea that there was a real dive shop in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I had always found rubber masks, fins and snorkels in places like Sears and K-mart. I was serious about my snorkeling and super excited to return with my mom and visit a a real dive shop! You wouldn't believe my excitement when I discovered I could become a SCUBA diver! PDIC's minimum certification age was 14 years for junior open water. But, I was allowed to start at age 13 since my 14th birthday was just weeks away. Training was 8 - 10 weeks meeting every Tuesday night for 1.5 hours of classroom and 1.5 hours in the pool.
Training was challenging. Class by class divers dropped out or flunked out. Doris Murphy, PDIC president, was both a cheerleader and drill instructor as we began each night with 30 minutes of lap swimming with and conditioning with masks, snorkels and fins, followed by 40 minutes of education and then 20 minutes of play time. The first night of training began with the swim test, moved into snorkeling, drown-proofing, using weightbelts and horsecollar BC's, etc. The first night with SCUBA was thrilling - and scary! A lot of skill was demanded of us. After the first night we never were allowed to touch the pool walls or stand in shallow water. We would get dressed in deep water and had to stay off the bottom. Basically, we had to pretend the pool was the deep ocean and solve every problem underwater or at the surface without standing or holding on to the sides or the ladders.
Only 2 people from the first class (I think we started with 8?) were ready for open water. I was lucky to be one of the two. Over the winter, I also attended two more entire OW classes. 1 out of 4 made it through in one class and I can't recall the success rate in the other. When I did my open water training only 2 passed. Compare that to today's attrition rates. Failing a student is considered a sin today.
Most of the skills we learned are no longer taught today, but I still teach them in my classes because they are FUN! Industry hype would have us believe that anything challenging is about as much fun as the Bataan Death March, but in reality skills that build confidence and proficiency such as tank valve breathing, buddy breathing, no mask buddy breathing, no mask buddy breathing BC assisted ascents, etc., develop confidence and control. Such training has been argued ad nauseum on SB and other forums. In my opinion it's awesome. I was lucky to have it and my students today are lucky to have it. I had tough instructors and it paid off over the years in spades.
My instructor, Doris Murphy was the aquatics director for the YWCA and had one of the first exercise shows on TV. Her husband Frank Murphy was one of the first YMCA instructors out of Hall's Diving Institute, a WW II paratrooper from the 101st Abn, a private pilot and incredibly good in the water. He was very still. We weren't allowed to scull with our hands. That was a "No Go" to open water, but Frank rarely sculled a blade when demonstrating. I hadn't seen anyone so still until I started learning cave and tech diving 18 years later! Frank's passion was treasure hunting. He found one of the oldest Native American dugout canoes in 1962 in Lake Winola and really disliked any push in the industry to adapt no take policies for artifacts in shipwrecks.
I decided to become a PDIC Dive Supervisor at age 20 after 7 years of active diving and a PDIC instructor at age 21 after being encouraged to follow those paths. Training for each was a year long. In order to meet the demands of being a PDIC instructor at the HQ, I ended up having to quit karate. Today, you can become a DM or instructor with almost no experience at many agencies. Back then, to be a PDIC Dive Supervisor meant having 3 years experience and 200 dives, I believe.
I don't have lots of experience with PDIC professionals far afield from HQ, but at PDIC HQ standards were always high. Today, you will have lots of DIR types not understanding "high standards" not being frog kick, backward kick, backplate, wing, long hose and perfect trim. The non-DIR types would think these standards would be too insensitive and would weed people out of the sport. Diving was different back then and divers were different. That's a totally different thread topic, but those old salts know what I mean. PDIC is one of the agencies that was popular with the older, tougher more independent instructors.
So, what happened?
Frank died of cancer a few years ago and Doris aged. This resulted in progression at PDIC coming to a halt. The economy caused a slow down in the industry. Combined PDIC needed to lay off support staff. Their son Mel was far more progressive in his role as training director and allowed us to create programs Frank would probably have shot down such as the solo programs. But, at the same time, Mel found himself trying to run PDIC, a dive center, help his aging mother and care for all the family affairs single-handedly. Mel was never what you'd call a "people person" and frustration between dive professionals not getting things processed quickly and correctly and Mel's frustration dealing with PDIC pros and the public just increased to a point of mutual unhappiness. I can see all sides ... Mel's, PDIC pros, and customers. Customers often don't realize how they have changed, not just the customer service. Remember when boat captains were in the order God Almighty - Jesus Christ - Holy Spirit - Boat Captains - Apostles ... well, today, how many captains are treated like rickshaw drivers by soccer mom's with Salt Life stickers on their SUV's? Salt Life stickers are another thread!
Anyway, with the operating stress off Mel, I'm sure this merger will be a good thing. When things looked like they would implode at PDIC, I looked at other agencies. SEI was on my radar screen until I found out they had no interest in technical diving. I believed that was a huge mistake. Technical diving has been around since Cousteau and Dumas were diving 300 feet in the Med. Diving was just diving and magazines used to tell awesome tales of daring adventure until the 1980s when pink gear hit the market. If SEI continues a tech program that will be one positive gift PDIC will give to SEI. The program that was created was excellent. PDIC just never marketed it well.
As for me, I am happy at PSAI because I can take all of the lessons I learned since 1981 from so many wonderful mentors and experiences I've had, living a life that in many ways has been off the hook and beyond my wildest hopes, when watching Jacques Cousteau on TV Sunday nights, dreading school the next day and dreaming of one day being a SCUBA diver.
I'm grateful to God, my family, and all of those who have helped make my underwater dreams come true. A huge part of that gratitude goes to PDIC. I hope that this merger renews the value and vigor of both agencies.
All the best to both PDIC and SEI!
) as she does not appreciate nor ever use that kind of language. EVER. So be nice and you will get genuinely good customer service by a very professional young lady. 
