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Scuba Certification: Questions You Need To Ask Before Getting CertifiedJay Umbenhauer Learning how to scuba dive is your ticket to the ultimate underwater adventure. The scuba certification that you earn is internationally recognized, never expires, and allows you to rent or purchase your own diving equipment. You’ll soon discover, however, that there is no shortage of dive companies out there competing for your hard earned dollars. It can be a daunting task trying to find one that has a proven track record of honesty, integrity, and reliability, while at the same time providing a positive certification experience for both you and your family. To help you comparison shop, I’ve compiled a list of questions any potential certification student needs to ask before getting certified. There are a number of different scuba training organizations that a dive company can be affiliated with. This article deals primarily with certification courses sanctioned by PADI: Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the largest scuba training organization in the world. 1.How Long Does The Certification Course Last Scuba certification is performance based, meaning there is no set amount of hours required for completion. You move from one level to the next during the course at your own pace. You will find that most PADI certification courses advertised are based around an estimated 3 day time frame for completion. For the average person, however, this may not be enough time. 4 days for certification is a much more realistic goal. 2.How Much Does The Certification Course Cost Lowball prices are designed for 2 reasons.... to attract your attention, and to get you in the door. The hidden charges for the course, such as books and equipment rental, are conveniently never advertised. Look for an all inclusive certification course experience. Remember, in the end, you always get what you pay for. 3. Are References Available From The Most Recent Students Always ask for phone or E-mail references from the most recent certification students who have just completed the course. Don’t settle for written quotes that are years old and taken from some database of generic customer comments. If a lame excuse or noncommittal answer is given, take your business elsewhere. A quality dive operation that has nothing to hide will be happy to provide such references. 4. Who Is The Instructor 5. How Long Have They Been An Instructor 6. How Many People Have They Certified 7. How Many Certification Courses Have They Taught Good instructors, who have an extensive resume of experience teaching scuba certification courses, are extremely hard to find. Dive shops have a notoriously high turnover ratio of scuba instructors to staff. Many of the ones who are there are recent hires, and have very little real world experience. They also work long hours for very little money, generally getting paid by the activity, not by the hour. Insist on someone who has certified at least 25 people, and has been teaching a minimum of one year. 8. Is The Instructor First Aid/CPR Certified While PADI doesn’t require its scuba instructors to hold these important certifications, any instructor who’s serious about teaching a certification course needs to go the extra mile and make this a requirement, not an option. 9. Will The Course Be Taught Using Rotating Instructors This is a common practice some dive operations use where one instructor “Team Teaches” the course with another, exposing you to differing personalities and teaching methods that will only confuse you. Unless you are doing a referral certification, where you are starting and finishing your course in different locations, steer clear. 10. Will Both Instructor And Student Use Similar Equipment Setups During The Course When both instructor and student are using the same brand of scuba gear, and have similarly designed equipment configurations, it allows students to learn faster and easier, both in and out of the water, during the certification course. 11. Will The Course Incorporate A Giant RDP Table Into The Academic Sessions Learning how to use the dive tables is perhaps the toughest academic challenge a student faces during the certification course. A quality dive operation will have available a giant version of the standard dive table, allowing students to more easily master this important academic information. 12. Can I Get A Student Discount After Getting Certified Any reputable dive operation should give you a generous student discount towards future diving activities and/or equipment purchases you make from them, in appreciation for taking their certification course.
| RELATED ARTICLES Making Music As A Lefty Author Interview with Ryan Thomson, seacoast New Hampshire resident, and author of a new book advocating left handed violin playing by lefties. - Playing Violin and Fiddle Left Handed. 10 High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic 1. Trade links with other web sites. They should be related to the subject of your web site. Instead of trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half page ads, classified ads, etc. Whitewater Rafting Forges Bonds Stronger than the Rapids Colorado River Rafting is a Trip Exposure Compensation The digital camera is in reality a great possession with many facets of its utilities and not only that knowing these utilities makes the understanding the digital camera complete. The utilities are also so very diverse that they too offer further introspection of details in their varying applications. Such an area is digital camera exposure compensation. Only knowledge of digital camera exposure is not enough, so the digital camera exposure compensation requires some amount of exposure in itself! This discussion is focused towards that cause itself. Top Ten Ways To Get Better At Playing Pool Billiards is an old and much loved game, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is a game that people of all ages play; even the younger kids can play now on special child-size tables that are widely available. It is also a game that, although once more popular with men, is now keenly played by both sexes. You can play pool in all sorts of environments, from restaurants and bars to halls and homes. It is also a game that can be as relaxing or competitive as you want to make it. Some people like to enjoy a friendly game over a drink after work, others like to unwind with a few games on their home pool table, and some like to join leagues and clubs and play to win. Why Treadmills Treadmills have experienced substantial growth over the years. They are designed to enhance the most popular form of exercising - running and walking. Treadmills are built on the basic premise that the more effort you put in, the