Frequently Asked Questions

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Answer:

• Every student is unique.

Every person learns differently and individual schedules vary widely. PDC understands this, and has the academic freedom to meet the needs of each student to help them achieve the standards. PDC will work personally with you to set up and develop a course to meet your learning needs and fit your schedule. We will help you complete each phase of the course in your time, and be available to help you succeed every step of the way.

Answer:

• Courses are not quick, and they shouldn't be!

PDC courses are not watered-down nor easy. But that doesn't mean our training is impossible or too difficult for you either. To grow the best, you have to challenge people to rise to the occasion, to thrive outside their comfort zones, and we accomplish this by teaching, coaching, mentoring, and guiding to the needs of each student, while continuously challenging them to grow. From over-learning knowledge to skills progression, from challenging environments to positive and constructive feedback, when you complete a PDC course, you will find your comfort in the water increase, your knowledge and skills driving you to learn more, and diving highly enjoyable.

Challenge yourself in training, and enjoy diving with ease thereafter, because exceeding the standard is "The Standard".

Answer

• PDC Courses are normally divided into two sections and six phases:

Section 1: Academics

1. Academics (Online)
2. Formal Instruction (this will take place throughout the entire Practical Instruction part of your course)

Section 2: Practical Instruction

1. Swim Test and Skin Diving Skills (if required), or Current Skills Evaluation
2. Confined-Water / Contained-Water Training
3. Open-Water Training
4. Certification

Academics consist of online learning, quizzes, and your final exam. This phase is completed entirely at your pace. You can complete your academics in your free time, however you like, and help will be readily available as needed.

Formal instruction is used to supplement academics. Its purpose is to help students better understand theory and practical application of diving KSA's, to help clarify concepts and answer questions, and to mentor students by offering better insights into the world of diving. Formal instruction will take place throughout a course, and may be in a classroom, at the pool, or even beach or pier-side.

You don't have to be the greatest swimmer, but you do need to know how to swim. You have to be able to prove you are comfortable and can survive in the water. No way around it, some courses will require a swim test. Additionally, some courses will even require learning and applying some basic and intermediate Skin-Diving skills and rescue skills. Yes, even the Basic Course. For continuing education courses, leadership courses, and the like, an evaluation dive is a requirement. Assessment will be made to determine a students current knowledge and skill levels in order to understand how best to help you succeed.

Before you can start diving in the open ocean, you first need to learn to dive safely in a puddle. Confined-Water or Contained-Water training always starts in a shallow water location (like a pool or a shallow and contained body of water), before moving on to applying learned skills and procedures in deeper water.

Finally, after skills are learned and demonstrated safely and effectively in a controlled environment, we put them to the test in open waters, where new skills are introduced, and courses become increasingly challenging with each dive. Typically, each dive includes a specific agenda, learned, practiced, and tested skills, mentorship and guidance to improve those skills, and an After-Action Review (AAR) to discuss the dive afterwards. Your final dive of the course is your "Certification Dive", where you will be directly responsible for putting it all together and evaluated objectively.

NOTICE!

All courses have a required minimum number of dives that must be completed satisfactory to earn certification. Unlike other agencies out there, yes, you can fail a course with PDC. You are not guaranteed to get a certification just because you pay to take a course. Certifications are earned. However, PDC will not give up on you so long as you are willing to train and motivated to succeed. If, for some reason, you can not pass a skill or your course, fail to demonstrate Confidence, Competence, Capability, and Safety, or fail to meet standards, PDC will continue to work with you, mentor and guide you, and help to build you up in every way possible to pass and earn your certification.

So NEVER QUIT! Because we will not quit on you.

Answer:

• Your certification will be good for life.

Once certified, your certification is good for life, valid internationally anywhere you travel, and well-earned. Remember, however, that it is only the beginning. After certification from each course, it is paramount to get back in the water as much as possible to continue your progression, practice and hone your skills, and master what you learned. This is where PDC staff change roles from being a teacher to a mentor. All former students are highly encouraged to join PDC in diving either informally or on scheduled trips and events, where diving and growth as a diver are a never-ending process.

