Starting DM program...which agency????

[jcpiota]

Very frustrated. I have completed rescue diver with PADI. The shop I have been using has drop PADI and is now using SCI and TDI. They are VERY experienced divers. However, as I look down the road, I have to ask which certification agency gives me the most portability.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions.....

Thanks,

 

[rjack321]

However, as I look down the road, I have to ask which certification agency gives me the most portability.

Are you somehow thinking you are going to get a job & paid as a DM?

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Very frustrated. I have completed rescue diver with PADI. The shop I have been using has drop PADI and is now using SCI and TDI. They are VERY experienced divers. However, as I look down the road, I have to ask which certification agency gives me the most portability.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions.....

Thanks,

A C-card is easy to get. Great training and mentoring is not as easy to find. If you think the instructors at the shop can do that for you, go with them.

 

[Satyre]

It really depends on what are your goals?
If you plan to become at one point an instructor, I will suggest PADI.
With PADI you should find more opportunities and usually crosingover from PADI is easier than the other way around.
But nothing prevent you to keep diving with the great instructors you met that are now TDI and gain additional experience and discover other ways

 

[jcpiota]

I have done a search on the sdi site for shops in the caribbean that are sdi shops. very limited. this concerns me.

background info for context; the PADI shop in my area, i have serious issues with. Three times i gave them my reg for service. each time it came back worse. it turns my stomach to give them business. the instructors there are good. the manager...i don't know what up his a**. I have nothing against PADI, SDI/TDI, for the record. Just don't want to use this shop and don't know how this will affect me down the road trying to be an instructor.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Agency should not be the factor unless you plan on doing it for a living. It is not about you once you become an instructor. At least it should not be. What is the best for your future students? Do you want to turn out a lot of divers or ones that you would allow your kids to dive with and you not there? What agency will allow you to teach based on your ethics, morals, and conscience.

Do you really think that once you become an instructor you'll get a great job in the Caribbean that you can live on and perhaps support a family? I will also say that agency afffiliation has NOTHING to do with reg service. If it's that bad learn to do your own.

A good instructor is a good instructor. They can teach outside of agency guidelines if that's what it takes to create good divers. It is better though if the agency encourages them to add to and test on that additional info. Did you ask why they dropped PADI? There may be a good reason. The shop I work with got tired of being told to sell more stuff that people did not need or even want. He did not like someone telling him this instructor or that one should not be teaching there because they were with another agency.

 

[jcpiota]

Agency should not be the factor unless you plan on doing it for a living. It is not about you once you become an instructor. At least it should not be. What is the best for your future students? Do you want to turn out a lot of divers or ones that you would allow your kids to dive with and you not there? What agency will allow you to teach based on your ethics, morals, and conscience.

Do you really think that once you become an instructor you'll get a great job in the Caribbean that you can live on and perhaps support a family? I will also say that agency afffiliation has NOTHING to do with reg service. If it's that bad learn to do your own.

A good instructor is a good instructor. They can teach outside of agency guidelines if that's what it takes to create good divers. It is better though if the agency encourages them to add to and test on that additional info. Did you ask why they dropped PADI? There may be a good reason. The shop I work with got tired of being told to sell more stuff that people did not need or even want. He did not like someone telling him this instructor or that one should not be teaching there because they were with another agency.

thanks for the feedback, and i understand your points. i am interested in having the most marketability and options without sacrificing quality. it's about having options. that's what i'm after. options and portability.

to clarify, i never meant to imply the poor service on the reg had anything to do with PADI. my point is i don't want to support a shop in any way that is careless or apathetic about its customers needs.

 

[H2O 70]

I have both the PADI DM materials and the SDI DM materials in front of me. SDI definitely has better materials. Maybe not necessarily better materials, but better organized materials. Same contents, just one is better organized.

I did PADI DM and I'm doing SDI AI.

 

[jcpiota]

Are you somehow thinking you are going to get a job & paid as a DM?

And this feedback helps how...exactly?..................

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Called a reality check. DM is another name most times for indentured servant. rarely do DM's make much money. And they should. But there are so many and shops know there will be more. If DM standards included a requirement that not just any one could pay money and take the course things might change. My business is looking like I will need an assistant in the not so distant future. I have one or two people in mind to ask if they wish to pursue that route. That is how I will get a DM. By selecting someone based on their skills, knowledge, and ability to work with students. There are some divers I've seen in DM courses who frankly should not be there but they paid several hundred bucks and were allowed to take the course. This to me is not how DM's should be selected. Greed should not drive the process of selecting the best candidate. I look at it as an application process not a selling process.