Red Flags or Misplaced Expectations?

[Wookie]

Did you just copy the wiki article? It still says HQ is still in the States. The article is not accurate. Just look at the imprint on the ssi website. They have been at the same adress and run by Guido for over 20 years.
And in "2008 acquired until the merger with SSI 1999" would require access to a time machine.

Im not doubting Johns story but it must be older than 10 years. Sounds like it was in the 90s.

Looks like Guido retired in 2014. According to LinkedIn

 

[berndo]

Looks like Guido retired in 2014. According to LinkedIn

I'm not on linkedin but the public page I see doesn't say that.

I pulled SSI's last publicly available balance sheet from march 2022. It's signed by him and the other dude who's also listed on the website's imprint.
It also says in the report that SSI is the sole owner of a company in Fort Collins, Co called 'Concept System Inc.' Maybe that McNeese dude John mentioned is the CEO of that one. I don't know.

Eitherway, 20 years ago you had to do a ITC as well as an evaluation with another person. If it was different in the 90s and before, I don't know.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is an interesting video, and I would like to emphasize a couple aspects of it.

• Although the audio says that John Gaffney formed the National Association of Skin Diving Schools, the video shows materials that say The National Association of Skin Diving Stores. The latter was the original name; stores was changed to schools later. The video goes on accurately to show that the NASDS focus was on the retail market. That remains true today. The purpose of scuba instruction is to assist in retail sales. That is why SSI instructors cannot work as independent instructors.
• Something that may surprise people is that in the golden age of scuba instruction in the early 1960s, before it was so badly screwed up by modern agencies, OW dives were not part of instruction. All instruction was completed in the swimming pool.

 

[b1gcountry]

I consider those all indications that the shop does not have a very thorough scheduling process and they are disorganized on the business aspects of diving.

If that is a problem for you (which it probably is because you are posting about it.) Then it might be an indication this shop isn't for you.

I didn't see any red flags to the honesty or the training rigor, but they definitely dont have good comms to their instructors and they are probably disorganized. That would be a problem with me, but how involved do you want to get with this second career? Are you the type of person that can come in and bring them more organization? Or do you want someone else to handle logistical and you just teach?

 

[Dan G]

I consider those all indications that the shop does not have a very thorough scheduling process and they are disorganized on the business aspects of diving.

If that is a problem for you (which it probably is because you are posting about it.) Then it might be an indication this shop isn't for you.

I didn't see any red flags to the honesty or the training rigor, but they definitely dont have good comms to their instructors and they are probably disorganized. That would be a problem with me, but how involved do you want to get with this second career? Are you the type of person that can come in and bring them more organization? Or do you want someone else to handle logistical and you just teach?

Disorganization and poor communication is definitely a problem for me. For both my Dive Guide and AI, we never received any communication about what to expect on day 1. I just showed up a bit early in case we needed to get geared up right away.

As far as bringing in more organization, from what I can determine, there isn't much room for this and the various departments are rather siloed.

Regarding rigor, during Dive Guide, one of my classmates was giving their mock pre-dive briefing and said that we should let them know when we were at 500 psi, because that's when we would turn the dive. They still got a passing score for that briefing and required an explanation as to why turning a dive at 500 psi was an issue.