Talking with one of my good friends the other day and they were making the remark that a potential student turned them down because he was not part of a shop and wasn’t qualified to teach them. This concept has festered with me a bit and then when I was reading an article in Crain’s, about social media last night a couple of points in there brought this idea back up. Two of the points in the article was to be true to yourself and don’t create false statements. When you look at what the potential student was concerned with might very well fall under these two points. I am going to start with the point of creating false statements. LeeAnn and I are both PADI instructors, so is many of the diving professionals that I know. One of the aspects about PADI is that they do allow for independent instructors outside of a shop setting. With that being said, every instructor in the PADI system had to go through the same certification to teach. Whether they are in a shop or not. So that will bring us back to a point that I have said before; meet and know your instructor! Sometimes when you walk into a shop and ask for instruction, you get what ever instructor is filling in that day. No concern about who you are personally, not really caring about why you want to scuba dive and what was the motivation to learn now how to scuba dive. We are going to take the time to know you! We want to know why you are scuba diving, what happened to give you the motivation to learn how to scuba dive and where do you want to take your scuba diving. Without a doubt, (ok maybe a little bias here) we are some of the best PADI instructors in the region. We have created that reputation by training people to be confident and comfortable in the water. Not just by checking the box off and getting through the weekend. That last paragraph started to go into the other concept of being TRUE to ourselves. Now, LeeAnn and I love to scuba dive. We love to teach people how to be scuba divers and become better scuba divers. We also want to have fun doing that. As you can see by the website, we might not be the most technically advanced but we know scuba diving. We are comfortable with who we are and what we can do. If we are not the right fit for you, then we are going to be upfront about that. We also have enough knowledge, experience and friends in the industry that we could probably refer you to someone that might be better suited for what you are looking to do. Let me also throw this out there for certifications and qualifications. The training agency, that alphabet soup of organizations out there vying for your attention saying they are the best. When it comes right down to it, every certifying agency has to meet the Recreational Scuba Training Councils (RSTC) minimum requirements. So that gives you a starting point. After that an agency can add to that minimum and make it their philosophy. So I will say it again, it comes down to your instructor and what are they doing to satisfy your desire. When all is said and done here, we are back to YOUR confidence and comfort ability in the water. We give quality instructions at the highest professional standard. We maintain what is required of us as a PADI instructor and give you points to become more comfortable while you are scuba diving. Please, do your homework and make sure that your future instructor takes the time for you and not just for the check in the box at the end of the weekend. We want you to have a safe, fun and enjoyable experience scuba diving. Mike Shea
www.ScubaShea.com