However, if you complete a course, yet do not dive and put your skills to practice for a long period of time (6-months, a year, multiple years, etc.), it is highly advisable to take a Refresher Course to get current before attempting to dive on your own once again.

Answer:

• PDC has full top-of-the-line rental and is even a dealer for some of the world's BEST brands.

For entry level courses (OWSD and AOWSD), PDC will supply the equipment you need to complete your course (unless you already own your own, which must meet all safety requirements). For all other courses, if you do not already have your own dive gear, or access to equipment, PDC will either provide or help you acquire the gear you need, and/or even help you obtain your own personal equipment all together. All PDC rental equipment is typically new, well-maintained, and serviced by a certified technician.

Some students choose to buy all of their own gear, or some of it, before or after their course. If that is you, PDC will gladly help you acquire the best gear for the best prices to meet your needs and your budget.

Some students are not ready to buy their own gear, and need to rent instead. Here too, PDC will work with each student to help them acquire what they need.

Answer:

Course costs are broken down into three parts:

• Enrollment Fees (charged by the certifying agency)
• Instructor Daily Rate (how our instructors get paid), and
• Facilitation costs (the costs of equipment, facilities, and more).

Enrollment Cost:

All courses have an enrollment cost, which will be charged before the course starts, as this is what the certification agency charges for us to enroll a student in a course. This is only the cost of course enrollment. It includes registration, account setup, access to online academics (if any), access to student course materials (sent to the student), certification fees, and the certification card.

• For all recreational courses, and VA courses, this is included in the listed cost of each course.

• For leadership, technical, and occupational courses, this will be billed up front prior to enrollment in a course.

Instructor Daily Rate:

Next, all courses include the instructors daily rate. This is the cost per day that it takes for our instructors to be present and to facilitate the course, and includes all academics, lectures, exams, and all practical instruction and training.

• For recreational courses and VA courses conducted in our local area, this covers the fees the instructor is charged to conduct a course at a facility, and are included in the listed cost of each course.

• For recreational courses and VA courses conducted outside our local area, PDC's daily rate is ¥10,000 per day within Japan, and ¥15,000 per day outside of Japan.

• For leadership, technical, and occupational courses conducted anywhere, PDC's daily rate for instructors qualified to teach these courses is ¥25,000 per day. This cost will be paid separately each day or at the culmination of the course. We do this to allow for the greatest possible flexibility in training, and to save students as much money as possible in obtaining their certifications.
  • NOTE: Returning PDC students receive a discounted rate.

Facilitation Costs:

Finally, the costs for facility use, dives, gases and fills, travel, accommodations, food, any expendable items, etc., are calculated.

• For recreational courses and VA courses conducted in our local area, the necessary costs required to facilitate these courses have been calculated and included in the listed cost of each course. Items not included are detailed on the respective course pages.

• For all recreational courses outside our local area, and for all leadership, technical, and occupational courses, these costs will be paid separately as they occur or at the culmination of the course. We do this to allow for the greatest possible flexibility in training, and to save students as much money as possible in obtaining their certifications.

Answer:

• Your payment is intended to facilitate your course on your scheduled training dates, and the funds will be committed to those scheduled dates. If for some reason you can not make your scheduled training dates, your payment will be good for six months after your enrollment date for your course. If you miss your training dates, and you join another course within your six month window, you will NOT need to pay for your course again, however, you will need to pay for the cost of the dives each day. If you are military deployed/TDY/TAD on orders, or you can't complete your course within six months for medical reasons, your seat is guaranteed upon your return or when your medical clearance is approved. The sole exception to this is for Refresher Courses (SDRC).

Unless otherwise stated or agreed upon by your instructor, payment for all courses is only good up until six months after the course enrollment date. Additionally, course costs only cover the intended course for the dates scheduled. If any student fails to complete a course within the scheduled period of time, any additional training requirements will be billed per session until the student passes. PDC will make all efforts to ensure student success, and will work with all students to help them achieve and exceed standards. So long as any student is willing to train, PDC will help them grow and succeed.

