The guide truly will accept only the best course directors and from time to time we receive reports of less than perfect service that we take seriously. James that started this guide is a Staff Instructor that previously ran a dive center in Phuket (2006-07) and can relate to the business pressures of running a dive center / IDC and has a mission to be involved as much as possible with making the best IDCs / CDs in the world as successful as possible by ensuring that the students that come to them via this website are given the best service possible.
Nothing is better for us here at PADI IDC Guide than seeing comments sent via email or on the facebook pages about how useful the guide is and how people have passed the IDC / IE after using the dive theory revision and tips about the PADI IDC from this website and the DVD guide.
Each member course director who joins the guide has full admin rights to the facebook group and can ‘police it’ by deleting overtly spammy / advertising comments on there and they have the remit to reply to comments and can add their own comments.
Below are comments from several IDC candidates. We know that comments received from customers can be an important part of running a successful business, we take notice of all comments passed to us in choosing / selecting Course Directors. Needless to say that the PADI Course Directors that these comments were directed at will never be represented by this website guide to the best IDCs in the world.
“I wish we had practiced more rescue skills in open water. We had only one day in Open Water which we had to perform 4 Open Water Presentations. I wish we could separate them into two days. Then I would be able to prepare better for the last 2 OW presentations. Combining 4 OW in one day made me feel like I did not have chances to improve myself in OW presentations and made me more nervous on the IE.”
“Our Instructor was, in my opinion a very poor Course Director, we learnt little or nothing from him. He was not good at explaining things, and he “taught” only by reading from slides projected onto a screen. He refused to answer or belittled almost every question asked. The PADI Course Director was a nightmare to deal with, from start to finish.”
“We were all uncomfortable with his constant criticism of other diving organisations. We also felt it was wrong when there was repeated criticism of PADI itself throughout the IDC. I don’t like to “tell tales” or criticise, but he really was a shockingly bad teacher and I would be very sorry for anyone who ended up doing an IDC with him in the future. If we hadn’t been a team of individuals who bonded well and hence supported each other a lot, we wouldn’t have survived the course. Everyone had times when they nearly walked out. We were very lucky that the other course director would answer all the questions that [name removed] wouldn’t or couldn’t. People in the local area say the Course Director was previously very, very good but that he is just ‘burnt out’.”
We are aware that information is sometimes reported in a less than factual manner. However, all correspondence that is sent to PADI Head office will then become part of the member’s professional file. The member gets sent the reports and is offered the opportunity to submit an account of their own perspective on the matter. Once that report is reviewed by PADI, the account would also be placed in the member’s professional file for future reference.