This is one of those subjects that will probably get a fair bit of feedback and if not I will be very surprised.
All the time I have been diving there has always been a situation of the ‘Them and Us’ syndrome, basically I am talking about who you learnt to dive with. I personally do not care as long as the people who are teaching are well qualified and have the experience to do the job, and that at the end of the day when you finally have the instructor come up to you and say ‘well done and congratulations’, you have deserved the qualification.
Well this week for me this has all changed and I have felt compelled to put the details down in writing.
I have been chatting to a guy this week who was looking a little confused at a diving plan he was mapping out of the area almost in front of where I live. I offered him some help with this and it became obvious that he really did not have a great idea of what was going on. All very soon it became apparent when he told me he had only taken up diving 2 weeks prior to the day I spoke to him and was about to undertake his 28th dive. You have probably guessed by now that he is doing work on his Divemaster qualification.
To say that I was stunned would be an understatement, I was also bloody angry that this could happen, and I even told the guy this.
There are probably many people who like me worked extremely hard to get the Divemaster qualification; I can remember spending hours working on books learning all weird stuff and when it was over I truly felt I had achieved a worthwhile and hard won qualification.
The problem is, it’s not really the guys fault, and he has a limited amount of holiday time and would like to cram in as much as he can, but the Buck has to stop somewhere.
I would have to say that the Dive Centre he is doing this with must be laughing all the way to the bank, by my reckoning he must have handed over the thick end of 2000€ and plus taking into account the amount of days needed to physically do all the courses somewhere along the line things have been left out.
Next I approached the organization involved Padi Europe, I sent them what I thought to be a well worded letter along with my name qualifications etc and was staggered that the following day I received back from Padi a ‘Flow Chart’
I am sorry but what the hell is going on, I just want answers to some specific questions that were set within the email I sent to Padi. Basically I am afraid that some people on cloud nine who run this organization just could not give a Rats Arse.
I have in front of me the Padi Divemaster Manual and it makes very interesting reading, what is a Padi Divemaster? Well according to the manual it reads as follows, Professionalism, Role Model, The ability to be able to assist/supervise during dive activities. Professionalism, you are expected to have expert diving skills, knowledge about dive theory, good judgment, to act like a professional.
Added to this you also have to have a good working knowledge of diving equipment and the list goes on and on.
Now maybe I am being a little picky here but a guy who has just done 28 dives over a two week period and is in the middle of a Divemaster course, what part of the whole thing comes close to the Padi doctrine.
I feel totally pissed off by the whole sorry thing, I even feel sorry for the poor bugger doing the course as he cannot be enjoying the diving experience, and if and when he passes I hope to whatever god you wish on, that he does not land in your lap leading a dive.
Needless to say myself and Padi have parted ways, will this bother them, not one tiny bit. But I will make it a rule from now on that whenever I am asked which dive school to use well it certainly will not be the Padi Europe.
I have also forwarded a copy of this article to Padi Europe, ‘don’t hold your breath’
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