more you will get out. As other fitness equipment and gimmicks gather dust, treadmills continue to gain popularity and get results. Trout Species – Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout Rainbow Trout: Few freshwater fish can match the fighting spirit and beauty of a Rainbow Trout. Common Boating Questions – Part 1 Which type of boat is right for me Camping Makes the Weekend Perfect Do you have a weekend without anything to do or a weekend when you don’t want to do anythingI know what I’d do.I would pack up the truck and head for the woods.Sitting by a camp fire with your favorite people solves many problems, so you shouldn’t wait too long between fires.My favorite thing to do on a weekend is to camp.Are you looking for an easy way to campHow about car campingI love it! Digital Camera Metering Looking at the most intricate details of the digital camera as a technologically advanced device a lot of functions come into play. Such s a point is that of the digital camera metering. This discussion focuses towards that intention of understanding and knowing the details of the component. Basically speaking the metering system in a digital camera measures the amount of light in the scene and calculates the best-fit exposure value based on the metering mode explained below. Automatic exposure is a standard feature in all the digital cameras. All that is requires to be done is select the metering mode, point the camera and press the shutter release. Most of the time, this will result in a correct exposure. The detailed explanation and analysis of the entire process is as follows in the next lines of this discussion. Snowcat Skiing: What Is It Backcountry skiers near Golden, British Columbia travel high into the Rocky Mountains in the warm comfort of snowcats. Traveling in groups of 12, lead by two qualified guides, skiers and snowboarders are carried to elevations of almost 10,000 ft., to ski and ride on a glacier or down great alpine bowls. The views across North America’s continental divide are spectacular. Soft powder snow and fresh tracks is the expected norm, every run, every day. The small group of 14 skiers and riders make a small mark on the vast landscape. Humor Under The Keyboards For me, the piano is the symbol of what is stiff, proper and elegant. It doesn’t have faults, it is perfect. Pianists are the most perfectionist people in the world. They should not and can not make mistakes especially when performing. That is how I viewed the piano and the pianists. But then, I just found out I was wrong. A few researches and I have once again proven that appearances can be deceiving. Influences On Whitetail Deer Activity Much has been written about deer movement in hunting magazines and I have been intrigued by differences in deer activity over the years myself.We have all been in the woods or maybe just while driving to or from work and noticed large differences in deer activity.You will have some days when you see many deer from your tree stand and other days when, from that same stand at the same time of day, you won’t see a single deer.It is also most obvious when you drive to and from work at similar times each day and see large swings in deer activity.After thinking about these changes in deer activity, reading several articles and my hunting observations over the years Ive found several situations that effect deer movement. Safe Boating... All Summer Long NC—In Canada, studies show boating is a safe family activity. Almost every problem we hear about is the result of a stupid decision – mixing alcohol with boating and/or ignoring safety regulations. There are some very simple ways to keep you and your family safe while boating. How to Practice In a normal day of teaching golf I walk back and forth to the range numerous times.On this journey, I usually watch the different variations people have when they swing the golf club.Some of the swings are quite good and others need a lot of work.I usually think to myself that if only they could change the way they practiced they would become so much better so much faster.What do I mean exactlyWell ... 99.9% of all golfers I see on the range are just whacking golf balls out there.If this is you, Ive got some bad news ... you will never improve.So what should you be doingIf you are working on your swing, you have to work on your swing.This means you should forget about trying to hit every shot perfectly on the range.No pro can do this or even attempts to do this.It is called a practice range because you are there to practice what you have learned so you can take it to the course without having to think about it.If you have just been whacking balls on the range and not improving you should follow the outline below. Movie Poster Collecting There is a great deal of history behind movie posters and movie poster collecting. Jules Cheret, who created 2 movie posters in the 1890’s, was the artist given credit for creating the first movie posters. By the end of the first decade of the 1900’s, movies had become a great source of public entertainment. In this time period, the movie poster would become a standard size known as the one sheet measuring 27" x 41". Get Up~Get Out~ Get Going Get Up~Get Out~ Get Going … when it is best for you. TOP T.E.N Sports Stories for 2004 In no particular order, these are T.E.N webzines Top Sports stories in 2004 The NFL Needs a New Tiebreaker After enduring that disgusting final weekend of the NFL regular season, I have come to the conclusion that a new tiebreaker is needed. How a team performs during the final weekend should be the first tiebreaker, with all the current tiebreakers falling in line after that. A team that won its final game would hold the first tiebreaker advantage against a team theyre tied with that lost its final game. If they both lost, both won, or both tied their final game, then the current tiebreakers would take effect in the order that they currently exist. That would accomplish at least three of positive things. Take Your Children Hunting Few things can bring you more joy than to pursue two of your passions at the same time.This is easy to do by taking your children hunting with you.The first time I took my son with me he was only about 4 years old.We walked a couple hundred yards behind the house and sat down on a log.It was only a few minutes later he said that he needed to go back to the house to go to the bathroom.There was no talking him into relieving himself out in the woods, so back to the house we went.Our first hunting experience together wasn’t very satisfying or very long.After this first trip I wasn’t looking forward to taking him again for a while but in the years since it was I who had some learning to do about hunting with children. |
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