freediving certification?

[Bill]

'I know plenty of freedivers who are definitely certifiable'

That goes without saying. The real question is, do you know any that aren't?
Aloha
Bill

[feign]

Messey,

Was this in Calgary?

[messey]

ya man, it was at "Adventures in Scuba" i have stopped in there a few times before. It was the first time i had seen this dude and he was trying hard to sell me stuff. He new i was a freediver and everything he was trying to sell me was useless. i totaly caught him up asking him where he got his gear and he said florida then i asked him what brands and he just went quit looked around the store and start naming what he saw on the wall. so the guy was a jerk attempting to sell me gear that he knew was no good for what i was doing.

[MKDVR]

Originally Posted by messey

ya man, it was at "Adventures in Scuba" i have stopped in there a few times before. It was the first time i had seen this dude and he was trying hard to sell me stuff. He new i was a freediver and everything he was trying to sell me was useless. i totaly caught him up asking him where he got his gear and he said florida then i asked him what brands and he just went quit looked around the store and start naming what he saw on the wall. so the guy was a jerk attempting to sell me gear that he knew was no good for what i was doing.

What an A-hole.

I've always had this idea to go into a new OW type scuba shop and pretend to be interested in taking the OW course. That would be interesting.

[feign]

I have only been in "Adventures ..." a couple of times. It seemed geared to the snowbird scuba crowd. I was disturbed when my friend at work told me he was just at that same store a few months ago and outfitted himself and his wife with snorkel gear for their tropical trip. It cost him $500 for mask, fins, snorkel for two, but that free mesh bag it came with was sure sweet . I told him he should have come and talked to me and he could have had free gear to take.

[JMD]

Adventures doesn't have much of a reputation here in calgary. Steer clear. Go see Charlene at Aquasport if you need anything she'll treat you right.

[Erik]

I emailed them this:
Dear store owner/manager.
Recently a young and impressionable freediver I know was in your store and was told by one of your instructors (who claims to be a certified freediving instructor- I'm curious who he is and who 'certified' him, as I know almost every freediver in Canada by name or personally, including the only real Instructors) that breathold diving in Canada is regulated and that a person must be certified to do so.

This is certainly not the case and any Instructor of any merit knows that this is a complete fabrication, certainly reportable to PADI or any other agency your store uses to certify SCUBA divers. My experience with PADI is that no consequences would come of reporting this, so I will not bother. The BBB may be interested though.
If I hear any more outright lies like this I will aggressively distribute this information of your store practices through CAFA (you should know who that is, since you apparently have experts on freediving in your staff) and various other freediving and spearfishing based organisations that are very active on the internet. Maybe I'll even give PADI a try and see if they actually give a damn too.

Freediving is thankfully one of the unregulated activities left and it will stay that way.
Erik Young, AltaSub
Edmonton

[jimdoe2you]

Kudos to you "Ol' Balsy One"! I will be curious as to how the store owner handles this and whether or not he or she keeps that employee.

[JMD]

LOL you rock Eric, let us know if you get a response.

[ffighter]

I would just like to respond to this hot topic.

I am an Instructor at Adventures in Scuba, and have been asked to speak on the owners behalf.

Adventures in Scuba is NOT in the business of free diving, does not have any expierence with free diving, and does not currently have any staff that are involoved with the sport.

The email that Eric sent on friday was read for the first time at 8:30 this morning. At 11:00 a discussion was held with said individual and at 11:20 said individual was terminated.

Adventures in Scuba does not promote gossip or bad mouthing of other water sports or facilities, and oviously takes mis-truths very seriously.

We hope this brings closure to the bashing of Adventures in Scuba!

We are more than willing to hold open discussions on topics that we are familiar with and have some sort of knowledge about.

Terry

[feign]

Thanks Terry for the quick and forthright resolution of this issue.

[Fondueset]

I Agree - well handled.

[jimqpublic]

I must say that whether Adventures in Scuba is the best shop or not, their response to Erik's email was much more than I would have expected. It shows a level of ethics that isn't apparent with many businesses.

Terry's post here shows an admirable level of bravery as well. Thanks for clearing that up.

Jim
From the other CA

PS-
Until I read the entire thread I was about to ask why after taking a class from Canada's most prolific freediving instruction school I never received a formal certification card.

[messey]

Hey Terry,

I must say how impressed I am that Adventures in Scuba took this seriously, and the timely manner in which it was handled.

Thank you.

Vessey

[Monkey Matt]

I presume "terminated" means that the staff member was removed from his position of employment rather than despatched with a lethal injection!
Either way it does seem extreme to lose your job/life over some mis information. The employee should have been asked to explain their actions and asked to refrain from commenting on subjects which they obviously have little knowledge. Maybe a statement from the ex employee could be posted so that we can check that he is still alive