Thank heavens for PADI

[MikeFerrara]

I wish everyone would stop bashing PADI. American's put thousands of teenagers on american highways without so much as a nod.

BTW - there is no law that you even NEED to get certified to be a diver. You can order all your equipment off the internet, including a compressor if you are so inclined, and go dive on off the beach without ever having to take a dive class. The fact that there are even agencies out there that make it easy for people to get some training inexpensively is a win for the entire industry. HOw many other sports do you know where there is a general agreement among eveyone on the industry that you should get some training before participating in the sport? Go see how many people break their necks every year on Ski slopes and compare that to how many people experience injuries and deaths while diving.

Besides... with PADI cranking out customers it creates a steady flow of potential customers for other certifiying agencies. I bet if you dug deep enough you would find that PADI divers, that dive often, go on to get even more training then their counterparts that start in other training agencies.

but...
If the industry didn't require a certification there wouldn't be a reason to take an OW class unless the person saw real TRAINING value in it. Then shops and instructors wouldn't find it so easy to sell a class to some one who just wants to buy a card.

For a fact I have seen many, many people take an especially AOW class who just wanted the card to avoid restricictions on dive boats. They're willing to pay for that even though they don't expect to learn anything. In fact, for that matter, that's why I took an OW class...I needed the card. I was already diving.

The c-card requirements, IMO, just create a market for card sellers which isn't always the same as training. Divers put up with it because 1, they still get the card and that's what they really want (they are buying entry). It's just like buying a ticket at the movie house. All it does is get you in but that's all you want. The 2nd reason is that they don't know the difference.

If you think the training is good check out what countries like France, some provinces in Canada and Maxico are doing.

Not only has the industry devalued training in cost the very qualification seems to carry less and less weight as time goes on.

 

[Mako Mark]

your average PADI OW class?

Yeah.... hehe....

Probably the quietest lawyers in the world......lol

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

but...
In fact, for that matter, that's why I took an OW class...I needed the card. I was already diving.

I don't know what's scarier. You admitting that, or the fact that you sound just like Genesis before he left.

Marc

 

[H2Andy]

I bet if you dug deep enough you would find that PADI divers, that dive often, go on to get even more training then their counterparts that start in other training agencies.

and this reflects well on PADI how?

 

[MikeFerrara]

I don't know what's scarier. You admitting that, or the fact that you sound just like Genesis before he left.

Marc

Why is that so scary?

I had always spent a lot of time in the water. When I found out my cousin was diving, I wanted to go and we did. I didn't even know there was such a thing as certification. When he told me, I thought it was silly. It would have been nice to have the book though. My cousin who was OW certified complained when I hit the bottom and messed things up for him so I didn't do it. My OW instructor made me sit on the bottom. LOL...but I paid the money and got the card so my cousin would stop complaining.

Since then I have taken dozens and dozens of classes. There were exactly three where I learned anything from the instructor.

My wife and her buddy were abandoned by their OW instructo and I had an instructor swim off and leave me on one of my deep diver specialty dives.

My wifes first dive in doubles was a dive to 160ft under the supervision of an instructor who didn't feel good and never got in the water. the class was supposed to be six dives and we did three or four only but no matter because we did them alone anyway.

During another class that was supposed to be six dives we were only required to do 2 and we had to help the instructor stay down on the first one because he was underweighted. The instructor said he was comfortable cutting it short because we were so good. Well, we were good enough to help his sorry butt through a dive anyway. After we got the card and knew what skills we were supposed to have learned we went out and learned them on our own.

It really was a matter of jumping through the hoops to satisfy the system and pay the money in order to get the cards.

Aside from my cousin in the beginning I taught myself to dive. My first good instructor was my normoxic trimix instructor. The second was my cave instructor.

I could have easily done without all the rest.

I'm not suggesting that most people should dive without training and remember I did have my OW cousin. I am suggesting though that buying a card does not mean that you were trained. It isn't skill that's requuired it's the card.

 

[Mako Mark]

If you think the training is good check out what countries like France, some provinces in Canada and Maxico are doing.

Mike is right, here in Mexico, they have just rewritten a law that states you must have a certification from a recognized agency to dive in the National marine parks.

This is mainly due to the increase of international lawsuits coming out of the US against mexican owned companies.

now... what do you call a hundred lawyers at the sea???

 

[zboss]

My father used to tell me how, back in the mid-60's, he went to a junk yard and found a used scuba tank with a j-valve; bought a cheap regulator from Duda's Diving Duds and would go to the local quarry with his friends. No depth or pressure guages. When it got hard to breath he just switched over to the reserve and came up.

He saw me one day, dressed up in all my gear and laughed! He understands why we do the things we do now, but my point being... the whole industry has come a long way.

 

[H2Andy]

now... what do you call a hundred lawyers at the bottom of the sea???

a good start, of course

:11:

 

[Mako Mark]

thankyou Andy

 

[MikeFerrara]

Mike is right, here in Mexico, they have just rewritten a law that states you must have a certification from a recognized agency to dive in the National marine parks.

This is mainly due to the increase of international lawsuits coming out of the US against mexican owned companies.

what exactly is the law in Cozumel. Do you need a guide to dive or are commercial charters just required to provide one?

If you had your own boat could you dive without a guid?