My name is Evelio and I am a Certified NAUI Scuba Instructor. Thank you for visiting our site, here at ESV Dive we have lots to offer to get you out in the ocean and having fun. So please look around and if you have questions give us a call. Since we know no one likes to dive with strangers I would like to share a little bit about myself, how I got into diving and why at ESV Dive we believe in quality diving instruction.
Having grown up in Miami people would assume I loved the beach, but the truth was…not so much. I didn't want to sit around on a towel sunbathing for hours or playing Frisbee on the sand. But DIVING in the ocean was a different story; once I went on my first dive in 2004 I was hooked! The adventure of the wide open sea called to me. I loved the excitement that each new dive brought and all of the new memories I made, but as we all know life gets complicated. As an IT professional, my job was demanding and stressful. And sure enough the more successful I became professionally, the more and more diving got pushed to the side. Eventually I became a Regional Director for Customer Support of an educational software company and diving became a distant memory.
Years later, I loved my career but I missed diving! I missed the ocean, the salt air on my face, the feeling of exploring a new world. The ocean was calling to me again! So in 2014 to get back into the swing of things I took a new class, a Rescue Diving Course. It was a challenging yet rewarding class and it was the most fulfilled I had been in a long time.
My daughter turned 12 that same summer and I wanted to share those experiences with her. She loved the water and was excited at the idea of having a hobby we could do together, so I decided to sign her for a JR Open Water certification. Here is where I made several mistakes that could have had fatal consequences.
First Mistake: Like most people I looked for a deal on Groupon or LivingSocial. What a mess that turned out to be!!
I found a great deal and was ecstatic; my daughter was going to get certified and I got it for a "bargain". Looking back, what should have been my first warning sign was that they sent me a poor quality PDF of a PADI OW course (an Open Water Course book). No other materials were provided; no e-learning, no instructional guide…nothing. I thought it must be the way are keeping cost low, by saving money on materials. Later I come to find out that PADI does not provide PDFs of documents, only e-learning.
Second Mistake: Then came the day of their classroom session for my daughter and 8 others. The classroom session was about 2 hours of listening to the "instructor", without any written materials or visual aids. There were no knowledge checks, nor reviews, and no final comprehensive exam was given. That was the 2nd warning I ignored; during the whole classroom portion I had thought I could have done a better job myself.
Third Mistake: Next came the confined session (practical learning in a safe environment). When I did my confined session ages ago, it was in a pool. Hers was done in a residential lake. This should have been my 3rd warning that something wasn't right. But I remember thinking it had been 10 years since I had gotten my certification, so hey what did I know? I trusted that they were the professionals so they must know what they are doing; and truthfully I was just excited that my daughter was getting certified.
Now comes the open water dive. It was a beach dive off of South Pointe, South Beach, FL. I had never done a beach dive and Miami Beach isn't known for beach diving. We started Saturday morning at 8 am, got all geared up and made what felt to be the longest walk out to the water. It was hot and exhausting, and I was worried that if my daughter wasn't having fun she might not want to ever go diving again. It definitely was a rough introduction to diving; to this day my daughter refuses to beach dive and I really don’t blame her.
Fourth Mistake: A week later she did her 2nd dive at the same place and just like that, she was a certified diver! After only 2 dives. I remembered doing 4 dives but kept thinking, "man, things must have changed".
Fast forward a year later with several dives under our belts but after a lot of hands-on reinforcement training for my daughter. I was already working on my NAUI Master Scuba Diver certification with the intention of becoming an instructor. I tried to register my daughter on PADI's website and found out that my daughter and I were victims of a scam. The PADI certification I bought my daughter was fake and the 2 instructors were arrested for fraudulently giving certifications cards out of their store.
Lessons Learned: I later met David Ochs, a NAUI instructor, who trained me and also officially certified my daughter. I learned you get what you pay for. Also, there is a difference between getting trained just enough and getting great training. As NAUI members GREAT training is what we strive for. Diving safely through education isn't just a motto but the way of doing things at NAUI. For NAUI members and here at ESV Dive, the "loved one" concept, which means we will only certify people we trust to take out our loved ones on a dive, is paramount. I feel very strongly about this and believe it is the way everyone should train their students. Would I allow this person to go diving with my daughter and trust them to be safe in the water? If you get certified with ESV Dive, the answer is yes!