Diver below 83
Contributor
Would have loved to see “their” instructor interviewed
What agency would allow this?
- Thread starter divezonescuba
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Bob DBF
Contributor
Start your own agency and this is allowed in standards of your new agency. Problems solved
SDI and TDI are not members of WRSTC so their standards don't apply, and those agencies may give a greater latitude in what their instructors are able to do in the water. If the instructor is not teaching under PADI, but a different agency, it's rules don't apply.
Bob
Jakmanscubaman
New
Hey all I'm a little late to this dive but I was certified for my OW through this shop as it was the closest LDS to me. I will touch on a couple things but feel free to ask any questions.
With Loves Park Scuba I did around 6 pool dives (including 2 nitrox meditations), did 4 dives at our local diving lake called Pearl Lake (located on the Stateline of IL & WI), 2 dives at a quarry the owner named "secret lake" but was in reality called "Beloit Stateline quarry" which had been closed to the public due to multiple recent drownings, not due to water hazards or conditions, but due to human error. My last dive before discontinuing education or diving with their business was a wreck dive on Lake Michigan on the shops boat "explorer 2" which now with the education I have received was misinformed and I had no business being there but you don't know, what ya don't know.
The shop is owned by Dan Johnson. I have no way of providing any evidence but Dan claims 10,000+ dives (see crystal statue award if you visit), being a subject matter expert in watercraft, diving, search & salvage, a boat captain, SDI Instructor, TDI Instructor, and was one of the first shops to "give the middle finger to padi" for not including nitrox in the curriculum. Which pieces of information are true and are not I have no idea, other than, him being a certified SDI instructor as my OW-card has his instructor number.
His Nitrox meditation was sold to me by describing my experience would be one of healing, clarity, and would greatly benefit my physical health. Being how brand new I was to diving, bought right into this and participated in two classes. In these classes I was given nitrox mixtures of about 30/70 & 40/70, was instructed to become negatively buoyant and sit on the bottom of the pool and breath down the gas. Being so new to diving I thought the effects of the meditations were real, until I figured out I was just becoming relaxed and sleepy because in reality I was just closing my eyes and breathing for an hour, for all readers this will cause some relaxation regardless of whether you are breathing nitrox or not.
I would consider my OW course as extremely inadequate in comparison to other OW classes I have seen taught since being certified as I have frequented 1, and semi frequented another shop after patronizing other businesses. Little did I know that Loves Park Scuba has the reputation of "the divers puppy mill of Rockford", this being said to me many times by fellow divers I have interacted with at the local dive spots. Unfortunately seen as somewhat common with the bad instructors in the industry my learning boiled down to overweighting myself and jumping in the water.
To briefly touch on the focal point of the post, YES this did happen, a child and a very elderly man did complete a dive according to the shops owner and the signage and framed award inside the shop and Dan when I asked him about it. The local dive community has a negative opinion. I will not go into specifics but this is not indicative of the shops in our area and the diving that they teach. The reason this was so hotly debated and is so controversial is the conversation splitting and being argued for one of two reasons, is a 4 year old autistic child within the physical & psychological ablilities to dive safely ? As if a person cannot dive safely, why put their life in danger. The second being the legality, we will call it, from both a standpoint of child endangerment and the standards of the WRSTC. I am not an instructor and have only been a diver for just shy of a year so my opinion will defer whatever Jill Heinerth says.
To touch on the PADI nitrox comments I made. While in training with the shop I had asked about SDI and how it differs from PADI. I was very curious what made SDI superior to PADI as one liner jokes about PADI had been a middling sized part of my OW training. The explanation given to me was that years ago at a large dive conference Dan was at, the Head of PADI used the conference as a platform to warn divers and other organizations that Nitrox was going to kill them all. Now, I am a brand spanking new diver so I know of nothing about about mixed feelings towards nitrox 15 years ago or the head of PADI. I do know that the shop had an "incident" around the time that they "got rid" of their 5 star PADI rating.
I cut ties with the shop back in early July after being accused of attempting to steal his customers. He said he witnessed me trying to sell a computer in his shop to two favorite frequent local students who were my senior. The irony was I was there at the to BUY a computer and THEY were trying to SELL me one for some unknown reason to me, which I was not interested in. Being banned for life from the shop via voicemail at work and dangling my unfinished but prepaid continuing education courses of Nitrox & Advanced Open Water Diver in front of me, as well as my trip pre-paid wreck dive trip to Munising Michigan sucked and I did not know what to do. After he made a phone call to the other party he in a second voicemail said sorry in a way I have heard before in my life so I was worried. Luckily some people from the community guided me and I made the best of my situation getting a slight refund, but leaving the rest of the money and education on the table. I am including this narrative as I do have a negative opinion of the shop and its owner, but all the other instructors, dive masters, and fellow divers I met were fantastic including his wife she taught me how to put on a BCD!
