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Dave Schubert said:
 
> 
> In any other business a brand new person on a job is given a breaking in
> period where supervision is provided to guide the person along the route
> the business owner desires.  

snip...

One problem with this is competitive pressure. In my area there were two dive 
stores 15 years ago that charged about $350 for basic OW certification.

Since then, several new stores appeared, some died, and there is intense 
competition for student $$$. One store offers OW certification for $150.

The training has become a loss leader to get people in the store to buy gear.

To make matters worse sporting goods chain "superstores" are selling dive gear 
in the area. The clerks aren't divers and they refer people to local dive shops 
for training.

It's getting harder for the stores to pay the instructors enough to make it 
worth their time, so we are seeing a lot of minimally qualified instructors 
that are doing it as a part time job as grad students, etc., rather than the 
experienced greybeards of a few years back that worked in or owned the store 
and were in it for the long haul.

$150 now is about 1/4 the value of $350 15 years ago so the training is 
accessible to people who aren't really serious about diving. Some never dive 
after certification, some once a year, or less.

I had a guy on a dive boat heading out for a 90 foot dive ask me to show him 
how to put his regulator on his tank. Scary.

I think the instructor standards are going to have to be raised by all the 
certifying agencies to eliminate all but those doing it because they love it 
or as a serious profession.

Instruction prices may go up, but that is not necessarily a bad thing if the 
quality of the instruction goes up with it.

Unfortunately, newcomers tend to shop for the lowest price, as if instruction 
were a uniform commodity. So, unless all the agencies raise standards, nothing 
will get better.

Rick Fincher
rnf@sp*.tb*.co*

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