The three day course is an intensive program that should have at least 6 hours per day (4 class room and 2 pool). After you are done the three day training you still need to go for your openwater dives. When you sign up for the intensive three day course they expect you to do a lot of reading/learning on your own BEFORE going into the class room! It'll go over everything that you would go over in a less intensive courses and you'll still need to preform the same on the tests in order to pass the certification.
One thing that you should do before signing up to a program is to meet the instructor and see if you can talk to anyone who's been certified by the person to see how they felt with the instructor. I and my three other classmates found out the hard way that not all instructors are created equally. Our instructor was very verbally abusive if you answered something wrong or asked for something to be explained further. All four of us ended up walking out of the middle of the second class with him and demanded our course fees back or some sort of compensation for the horrible instructor they gave us. In the end they gave us a discount on the openwater tests and a new instructor that normally only taught dive advanced specialty courses and dive masters.
The point of all this rambling is that you do NOT want to feel intimidated or uncertain about your instructor or material when you are learning to dive! This information could mean the difference between life and death.
Oh well at least if I get the bends or another diseases I can sue them lol.
Sorry, but if you do get the bends, sueing someone will be the last thing on your mind, and I don't think that you would win that case as dive safety is YOUR responsibility! It is up to YOU to ensure that you know what you are doing.
I have one question though, lets say I get certified and I want to take my friend out scuba diving but she doesn't have a licenses is it ok if she went scuba diving with someone that does have a licenses?
PADI and NAUI are dive certifications, not licensing. ANYONE can dive, you DON"T need a certification to do as you are taking your life into your own hands and there is nothing any police force could charge you with (as they could if you required a licence). However becoming certified means that you will be able to get your tanks filled at a dive shop or on a dive boat. Should you go on a dive trip, the dive masters ask to see your certifications to ensure that you know what you are doing and they wont be liable if something happens to you.
