Back In May this year,I introduced 3 friends to Scuba Diving. They all asked me, what is the difference between all the main scuba schools. I told them mostly price, as it really depends on the instructor on what type of experience you get and on what you learn.
I didn’t know that this was about to ring true for the instructor we had chosen for their open water and for my Divemaster. But we signed up, and our training dives were scheduled for May Including my divemaster training.
At the end of it all, Among other things, My friends did not do a Boat entry At all, They do not know how to do a bouyancy check, orally inflate BCD at depth, They didnt complete the nessecary 6 dives for certification. All of their dives were to a max depth of 6 metres. No log books were issued until 2 months after the course was completed. They were not taught how to Log their dives either. Nothing was taught on diving tables, or Diving ethics.
Rick also decided to finally do his advanced + Nitrox with this instructor at the same time. There was no navigation dive, and no deep dive, let alone the other 3 specialties. But rick being an experienced diver already had the dives required in his log, and it was just a formality…So we thought.
To cut a Long story short, it is now August 2 months since we paid, and 3 months since our training. Rick and Myself, had not yet received our relative Certification cards. Out of the 5 people that signed up including myself, only 1 out of the 5 managed to get a Card without Error. 1 card the Name was wrong, Rick got the Wrong certification, another friend got 2 of each certification, and my divemaster was nowhere to be seen at all. We decided to try to get some answers, but we couldnt, he was unable to give us a clear date on when our cards would be fixed, or issued, and he couldnt answer when I could get my Divemaster certification card. At this point in time he decided to refund our money and cut his losses.
So it really is true, that it doesnt matter which dive shop or which dive agency you sign up with, its the Instructor that matters. It could be Timbuktoo Scuba School for all I care, just give me a professional instructor please.
Zombie Divers 