Questionable OW Instruction at Resorts

[Web Monkey]

I was in Cozumel this past week with my mother and her husband. They decided to get OW certification while down there. I won't mention the resort or the dive operation but let's just say I was less than pleased with the instruction they received. Neither one of them got any classroom instruction or pool time before they were put in gear and plopped

In business, you don't get what you pay for, you get what the vendor is being compensated for, which are entirely different things.

You may be paying for SCUBA lessons, but depending on where you take them, the instructor may actually be paid for either:

• Getting your money, handing you a C-Card and sending you on your way or
• Teaching you enough to make you a safe (and hopefully happy) diver who will come back and take more classes, buy stuff and go on trips.

You can find both kinds locally and at resorts. The trick is to get references before you "sign on the dotted line".

Unfortunately with SCUBA, new OW students don't have enough information to even know what questions to ask until it's too late.

Terry

 

[D_B]

Just so there's no confusion , I was pointing out that I had more instruction on my first discover scuba dive then it appears Kabluton's mom did in her OW class , no way that I'm suggesting that is enough training.
We had three, 3hr classroom ses. and three, 3hr pool ses. and 3 ocean dives, for my OW

DB

 

[aquamarin]

Well, I had no classroom training and no confined water training. I was told to jump into the water with all my gear on - and then the dive guide (no instructor) dumped the air from my bcd. I descended to about 15 meters, mask flooding, panic level increasing. He then fiddled with my bcd (inflated it) and there I was....I had no idea what a bcd, regulator or anything was. I was SO scared - but more scared that my big brother would call me a chicken rest of my life After he heard how I got my ow, he's never called me a chicken again After my 3rd dive, I received a manual and did 2 dives with an instructor. And then I was certified. Really scary - and it took me 10-15 dives with my brother (who's not an instructor btw) to become reasonably good = not a hazard to myself and others.

If I had not had my brother as a buddy, I would never ever have gone diving again

This was on Cuba btw.......

Karin

 

[chugmeister]

Just to give a story on the opposite side of the coin I got my OW cert at Couples Swept Away in Negril. Did the free resort certification. All of the instructors were very patient and took their time with us. We had class time, pool time and then they took us all down the rope made a little circle, fed the fish swam around for a minute and went back up. There were 8 of us on the dive and 2 instructors, a videographer and 2 guys that were I believe in training to be instructors. Two of the ladies on the dive (one being my wife) had problems and the crew took quick care of them and we felt comfortable that they had it under control.

Then when we got back to shore they only went up to two of us and encouraged us to pursue our OW with them. They actually reccommended to one of the ladies that if she wanted to do the OW cert to give the free resort cert and dive one more try cause they felt she wasn't very comfortable with it after her dive and didn't want her to spend the money if she wasn't going to be able to complete it.

Several of the instructors that knew I was working on my OW cert would stop by, have a drink and go over the course material with me on their own time while alot of the other staff was hanging out playing pool or ping pong etc. When I took my test I got a couple of questions wrong and the instructor administering the test took an inordinate amount of time going back over the material to make sure I understood it.

I guess my point is there are good operations out there and with anything you spend your money on (and obviously risk your health on) take the time to make sure you are getting you money's worth. Its easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of vacation and learning something new but take the time to interview the instructors. Look around the resort too, find someone else with a OW cert book and talk with them. There were several at our resort.

 

[fishoutawater]

Same thing happened to my step daughter on her honeymoon in Coz. She said they strapped on the gear, said "breathe through this", and shoved her into the water.
She's not interested in diving anymore.

 

[D_B]

Same thing happened to my step daughter on her honeymoon in Coz. She said they strapped on the gear, said "breathe through this", and shoved her into the water.
She's not interested in diving anymore.

Should be criminal to do that !
besides not being much of a way to get someone enthusistic about diving
So sorry to hear that ignorance and idiocy has caused someone to not be able to enjoy what we all know to be one of the most fascinating and beautiful places on earth

DB

 

[boulderjohn]

Sadly, it all comes down to the individual instructor, not the agency. There is no way on earth that any agency can properly police all of its instructors. Any one of them can do whatever he/she pleases until caught.

I worked in the world of education, where some certified teachers continually violate all their standards, despite the fact that they have years of training and (supposedly) administrators watching their work.

I too had my initial training at a resort where my pool training totaled about 2-3 hours in a pool with a maximum depth below 5 feet. Now, I will say that the instructors did a good job making up for that in the open water, but I still should have gone through my local dive shop and gotten the intense pool work they do there first.

 

[chugmeister]

Sadly, it all comes down to the individual instructor, not the agency. There is no way on earth that any agency can properly police all of its instructors...

I guess the only way an organization can police this is by investigating complaints. Hopefully all of you that had these bad experiences lodged a complaint with the instructors certifying agency.

 

[WellBelowH2O]

I won't mention the resort or the dive operation but let's just say I was less than pleased with the instruction they received.

Unless there's some ScubaBoard rule to not mention particular names, I would think that you'd want to mention where this happened. You may be saving someone from a similar situation who might end up hurting themself or others because of poor training.

Everytime I read something like this, it makes me that much more thankful for the excellent training that I've received at my LDS.

 

[artusor]

Wow, this is a terrible way to train people on more than one level. Besides being potentially dangerous, it also does not serve the goal of these resort scuba classes. The idea is to get people interested enough that they will come back and pay for a real certification, not scare people away, which is what this sort of thing would do.

I had a very good experience with my resort course. 1 hour or so of classroom + another hour or so in the pool. After that the instructor evaluated the students (2 of us) and had one come back another day because she was not comfortable enough with some of the skills. I did do the ocean dive after that and enjoyed it enough to convince me to get certified. The only bad experience in my dive was that vis was not very good.

I do agree with other posters though. This sort of thing should be brought to the attention of the certifying agency. That si the only way to stop this.