Taking refresher with a different Organization

[Mscdex]

I was wondering if anyone has ever taken a refresher course from a different cert orginization than the one they originally certified with? Say if you have Padi open water and take a UTD refresher. Would there be a benefit to this?

 

[tbone1004]

no benefit but UTD might be a bit of a culture shock for you. You'd be better off taking a UTD course as you likely would not pass a refresher from UTD with a PADI OW cert...

 

[RJP]

A fairly sweeping generalization.

 

[crosshairs]

A fairly sweeping generalization.

More like an ignorant generalization

 

[Mscdex]

I was afraid of that kind of response. I do see that UTD wants its divers to use the same type of equipment/config which can also be seen in a UTD store. This could be an issue since I use a wide range of gear.

 

[decompression]

Any new experience can be beneficial......might be interesting to see why they used a standardized config.


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[tbone1004]

I don't see why it's an ignorant generalization, while I don't know the full specifics of the UTD refresher, if the student is like 99.99999% of the PADI OW divers out there, they don't have the buoyancy/trim/propulsion skills to get through that, nor are they familiar with the air sharing practices, so it would be a major hurt on the class for others when the refresher class is designed to take students from that agency or ones with similar training standards, and refresh them on the important points that may have been forgotten. NAUI/PADI/SDI, no problem moving back and forth between them for a refresher, it's all about the same. Moving to UTD is a completely different animal and I don't know of a single standard PADI course that has divers prepared to go into the team diving aspect. Also note that I'm not a fan of UTD in any way except for their heated body wrap, so it's not like I'm chest thumping.

If he's talking about the Essentials of Recreational course then that is an entirely different animal and in that case I would recommend taking that, especially if you aren't nitrox certified since you can get your Nitrox cert for no additional cost. Their Extreme Scuba Makeover also looks like it could be an interesting course and I'd recommend that no problem, but if they are offering a standard refresher, similar to the ones that NAUI/PADI/SDI et al offer, then no, I think it would be a very rare exception that a PADI OW diver could pass, mainly due to gear configuration/air sharing issues, compounded by buoyancy/propulsion techniques.

 

[RJP]

A fairly sweeping generalization.

I don't see why it's an ignorant generalization, while I don't know the full specifics of the UTD refresher, if the student is like 99.99999% of the PADI OW divers out there...

Ah... much less "sweeping" then.

If you had said "the majority of OW divers" or even "the majority of PADI OW divers" you wouldn't sound as knee-jerk PADI bashing. The fact is, the majority of NAUI OW divers and SSI OW divers and SDI OW divers and pretty much any other agency's recreational OW certified divers would lack the buoyancy/propulsion/trim of a diver trained by a UTD, GUE, etc.

 

[tbone1004]

so that was too many 9's, PADI puts out just shy of 1m certifications per year, of those I bet maybe 100 of them with just a OW cert per year are at the level required. 99.99% per year is probably a bit more accurate.... Similar statistics apply to NAUI and SDI, so call it 99.999% of total recreational diver certs per year would not be able to pass a UTD/DIR/GUE style refresher course, again due mainly to the fact that they have never learned those diving styles and you can't learn how to do it in 4 hours in a pool.... You just can't deny it, look at videos of the instructors against UTD/GUE style open water divers, you can't compare it.

To the OP, if you're looking at a Extreme Scuba Makeover, or Essentials of Recreational course through UTD you couldn't spend your money much better if you're looking at a refresher, the quality of education from UTD is rivaled only by GUE as a general training agency, and very rarely in specific instances from the other agencies.

 

[RJP]

so that was too many 9's, PADI puts out just shy of 1m certifications per year, of those I bet maybe 100 of them with just a OW cert per year are at the level required. 99.99% per year is probably a bit more accurate.... Similar statistics apply to NAUI and SDI, so call it 99.999% of total recreational diver certs per year would not be able to pass a UTD/DIR/GUE style refresher course

You may still be off by another order of magnitude or two... but in principle I wouldn't disagree.