Are You to Blame for Poor Scuba Dive Training?

I was talking with a fellow diver a while ago. He mentioned that he supports people who provide solid training. He was willing to pay more for good training than find some place that was the cheapest. As our discussion progressed, he started to talk about how he uses the internet to find the cheapest prices on dive gear that he wants. I asked him if he had any favorites that he mostly buys from and the answer was no. He basically only purchased from whom ever was the cheapest. As I listened to him ramble on about his purchasing patterns, it crossed my mind that this type of mentality is what is hurting those people who provide good scuba diving courses.

The Blood Diamond Effect

If you’re not familiar with what a blood diamond is, here’s a quick social studies lesson. In Africa, many diamond mines are controlled by warlords or warring governments. The diamonds from these mines are sold to finance war efforts. It is illegal for countries in the United Nations to purchase blood diamonds.

I call it the Blood Diamond Effect. When you see diving equipment whored out on the internet (or anywhere for that matter), do you think that those dive stores aren’t willing to whore out dive training? Most of them, will. When you participate in a group buy, hot deal, or some other kind of special, do you know if your money is going to fund shoddy training? What many people, like the person above, don’t realize is that they are still helping those places who may have less than stellar training programs, keep running those poor classes.

The problem we have, when doing business on-line, is that we have no clue what kind of training programs those on-line “shops” have. We see that new piece of gear and it is being offered at the lowest price you’ve seen. It’s tempting to jump on it. Heck, I even used to do it as well. But the more I thought about where my money was going, the more I started to gravitate away from shops that I know run typical, quickie classes. I avoid those “Leisure Pro” type on-line stores and spend my money with stores who I know offer a higher level of scuba training. Even if that means I have to spend a little more money. You really have to do research into that on-line dive shop to find out if they really do offer quality training programs or just say they run quality classes.

You may be saying to yourself, how can I be helping those stores when they’re only making a few bucks off of me? Don’t kid yourself, those few bucks you give those cheap dive stores will add up. Especially if there are more and more people buying from them. The goal shouldn’t be to put these places out of business. Trust me, no one knows just how difficult life can be when you lose your job. But we can vote with our dollar and send a message. Firm up your classes or risk losing business. Offer quality customer service and even higher quality dive training.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Photo courtesy of National Geographic