What is proper training?

[TSandM]

I don't think you can take a bad class and a good class and make any conclusions.

I took four cave classes, from four different instructors and three different agencies. The best and the worst were from the same agency. I could critique each one -- each had its strengths and weaknesses.

You had a bad AOW class. You should talk to NWGratefulDiver about HIS advanced open water class. It has challenged some pretty experienced and skilled divers.

 

[NCadiver]

Looka you had a bad instructor for AOW and Nitrox. That 17 meter dive by standards is not classified as deep dive you should have ask for a refund and found a new instructor. The second guy most likely would have given you a better AOW course.

 

[looka]

Looka you had a bad instructor for AOW and Nitrox. That 17 meter dive by standards is not classified as deep dive you should have ask for a refund and found a new instructor. The second guy most likely would have given you a better AOW course.

It's ok, it's water under the bridge. I'm done with PADI, I'll try to stick to TDI from now on. I know this is not a guarantee everything will be perfect, and I know there are every good PADI instructors out there, however I feel that somebody who made it to TDI instructor level is less likely to be a random guy that is teaching diving as an alternative to a post-office job. I ahve seen too many of those.

thanks for the advice though.

 

[dbulmer]

Looka,

I empathise with your frustration. My own AOW wasn't great. A lot of what was covered had been taught to me already in the UK through club training and diving and my AOW instructor did not really add value to the class - some people do manage to find instructors who make AOW a good learning experience but I suspect that most of us don't choose our instructor wisely enough - we trust the instructor for AOW to give us a whole new set of things to learn and if the instructor just sticks to the written material we wonder why we bothered. Personally I think AOW is a cash cow for many instructors but not for all.

I think the moral of this is: choose your instructor well .. it has been known for some tech instructors to be less than great and although you'd like to think it's less likely that a tech instructor is going through the motions , doing some homework on your instructor is probably a wise move.