PADI Schools and CFT Clubs; A Suggestion.

locum-motion

It seems that every time I look at this board, someone's asking "Where's a good place to learn to dive?" This gets replies recommending this outfit or that club and so on.
Can I suggest that a list be posted, broken down by county perhaps, of each CFT Club and PADI Centre? Maybe the thread could be entitled "Want to learn to dive? Start here."
Perhaps it could be made a "sticky".
Also, it might be a good idea to give a brief, unbiased run down of what the training consists of in each of the two systems. (I'm not suggesting that we get into a whole "Can't Fckuing Think" vs "Put Another Dollar In" slagging match.)
Anyone got any comments?

whosedaddy?

Hmm.
alphabetical list of Dive Centres. (mostly PADI)
http://www.scuba.ie/centres/index.htm

Clubs by region: (only CFT) :rolleyes:

http://www.cft.ie/dublinclubs.htm
http://www.cft.ie/clubseast.htm
http://www.cft.ie/clubsnorth.htm
http://www.cft.ie/clubswest.htm
http://www.cft.ie/clubssouth.htm

not sure that needs to be stickied tho...

Benny-c

locum-motion wrote: »

"Can't Fckuing Think" vs "Put Another Dollar In"

scubakid

Can't Fcuking think is a serious insult to CFT divers..
Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT..
For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...
It took me just over a year to get my qualification.. There isn't a hope in hell I would do a 30m dive in low vis with a Padi advanced open water diver. What happens when you need your buddy? Has he/she gained enough experience in 3 days to get you out of there safely?

tickledhoney

Here here Scubakid. I can't understand how someone can actually deem themselves to be a diver after what 3 days? Seriously! Padi = Pay And Dive in an Instant:rolleyes:

scubakid

@ tickledhoney..

How could you trust a buddy that not alone learned to dive in 3 days, but probably never dived in the same gear twice?? I'd have 2 ponys with me anyway and they'd be all mine

You CFT?

tickledhoney

Didn't originally train with CFT (and definately didn't train with PADI.....) There is a certain snobbery alright against people who are PADI trained and I do have to admit that I have dived with some very competent PADI divers (there are a few out there!!!). I've also had some shocking PADI buddies that I've basically had to hold hands with despite having gone through their diving log book before the dive and chatted about previous experiences. Its one thing talking about what a great diver you are but its not long when the true pic comes out in some cases. I'm appalled sometimes on dive holidays observing some 'divers' putting their kit together. If you have to help them with that they definately shouldn't be diving.

locum-motion

scubakid wrote: »

Can't Fcuking think is a serious insult to CFT divers..
Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT..
For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...
It took me just over a year to get my qualification.. There isn't a hope in hell I would do a 30m dive in low vis with a Padi advanced open water diver. What happens when you need your buddy? Has he/she gained enough experience in 3 days to get you out of there safely?

Guys, guys, guys, (or gals, if appropriate, I'm an equal opportunities poster),

In my original post, I said I wasn't suggesting having a whole CFT vs PADI debate. I used the two commonly used joke titles for those agencies as exactly that, a joke. I wasn't trying to insult divers trained by either agency. I apologise if I did insult you.

That said; The only PADI qual. that you could get in 3 days for €350 is PADI Scuba Diver, which limits you to diving in 12m or less, and only when accompanied by a PADI Divemaster or above. It's nowhere near the CFT 2* qual.
A PADI AOW diver has done an absolute minimum of 5 pool and 9 open water dives, and that's if they did only training dives with no 'gaining experience' dives whatsoever. AFAIK, no PADI instructor (or at least none of the ones I know) would certify a diver AOW under those circumstances.
If we are going to compare the two, can we at least agree that we should use more 'like for like' comparisons?

tickledhoney

Is there actually a rant page where people give out about things divers do that annoy people or that are really unsafe and they're unaware they're doing it (?). Seems we're a great bunch to give out about the way people do things......

Tec Diver

scubakid wrote: »

Can't Fcuking think is a serious insult to CFT divers..
Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT..
For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...
It took me just over a year to get my qualification.. There isn't a hope in hell I would do a 30m dive in low vis with a Padi advanced open water diver. What happens when you need your buddy? Has he/she gained enough experience in 3 days to get you out of there safely?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that may have been a humourous comment - at both agencies...

whosedaddy?

scubakid wrote: »

....
Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT..
For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
....

wow - that is a confident statement - respect :rolleyes:

loctite

scubakid wrote: »

Can't Fcuking think is a serious insult to CFT divers..
Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT..
For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...
It took me just over a year to get my qualification..

