Why I will never again employ a PADI Course Director

As both a former dive store owner and dive instructor, I thought the PADI Course Director was the pinnacle of non-commercial dive employment - I was wrong. Notwithstanding the oversupply of Course Directors PADI has created, it is both the quality of the product they churn out and the attitude that PADI instills in their highest designation that irks me.

Firstly, let's get this straight, I am not a frustrated wannabe who missed the opportunity to rise to PADI's highest level. I was offered canditure on the course, I was neither a PADI Staff Instructor nor a Master Instructor.

I easily met the con-ed ratio, had the correct number of certifications and experience. When you have a high certification dive centre pushing you, they find ways, they have confidentiality clauses to ensure you don't let the diving world know what really happened.

But lets face it, that can be manipulated as I once did to get one of our Staff Instructors on the course as a dive store manager. Strangely, he wasn't even the best instructor we had, but he had the money to pay for the course and even more importantly, he was friends with a high profile PADI Course Director.

As for me, I refused the offer of a free Course Director course a number of years later, even though at the time I was working for a high profile PADI dive centre. I knew I didn't want to go down this route, I had to stand by my personal convictions and refuse because I knew I could not keep my end of the bargain.

Nothing is free, I would have been encumbered to the business to pump out instructors at a great rate of knots. That's fair enough, but I would also be required to be down the business every living moment. Actually, I was anyway at that stage but it was my choice and I could leave at any point with no ill feelings.

A Course Director is a dive instructor first and foremost, if you have entry level divers that need training, that is their job. Likewise, if you need tanks filled, equipment sorted and washed - they need to get in and work too.

I have had the case where as the business owner, I had to get in and do entry level courses because our messiah like Course Director refused to do so. Salary wise, you pay over and above a normal dive instructor so they had better make sure they perform above an average instructor, mind you - the money as a dive instructor isn't much.

Likewise, as per the PADI code of ethical behaviour, you would expect such a highly rated PADI designation to adhere to the ethics and not act in a dishonest manner, steal from you or send your customers to your competitors or act in a fraudulent manner. Yeah, try and take on the might of the PADI Quality Assurance department and see how you fare.