OK, I plan on that...

I want to take a DIR Fundamentals class next..and drysuit and AOW as well...

Hi,
Just completed my SSI OW Check Outs this week and am now fully certified!

Ahh, now on to some wrecks and tech diving!

Are you referring to the shop "National Aquatic"?

If so, I can tell you first hand:

I purchased all my gear there, and took my OW certification with them. Excellent group of people. I would recommend them to anybody.

Yup, thats them! They were extremely professional, first rate, etc.

Just awesome! I plan on getting my Nitrox and Wreck courses there as well, and, if not enough, SSI offers college credits for some of their courses as well!

:-)

Sounds excellent!

I very much enjoyed taking the class for credit, and it gave me a little more incentive (as if I needed any to begin with).

I too will probably take some more courses with them, wreck, nitrox and photography in particular.
Perhaps we will see each other in there

I forgot to add in there...

If you take drysuit with them, you'll love it. I took it this spring, and it was fantastic.

Yea,
thats a must too....in 1-2 yrs I plan on purchasing an Andy's suit...

I've taken courses from various agencies i.e.. YMCA: OW, PADI: AOW, RESCUE, DMC, CAVERN, and also SSI for Nitrox. I don't think the agency matters that much (sorry PADI), what does matter is the instructor. My instructor for the Nitrox certification was bad,and I had much better instruction before, and may take another Nitrox course just because my first course was really bad!

CAVE DIVERS DO IT BETTER IN THE DARK!

I agree that the instructor is the key factor in scuba training, but it also matters how that instructor was trained and what standards they are held to. Each agency has their own set of standards and policies that differ from one another.

personally I have used both padi and SSI and feel SSI is better in the way they train and there levels of traning