Roll call: Any old NASDS divers out there?

[mdb]

John Gaffney/NASDS and John Cronin/PADI had a long standing feud. John Gaffney coined the Phrase " Put Another Dollar In"-PADI. Also started the rumor that PADI had certified a duck. Most NASDS Stores were Scuba Pro stores; a close alliance-selling at full retail. PADI stores leading with US DIVERS/AQUA-LUNG. It was a rivalry for many years, In San Diego we had the opportunity to experience both sides. New England Divers-and San Diego Divers Supply. Lots of fun hearing the trash talk.

 

[RobinBahia]

Gaff had his share of feuds. Plus he pissed off a lot of store owners pushing the Z-90 stuff that pretty much nobody wanted. I only met him and didn't get to know him, but back then everyone had a story about him, to say the least.

The NASDS approach was to offer the most complete basic certification course possible, making solid divers who really didn't need another course. The stores would make their money pushing equipment, i.e. SCUBAPRO. The PADI angle was not just equipment sales, but on upselling every course possible. All those PADI patches were a powerful selling tool, and made the diver want more. NASDS, in general, produced more qualified divers out of the chute. But the PADI methodology, in terms of a business, won out because they made more money for both the instructors and the stores. I was a solid instructor, but a lousy salesman, so I didn't make much money and therefor the store didn't make much money. Not trying to badmouth PADI or the instructors in any way, by the way. Just a rant about how the best training doesn't always equate to better business, unfortunately.

Just putting in my two cents cuz I miss talking about this stuff....

 

[mdb]

Fortunate to have San Diego Divers Supply and NASDS as a starting point. I went on to take more NASDS courses @ Sea D' Sea in Redondo Beach, NAUI courses @ Ocean Enterprises, San Diego, PADI in San Francisco. NASDS was my fav for sure.

 

[Shotmaster]

I met a woman at my LDS today, she is my age, fit and trim, and started diving at the same time, she pulled out her original YMCA cert card! I met my female twin as far as diving mentality. She said she likes to pull it out when going on dives to see the reaction from the PADI crowd, it's like wow! What is that? The YMCA training program produced very capable divers. We definitely have a different view. I hope to hook up with her for a dive.

 

[GameChanger]

I have whipped out my vintage 1970 NASDS card on a few occasions. Most LDS will recognize it, but they do ask me when my last dive was. It is a bit tough to read, but my last name and SSN are decipherable (NASDS used the SSN as the Cert#).

 

[coralcruiser]

Just got back from Utila and caught up again with this thread.

Bob Eul, at the Tempe store, was my instructor to. Am still using the little black bag for all my accessories in the boat...but did have to have the sides sewn back up t keep them from falling out.

 

[Cyberdee]

For all the NASDS people. We lost two this month. Tony Zimos passed away on August 2nd and Bill Hardy passed on the 9th.

I attended the college in 1981 (OWIC 569) and have stayed in contact with Zimos over the years. I went to his memorial last Sunday on the beach in Coronado. There were a few of us college people in attendance telling stories of Tony, which wasn't easy because we had to keep it kid friendly. I had talked to him on the phone a few weeks back and one thing never changed was the sound of his voice. -Dee Covert

 

[oly5050user]

Gaff had his share of feuds. Plus he pissed off a lot of store owners pushing the Z-90 stuff that pretty much nobody wanted. I only met him and didn't get to know him, but back then everyone had a story about him, to say the least.

The NASDS approach was to offer the most complete basic certification course possible, making solid divers who really didn't need another course. The stores would make their money pushing equipment, i.e. SCUBAPRO. The PADI angle was not just equipment sales, but on upselling every course possible. All those PADI patches were a powerful selling tool, and made the diver want more. NASDS, in general, produced more qualified divers out of the chute. But the PADI methodology, in terms of a business, won out because they made more money for both the instructors and the stores. I was a solid instructor, but a lousy salesman, so I didn't make much money and therefor the store didn't make much money. Not trying to badmouth PADI or the instructors in any way, by the way. Just a rant about how the best training doesn't always equate to better business, unfortunately.

Just putting in my two cents cuz I miss talking about this stuff....

NASDS had their patches as well..

 

[Bryan@Vintage Double Hose]

Very sad to hear the passing of Tony Zimos.....He's one of those guys that if you met him once you would never forget him. He could be mean as a snake and would strike at the first sign of hesitation or weakness......after he was done kicking your ass he took time out to talk things though so you didn't make the same mistake twice.
And he could sling a BS story with the best of them.....May he rest in peace.
OWIC 647, fall class of 1983

 

[Dave Mann]

NASDS certified at Don Brod's Texas Skin Diving School, Austin, TX in April 1976. Instructor was D. Martin OWIC-247. If I recall his first name was Dennis. Still have the original card in pretty decent shape. I showed it to a dive shop while on vacation in Hawaii. The guy said '1976, huh. That was when scuba training was an iron man competition'. I do recall in-water mouth to mouth resuscitation being part of training.