Diving course?

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by Chadd

If you have any questions about the e-learning course, let me know. I used it for both my open water and advanced open water certs. I'm sure there are a number of quality instructors on the island and my endorsement of Red Sail is in no way a knock against the others.

What's the difference between the video learning that students watch in the classroom vs. the online course work?
Same materials?
Did you have time in the pool before you went into the ocean or were you expected to know everything from your online training?
We would like dd to get her cert, but not sure which she would best learn from. She is a very "traditional" student.

[Schnauzerjoy]

Aqua Windies are right at Eagle Beach. (Near the hospital). http://www.aquawindies.com/
My wife, me, daughter 18, son 16 all took our certificates with them.
Our friends kids have also gone there and we are all very happy with them.
They have their own huge pool, where you start. Great instructors with great patience. (I was NOT like a fish in the water as I spent a long time as a kid in Greenland, where swimming wasn't very big , so they had to start from scratch with me).
They also have a large shop with sales and rentals.
Now they also have a restaurant so it is quite a big center there. (Largest on Aruba, I think).
Don't remember how many days it took to take the certification but think it was 4-5 days.
They have both Padi and SSI instructors.
Carsten

[Chadd]

Originally Posted by Arubalisa

What's the difference between the video learning that students watch in the classroom vs. the online course work?
Same materials?
Did you have time in the pool before you went into the ocean or were you expected to know everything from your online training?
We would like dd to get her cert, but not sure which she would best learn from. She is a very "traditional" student.

I've never done the classroom stuff, so no way for me to compare. My schedule simply wouldn't allow me to take a traditional class, and I find that I get bored if things don't move along at a fairly rapid clip. The e-learning was a good fit for me. I would expect that the videos were the same, or at least covered the same material.

I had one brief pool session where I was shown how to clear my mask, find the octopus, etc... I progressed through those skills pretty quickly and was on a boat headed out to the Pedernales fairly quickly.

If you have the time and the scheduling flexibility, I have no doubt that you will get more information from an experienced instructor than you will get from the online course. In a perfect world I would have just gotten a referral and done the open water dives down there.

[Arubalisa]

Thanks Chadd!