Just out of curiosity how many dives are required to go from 1* to 2*??
I think, like the CFT 2*, a pre requisite to the Advanced OW is the Openwater so it would cost more than 350 euro, and there would in fact be more water time than you have indicated in your post.

Both Agencies have their pros and cons. I have met some horrendous PADI certified diver and likewise I've met some equally as bad CFT trained divers, and have met some excellent divers from both agencies.



to say some of the best divers in Ireland are members of CFT is fairly arrogant to say the least.... you haven't dived with me yet!!:D

loctite

scubakid wrote: »

For example, I'm a 2* club diver with a CFT club.
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...

http://www.cft.ie/equivalencelist.html#padi

Just had a look on CFT website... so who is saying that the 2** is equivalent the AOW... no one by the looks of it. Its certainly not on the PADI site.

fmcc

PADI gets battered like McDonalds because its the most successful. No one give off about SDI or NAUI trained divers always PADI vrs CFT.

CFT diver here and have dived with both great and crap Padi and CFt divers.

whosedaddy?

scubakid wrote: »

Can't Fcuking think is a serious insult to CFT divers..
....
I read only yesterday that you can gain the same qualification with PADI in 3 days for something like 350 euro...
It took me just over a year to get my qualification.. There isn't a hope in hell I would do a 30m dive in low vis with a Padi advanced open water diver. What happens when you need your buddy? Has he/she gained enough experience in 3 days to get you out of there safely?

Reading something and believing it without validating it with independent sources or through own/aquired knowledge. makes me wonder whether a well known humorous comment was a bit to close to the bone here.....

As mentioned before - a 3 day PADI skin diver/ OWD is not indended to be an autonomous diver that can get YOU out of anything. Always was, is and will be a supervised diver. Likewise AOWD. From PADI Rescue Diver onwards you may start being considered autonomous diver (with a buddy) - just like CMAS**.

I would dive with a PADI AOWD in the condition you mentioned any day - knowing its MY responsibility to get him out of there safely. And that I'm able to do so.

locum-motion

loctite wrote: »

to say some of the best divers in Ireland are members of CFT is fairly arrogant to say the least

Actually, it's not arrogant, in fairness to the guy. It's just simple truth.

He said "Some of the best divers in the country are members of CFT." (my italics)

Just as some of the best divers in the country are PADI trained.

And I'm sure it's equally true to say that some of the worst divers in the country belong to each agency too!

fmcc

whosedaddy? wrote: »

Reading something and believing it without validating it with independent sources or through own/aquired knowledge. makes me wonder whether a well known humorous comment was a bit to close to the bone here

You should be aware 9 of 10 statistics are made up on the spot.

whosedaddy?

fmcc wrote: »

You should be aware 9 of 10 statistics are made up on the spot.

that statistic was probably made up on the spot as well :-)

fmcc

my point exactly

whosedaddy?

Only I was not the one reading something and going off on a tangent....

fmcc

whosedaddy it was a cosine rather than a tangent but yes its off topic so apologies all round.

locum-motion

fmcc wrote: »

whosedaddy it was a cosine rather than a tangent but yes its off topic so apologies all round.

OP here!

Feck it, it's my thread, so I say you can go off on tangents, cosines, sines and even feckin' logs if you want as long as it's humourous! (Unless the mods disagree!)

After all, the kid who owns the football gets to decide when the game ends!

So I say fire ahead, until I decide to take my ball home!

Benny-c

We were due a slagging match........why not keep it going:D

Tec Diver

So I tell you what. The kids that want to pull each other's hair and call each other names can stay in the playground.
I'm going diving!

fmcc

you can call me names but theres very little hair left to pull at lads. back to the op question i think the second poster had pretty much answered the question and yeah a sticky could be handy but maybe not this thread now.

locum-motion

Tec Diver wrote: »

I'm going diving!

Me too. Kowloon Bridge and U-260 this weekend, weather permitting.

Benny-c

locum-motion wrote: »

Me too. Kowloon Bridge and U-260 this weekend, weather permitting.

Go to the Pub instead....the weather looks Sh1te:(