AIDA Courses Koh Lanta- Anyone done one?

[Jofish]

Charlie,

Couldn't agree more with your comments about commerce in Thailand and appreciate it coming from a long term resident. While some are excellent, some operations deliver substandard service in their greed for the tourist £/$.

Reference your request for a reply from Blue Planet - check out serial 7.
'Sarah111' was actually from Blue Planet! She also made offensive comments towards me on the visitors page of her profile - The forum moderators investigated her IP address and deleted said comments.
I think that says it all!!!

Joe

 

[charlie-in-thai]

Sam,

Throughout this thread I've praised the standard of the AIDA Instructors. (See in particular serial 11) It was the dive shop management that was poor.
Also, I mentioned that everything I've stated is factual and unbiased, it is by no means an attempt to 'condemn' Blue Planet - it's simply to inform other divers of my experiences (as I would have appreciated before I used them).

Sorry if anything I've written has been misconstrued, I hold AIDA and its instructors in the highest regard. Just using this forum for what it's there for - communication between freedivers!

Thanks,
Joe

And that's the way I read it!

 

[charlie-in-thai]

Hi Joe,

I would hasten to add, that my comments were about general service in Thailand and their knock-on effects, not aimed specifically at dive companies. Indeed, I know many good (mostly scuba) operators here who are professional and customer-service orientated.

If you're right about 'Sarah,' then that's very sneaky and just goes further to serve your point.

With a little forethought, me thinks, any grievances could have been settled with you directly, long before they reached this forum.

Wishing you safe and happy diving,

Charlie

 

[Jofish]

Re: AIDA Courses Koh Lanta- Don't do one!!!

Well, despite having been treated unfairly and unreasonably by Blue Planet they have been kind enough to keep me on their mailing list!!!

Recieved a newsletter which states that this forthcoming dive season they will be starting something new by offering Sled dives as part of their freediving courses!

(They must have "found" the Sled which had been taken away then)!!!

Maybe they will honour their promise and maybe actually offer Sled dives this time???

Who knows, maybe they have had time to reflect, regret ripping me off and will offer me my **** and some Sled diving for free?!!!

Watch this space......

 

[Jofish]

Oh well, it was worth a try (see last post).

I guess half decent service was way too much to hope for.

At least this thread has served a purpose in informing others about wasting their money with dodgy operations!

 

[sanso]

Re: AIDA Courses Koh Lanta - New cards!

Hey everyone,

after all I've read on this thread, I'd like to inform You that as of October 2009, We freedive (aka Sarah Whitcher and Richard Wonka) will be giving the courses for Blue Planet Divers on Ko Lanta. We will still be relying on their infrastructure of course, but there is definitely a new deck of cards on the table and we will make sure to take all our experience from teaching in Dahab into the new operation.

Come visit us and we'll get that thing rolling!