Hit me with any questions...
With Loves Park Scuba I did around 6 pool dives (including 2 nitrox meditations), did 4 dives at our local diving lake called Pearl Lake (located on the Stateline of IL & WI), 2 dives at a quarry the owner named "secret lake" but was in reality called "Beloit Stateline quarry" which had been closed to the public due to multiple recent drownings, not due to water hazards or conditions, but due to human error. My last dive before discontinuing education or diving with their business was a wreck dive on Lake Michigan on the shops boat "explorer 2" which now with the education I have received was misinformed and I had no business being there but you don't know, what ya don't know.
The shop is owned by Dan Johnson. I have no way of providing any evidence but Dan claims 10,000+ dives (see crystal statue award if you visit), being a subject matter expert in watercraft, diving, search & salvage, a boat captain, SDI Instructor, TDI Instructor, and was one of the first shops to "give the middle finger to padi" for not including nitrox in the curriculum. Which pieces of information are true and are not I have no idea, other than, him being a certified SDI instructor as my OW-card has his instructor number.
His Nitrox meditation was sold to me by describing my experience would be one of healing, clarity, and would greatly benefit my physical health. Being how brand new I was to diving, bought right into this and participated in two classes. In these classes I was given nitrox mixtures of about 30/70 & 40/70, was instructed to become negatively buoyant and sit on the bottom of the pool and breath down the gas. Being so new to diving I thought the effects of the meditations were real, until I figured out I was just becoming relaxed and sleepy because in reality I was just closing my eyes and breathing for an hour, for all readers this will cause some relaxation regardless of whether you are breathing nitrox or not.
I would consider my OW course as extremely inadequate in comparison to other OW classes I have seen taught since being certified as I have frequented 1, and semi frequented another shop after patronizing other businesses. Little did I know that Loves Park Scuba has the reputation of "the divers puppy mill of Rockford", this being said to me many times by fellow divers I have interacted with at the local dive spots. Unfortunately seen as somewhat common with the bad instructors in the industry my learning boiled down to overweighting myself and jumping in the water.
To briefly touch on the focal point of the post, YES this did happen, a child and a very elderly man did complete a dive according to the shops owner and the signage and framed award inside the shop and Dan when I asked him about it. The local dive community has a negative opinion. I will not go into specifics but this is not indicative of the shops in our area and the diving that they teach. The reason this was so hotly debated and is so controversial is the conversation splitting and being argued for one of two reasons, is a 4 year old autistic child within the physical & psychological ablilities to dive safely ? As if a person cannot dive safely, why put their life in danger. The second being the legality, we will call it, from both a standpoint of child endangerment and the standards of the WRSTC. I am not an instructor and have only been a diver for just shy of a year so my opinion will defer whatever Jill Heinerth says.
To touch on the PADI nitrox comments I made. While in training with the shop I had asked about SDI and how it differs from PADI. I was very curious what made SDI superior to PADI as one liner jokes about PADI had been a middling sized part of my OW training. The explanation given to me was that years ago at a large dive conference Dan was at, the Head of PADI used the conference as a platform to warn divers and other organizations that Nitrox was going to kill them all. Now, I am a brand spanking new diver so I know of nothing about about mixed feelings towards nitrox 15 years ago or the head of PADI. I do know that the shop had an "incident" around the time that they "got rid" of their 5 star PADI rating.
I cut ties with the shop back in early July after being accused of attempting to steal his customers. He said he witnessed me trying to sell a computer in his shop to two favorite frequent local students who were my senior. The irony was I was there at the to BUY a computer and THEY were trying to SELL me one for some unknown reason to me, which I was not interested in. Being banned for life from the shop via voicemail at work and dangling my unfinished but prepaid continuing education courses of Nitrox & Advanced Open Water Diver in front of me, as well as my trip pre-paid wreck dive trip to Munising Michigan sucked and I did not know what to do. After he made a phone call to the other party he in a second voicemail said sorry in a way I have heard before in my life so I was worried. Luckily some people from the community guided me and I made the best of my situation getting a slight refund, but leaving the rest of the money and education on the table. I am including this narrative as I do have a negative opinion of the shop and its owner, but all the other instructors, dive masters, and fellow divers I met were fantastic including his wife she taught me how to put on a BCD!
Hit me with any questions...
I might approve this.
- The older guy has nothing to loose.
- The younger guy might be perfectly capable of some limited scuba diving (note: after 1yrs of practice!). This DOES depend on the child and the type of diving. Agencies are not relevant in this case, are they?
Vauvauinti Kultakalat - Vauvauintia Helsingissä
Similar threads
