Quote Originally Posted by Diverdaniel View Post
but hey, bottom line, the agency does not count in this one, each instructor and his own, at least that is what i have seen, we may give courses according to the agency's outline and standards, but we can give students more than the very basic requirements in courses if we have the time and backing from our diveshop.
Also, we see today, the raising ammount of diveshops openin, they all wish make money, they compete, they lower prices, this is how corners get cut, courses get shorter, more students in them, instructors pay gets lower cause its so easy to get from OW diver to diving instructor, it can be done in less than a year, heck i've seen it done in alittle over 7 months in some places, as long as the diver has the proper ammount of dives specified in the standards.
and we get instructors "10-a penny". cheap, available. they are not going to be instructors for more than 1.5 years tops, then they move on to the rest of their lives, or to instruct somewhere else in the world.
kinda hard words :/
must be the weather!!!
Yep, that is definitely a problem in the industry today, I agree! That is why I became an independant instructor. But I don't think the corner cutters are doing themselves any favours as far as having longterm customers. I think the agencies strive to have good standards, and thankfully there are concientious instructors out there teaching at or above the standard to make good divers right from the start. These good instructors need our support!