Military members, DoD civilians, and contractors, who pay for a course (with exception of SDRC), but are deployed or sent TDY / TAD on orders before or during their course dates, will have their seat reserved upon their return. Additionally, for these individuals, and their dependents, if PCS'ed to another duty station before or during the timeframe of their course, please maintain communication with us and PDC will transfer your course to the nearest NAUI instructor proximate to your new duty station upon arrival.

If any student becomes ill or suffers from a medical condition that precludes them from training before or during the time of their course, their seat will be reserved upon a medical authority's determination they are fit for SCUBA diving activities.

If, for any other reason, you can not complete your course within six months from date of enrollment, you will need to re-enroll for the course.

Answer:

• No, we do not teach children under the age of 15, and teens between the ages of 15 to 17 must have both parental consent AND pass an interview before they will be allowed into a course. There are several reasons for this.

First: Diving is an inherently dangerous activity. It is not some “sport”, and it can cause grave harm if done incorrectly or if the wrong decisions are made or if it is approached from the wrong frame of mind. Children simply do not yet have the developed personality traits necessary to dive safely. Diving requires a cautious mentality, strong self-discipline, environmental awareness, conservative decision-making, and more. It is not an activity for the adventurous, thrill-seekers, the immature who will push boundaries, nor those who feel it should be all fun and games. Safety is our paramount concern here, children simply don’t understand these things yet, and this has resulted in many tragedies around the world over the years. We care extremely deeply about the health, welfare, and safety of all, including children and young adults who have an interest in diving in their future, and despite what some agencies may say they offer or support (which is almost always driven by money and not good conscience), we stand on the logical and scientific side of the argument that says it’s best to simply wait until they grow a little older for diving.

Second: Diving literally affects our bodies and minds. Increased atmospheric pressures have been proven to directly affect the behavior of gasses in the human body, as well as the body's own chemical processes, and this has an effect on us physiologically and psychologically. Children are still developing, a lot. Not just mentally, but physically as well, and diving is an activity with a lot of “unknowns”. The reality is, we simply don’t yet know how increased atmospheric pressures and altered chemical reactions in the body could affect children at the peak of the growth stages of their life.

Third: Diving equipment is heavy, and so are other divers. All divers are taught and trained from day one in their very first course to be “self-reliant”, and they are also taught to be able to rescue themselves and another diver in their basic Open Water course. They need to be physically capable of lifting and carrying their own dive equipment, assembling, testing, inspecting, and operating their own equipment too, both on land and in the water. This weight is very often far too much for children to handle, and even many teenagers struggle just picking up and moving a cylinder, let alone all their own equipment fully assembled. Additionally, they need to be able to safely bring another diver from the bottom up to the surface, to manage that diver at the surface and support them, to administer in-water rescue breathing, to physically push/pull and move that diver across a distance, and even pull them out of the water. Children simply don’t have the developed strength yet to be able to perform these tasks. Rescue is an absolutely essential skill all divers must know how to perform, even at the most basic open-water level, and a physical inability for them to pick up and move, manage and use their own equipment, and/or to be able to perform a basic rescue of another diver in the water, puts themselves and others around them at an increased risk.

There are a number of other reasons, but these are the big ones.

We know there are other dive agencies, and indeed, other “instructors” out there who will happily and readily tell you “yes” and put a 12-year-old in the water in dive gear, but this is wrong. They’ll teach the child on their knees on the bottom and tell you it’s perfectly fine, and this is wrong. They’ll manage all the equipment for the diver and say it’s “ok”, and as a result, the child will learn “dependency”, which leads to the cultivation of a mass array of bad habits, bad frames of mind, and instills these things as Primacy, and this would all be wrong. And they will all do this because they are motivated by one thing, and one thing only… Money.

We care more about safety and producing the absolute best divers on the planet. Money is not the core reason why PDC exists.

Again, we are very sorry, but we don’t have “youth” courses listed because we don’t support teaching people to dive before they are mentally and physically capable of learning to dive safely and dive well.