Thank heavens for PADI

[sharkmasterbc]

You can also become a certifed wreck diving instructor without ever penetrating a wreck...but I digress
PADI is a very good agency and they definetly cater to the recreational diver. Everything in this world has its place.
I truley belive it is all about the instructor not the agency, but from a buisness standpoint nothing comes close to PADI's marketing and promotional teams.

just my 2 bubbles

 

[MechDiver]

What do the rest of you think?

You haven't been banned yet

You're not even a good troll anymore...

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

The best way to answer this question is to take course from different training agencies and (and make sure to try different instructors, too) until you think you have a representative balance of what each agency stands for and does. Then, make your decision. After doing this myself, I decided to become a NAUI instructor though I have learned something from each course I have taken (and instructed).

I have a problem with being told: "Do this, don't do that" without having all of the information behind this. In other words, I want to know why. Certain agencies include this information in training and certain agencies really don't. NAUI does.

NAUI also includes substantial rescue at every level of certification including skin diving/snorkeling. I now know this after making the long journey through all the trainig agencies. I would rather know about this than to make things "fun" and "easy."

I do not feel that diving is for everyone, and I don't think that diving should be marketed as "safe." I also don't think that the courses should be dumbed-down to make them something that "everyone" should be able to "pass." People can and do die in this "sport," and those learning about it should know this up front.

Diving is fun, don't get me wrong! But there are certain requirements that one should be able to meet in order to engage in it with a reasonable degree of risk while having that fun.

 

[Diver0001]

<snip>

Diving is inherently intimidating and a lighter approach will attract and keep more people.

[devil's advocate mode = on]

What kind of people?

No.....seriously. What kind of people won't learn to dive unless the bar is set ridiculously low?

Maybe they're people afraid of water. I've had 'em in intros. Do we want to teach them how to dive?

What about claustrophobic people or people afraid in the dark?

And people who can't swim? Now that's just plain stupid in a water sport don't you think?

How about people who are dangerously unfit?

People who are too macho to recognise danger?

People who are too timid to say no?

People who don't give a rat's patoot about being careful with coral?

People who can say "me" "me" "me" ten times faster than they can say "we" "we" "we"?

..... this list can get long but I think you see where I"m coming from .....

To be honest, I think there is room for a "tra-la-la" approach to scuba training but not without putting more effort into filtering out the Darwin candidates first. Light approach. Ok but not for everyone.

The lower you set the bar for entry into the sport the more thorough the training needs to be.....

R..

 

[Lawman]

Good points, but not directly on the subject. Diving is a sport or recreation. The industry needs to expand to survive. I think PADI has the right marketing approach.

That doesn't mean that PADI has the best instruction. That's pretty subjective to reach any kind of agreement. It just means that PADI knows how to promote diving as a hobby and keep people involved after certification.

By the way, I know how to troll. I'm the King of the Trolls. If I troll, you'll know it. This is a serious discussion.

As for MechDiver he can KMA.

 

[diverrick]

I was Certified YMCA. It was years ago when they taught scuba like boot camp, but I did REALLY have to learn every little stinki'n detail to pass.
My wife recently did her PADI OW, and I read the Course material for the refreasher. I also read the sylibus for PADI AOW/Nitrox (as I was originally going to go PADI for the classes). I found the information to be very clear, and well written. It was easily understandable, for anyone I thought.
Great pictures and additional stuff to look at to make the idea clearer.
I recently got my AOW and Nitrox through NAUI, and I have to say, that after reading PADI's course material and the NAUI's I came up with a clear winner in that aspect. PADI. I thought NAUI's books were very difficult to read and understand, with out going over the material multiple times. The math was not clearly defined in a manner that would allow a "normal" person to readily understand it. imho. I really found the book to be poorly written. I am not bashing NAUI here, just my experience with both courseworks.

 

[dweeb]

[devil's advocate mode = on]

What kind of people?
No.....seriously. What kind of people won't learn to dive unless the bar is set ridiculously low?
Maybe they're people afraid of water. I've had 'em in intros. Do we want to teach them how to dive?
What about claustrophobic people or people afraid in the dark?
And people who can't swim? Now that's just plain stupid in a water sport don't you think?
How about people who are dangerously unfit?
People who are too timid to say no?
People who don't give a rat's patoot about being careful with coral?
People who can say "me" "me" "me" ten times faster than they can say "we" "we" "we"?
..... this list can get long but I think you see where I"m coming from .....

AMEN!!!!!!!

You forgot to mention the biggest group PADI attracts to diving; those for whom learned helplessness is a religion.

 

[gj62]

AMEN!!!!!!!

You forgot to mention the biggest group PADI attracts to diving; those for whom learned helplessness is a religion.

Only because PADI attracts the biggest group.

Seriously, I've seen helpless people out of all the active rec programs in the US, and it all cycles back to the instructor. Poor instructors exist in every organization and can undermine any cirriculum.

However, while PADI does have a terrific marketing organization, and clearly understands the sales/marketing side of the business, I think they (and other organizations) owe it to the sport and the people that they introduce, to have a some/better oversight of their professionals (instructors). Then, they will truly be DIR (sorry, couldn't resist )

 

[diverrick]

"You forgot to mention the biggest group PADI attracts to diving; those for whom learned helplessness is a religion."
Now that's a troll if I ever saw one! don't bite on that anyone, or this thread will quickly degenerate into the same old debate.

 

[MikeFerrara]

PADI may indeed be the future of diving but not if I have anything to say about it.

They are sure good at selling something, it's just that some of us have a hard time calling what they sell "diving".

I think it could be called underwater tourism or underwater sight seeing or something like that but not diving.

I also think that their low standards may eventually catch up with them. Of course, I shouldn't single PADI out here because some of the other agencies are doing their level best to compete on similar terms.

I also wouldn't refer to a good class as "boot camp" either as some one did earlier in the thread. Just a little more time and effort early on in training can really speed things up later on. You can end up with a much better diver with only a little more time and effort. Of course even though the extra time and effort on the part of the instructor and the student may be small it might require a lot more knowledge and skill on the part of the instructor. That could make it hard to pump out new instructors at the speed of light and it might be hard to get them to work for less than minimum wage.

AWWWWWWWWWW