Apnea safety and technique seminar

[Aquatica]

Lapsiboy - stop trying to contact me via PM

I never contacted you in PM and will not, if there is something I say it in public.

I am not judging you at all, as you said on your PM referring to my posts on the forum,  instead i am giving you good advise that your so called "friends" where unable to give you.

[Granitu]

aquatica

i go nearly everyday at the national pool for the last 4months..... if you are trying to hire the pool from 18.30 onwards, all in vain club water polo sessions.

i go at noon and mornings and afrernoons, never had problems... sometimes there is a sports day or activity, but always 5-6 lanes available

you only need 2 lanes my friend. but forget you will have any from 18.30 onwards, the only lane available is a small lane with 4-5 ppl long 15m- impracticable for dynamic apnea


i think the issue is pretty easy to solve, direct the seminar to more on the spearfishing aspect, not on freediving, since for freediving you need to be qualified and it should be fine and respect shedules of lessons.

dynamic apnea is not part of freediving, for instance. teaching techniques like the marcante d odaglia or frenzel technique for equalization is a good way to start such seminar. Also, if the course has an element of yoga it would be helpful too.. i've seen too many spearos who do not know how to relax

[baghira]

I did not post any word until today, but now I feel that it is also time for me to post a few words.
I have to admit that reading many arguments between members is not so beneficial for the forum. I beleive that, the forum is a good tool to put forward an opinion, give advice, write information, and also give some criticism, but the best way forward for the latter, is a personal meeting with the individual. I also wish to beleive that, the reason after all this, was not a personal/hidden issue, but to clear some misunderstanding. After all, we should try to have a good relation with local suppliers.

I am writing these few words, since that I had a link in this issue, which I cleared out with chris myself. I wish to add that, being a member in this forum, does not associate me, or anyone with another member.

I was one of the members who attended the course along with buddhagrass and others. I never asked for certification. All I needed is training and advice, from a well known good spearfisher as Chris is. I started the course, but due to many circumstances, it was delayed various times.... I was very disappointed and commented this in a post. I was soon contacted by aquatica for clarification. I did reply to his invite, and also invited along all the others attending the same course. The members present agreed on a schedule and we finished the course. I am saying this, because this is the way to get to a fair solution. I admire chris for he is a very good spearfisher (for the couple of times i witnessed this with my eyes), and also wish to say that I learned some important issues from this course, and repsect the fact, that until today, he is the only person offering such courses.
Having said this, I also wish to comment that, there need to be a better organisation for these courses. I attended various courses, and everytime there was a schedule planned, and followed, and that's how it should be. Set time/place/date before hand, and everyone will be aware and happy. I understand some other members who commented, and I can confirm what my buddy seahunter said. I just wish that his issue gets solved.............if you want I can act as intermediate

Well I said what I had to, with respect towards everyone, and this is the way I like a post to be. Some criticism is good, but how it is written makes the whole difference.

Guys enjoy your dives........

P.S. as granitu said Yoga     pls.      see other thread.

[busumark]

AQUATICA is Chris an AA instructor if he isnt you lost all the arguments that you posted in this thread. if i read the website in italian i get the impresion that Chris is an AA instructor (it is written) and he holds courses of first level (i dont know what they consist of), if he is an AA instructor then at the end of the course i pretend to be given an AA recognized certificate. and like i said before why you changed some words from the website after someone complained in this forum? why you didnt do them corectly from the begining?  this is an other experience that this forum works now no-one will be misled from the website of aquatica because they changed it so that their services provided will be more clear.

[Aquatica]

.........sorry busumark to keep you waiting for my reply, but you must understand that i don't eat and sleep in front of the PC, I've got better things to do :-)

Talking about arguments I'm not sure if this is a matter of winning or losing but i rather think it should be more a matter of better informing all the members of the forum.

Yes, the website was not updated for a long while so some information resulted to be incorrect and that's why we have changed the information that resulted to be misleading so i hope you can appreciate the fact that we took action about this fact and not instead just criticise us simply to make a useless point that was anyway discussed earlier in the thread.

But i can also see that apparently you did not read our posts carefully because if you would have done so, the AA instructor issue with Chris is actually irrelevant.

In my previous posts i asked if we have ever stated, to those booking or sitting for the lessons, that they were actually undertaking an AA certification course.

Even if on the site we were promoting AA courses this does not automatically mean that the lessons given by Chris at any specific time were destined to be become qualified an AA 1* diver. You need to keep in mind that on a website you can promote many services but when you book the service you must be sure of what service you are going to pay for. (and this is what you said yourself too)

always check with the salesman what are the services offered and tell him to explain everything clearly. if there is the need ask him more than once about somehting that is not very clear to you and that maybe you need that specific service and explain better. and always agree about the price before because you might end with a big surprise afterwards like i did when i didnt agree the price before with a meccanic to get my car fixed

In fact i have invited anybody to come check the registration forms to see if there is any Apnea Academy stated or logo anywhere but no one did. You know why ? Because there isn't.

If the persons complaining about this followed your suggestions in the quote here above most of the posts on this thread would not need to exist at all.

On top of all this, even if Chris is not currently an AA instructor this doesn't mean automatically that we cannot provide AA certification courses. In fact we have been for several years trying to organise and an AA event / stage in Malta but due to their very busy schedule this never happened, and this was another reason why we anyway kept promoting the AA on the website. We also would like to mention that AA is not the only freediving training agency and we are also in communication with other organizations to promote and educate local freedivers in Malta where apart other things we are planning some events also for the 2009.

[Granitu]

the playing around with words, that what customer hate today in my opinion. i have read the page ages ago, back than i was interested in the course.
glad you are changing your policy. and we are your customer's, the spear-fisherman.....

should you be offering aa courses or similar, IF CERTIFIED FOR TUTION, I would be very interested, we are talking in the free diving aspect. t is not that we prefer aa or anything, there are many others as good.
if you place a note with the permission of skip, or update your website, i would gladly join. i think many others will join too. Need any more hints???


p.s. you should update your site more frequently, if you don't have an updated website today, it is like not having an address. A MUST!!!

[skip]

Right well I think all points that needed clarification have now been addressed. Both sides have presented their views on the matter both for future courses/seminars and previous sessions, along with a couple of other points.

Feedback to Aquatica will help them provide a better service and continue to improve for the benefit of all, and I'm sure that everyone will be very keep to participate if they manage to stage an AA event in Malta.

[busumark]

Aquatica now you made yourself more clear about what you offer. but still you misled  all those that saw your website because you said that Chris is an AA instructor and he isnt. you shouldn t do these things it goes against  EU correct advertisment rules.i would think twice before i take your services. once bitten twice shy.