OW to Instructor in 23 days

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TC:
Ask yourself this question- would you allow someone you really cared for to be trained in Scuba diving by an instructor who had only been diving for 23 days?

It's actually AOW to OWSI - so the candidate could have years of experience and thousands of dives.

Or one weekend of experience and four dives.
 
It's actually AOW to OWSI - so the candidate could have years of experience and thousands of dives.

Or one weekend of experience and four dives.
OK, I'll rephrase- Would you allow someone you really cared about to be trained by an instructor with very limited experience?
 
Or you could just spend the $4300 on diving :wink:

Let's see. 23 days; 2 trips / day @ ~$50/trip. Throw in a few night dives.

Call it $2500 for 50 dives.

I can see how that might be a better way to gain experience quickly.
 
to me it seems like such a strange ambition....to want to be "an instructor" in something you've barely done. It's like getting a blackbelt from a "master" who's been "practicing" a year and paid his way to a blackbelt. I had no ambition to be an instructor until I had been diving for 5 years, actively, obsessively, then I thought that I would like to share my passion with others... Do you just wake up and say... gee wouldn't it be neat to be a scuba instructor....or gee wouldn't it be neat to teach martial arts.... (another peeve of mine...took me 7 years to "feel ready" to be a blackbelt, while I watched others around me buy belts... hey we all know who is who when we are in the ring or out diving...)
 
However, it seems like a good way to get in a ton of instruction in a short time.

Have you done any teaching before (of any topic)? From my experience (not teaching scuba), the course content is fine. I'd be confident anyone with 100 dives could teach the course under normal circumstances (you can basically explain how to dive safely to someone, right?) - it's when things don't go to plan that experience and true depth of knowledge really counts.

When a student throws you a curve ball (either a question, underwater panic or doing something just totally unexpected, etc) you just have to be soooo comfortable in your field so that you can deal with it without getting yourself flustered.



In the Yachtmaster course exam it's not unhead of for the examiner to sabotage the boat (untie ropes, disconnect power, loosen bolts, disable steering, etc) before/during the exam (almost always at the most inconvenient time!) to test the candidate's reaction in unexpected circumstances. Is there anything like this in the scuba instructor exams? It really differentiates between knowing something and truely understanding it.
 
to me it seems like such a strange ambition....to want to be "an instructor" in something you've barely done. It's like getting a blackbelt from a "master" who's been "practicing" a year and paid his way to a blackbelt. I had no ambition to be an instructor until I had been diving for 5 years, actively, obsessively, then I thought that I would like to share my passion with others... Do you just wake up and say... gee wouldn't it be neat to be a scuba instructor....or gee wouldn't it be neat to teach martial arts.... (another peeve of mine...took me 7 years to "feel ready" to be a blackbelt, while I watched others around me buy belts... hey we all know who is who when we are in the ring or out diving...)

That largely sums up my own thoughts. There's a whole lot to do and see underwater, so why would someone aspire to go into a low wage field without doing the fun stuff first? I've been diving off and on for years now and I still have no real desire to teach on a professional level. Sure, if a friend or relative asked me to, I'd do my best to mentor them, but I feel no compulsion whatsoever to become a certified divemaster.
 
Have you done any teaching before (of any topic)? From my experience (not teaching scuba), the course content is fine. I'd be confident anyone with 100 dives could teach the course under normal circumstances (you can basically explain how to dive safely to someone, right?) - it's when things don't go to plan that experience and true depth of knowledge really counts.

I am actually not seriously considering it. But I have taught a bunch of college courses as an adjunct professor, and I taught high school for a while as well. I used to be a certified jumpmaster. Teaching is one of the most fun things I have ever done, but it doesn't pay well at all so I don't get to do it as my main job.

Something about dropping everything for almost a month and completely immersing myself in learning everything about a new skill appeals to me greatly. It is more interesting to me in the learning aspect than it is in actually getting certified to teach. I know I wouldn't be comfortable learning from an instructor that had only started a month ago.

By the way, this kind of thing is common in flight instruction. You can be a certified flight instructor in around 100 hours. A lot of pilot wannabees immediately turn to instruction in order to build up hours so they can get a job flying. It isn't really seen as an issue in flight instruction (AFAIK), but I wouldn't be comfortable with it.

In the Yachtmaster course exam it's not unhead of for the examiner to sabotage the boat (untie ropes, disconnect power, loosen bolts, disable steering, etc) before/during the exam (almost always at the most inconvenient time!) to test the candidate's reaction in unexpected circumstances. Is there anything like this in the scuba instructor exams? It really differentiates between knowing something and truely understanding it.

I don't have any direct experience with the instructor course. However, I know my instructor told me that when he went through the course, they had the other instructor candidates model all kinds of weird student behavior, in order to see how they would react. Like during the mask clear, a student would bolt. That kind of thing.

I don't know how much you could mess with instructor's equipment. But you could model all kinds of bad student behavior.
 
A common (OK- back when I went through)(don't ask) scenario was to have students deliberately misintrpret any instruction you gave unless you were VERY clear about what to do and when to do it.
 
TC:
A common (OK- back when I went through)(don't ask) scenario was to have students deliberately misintrpret any instruction you gave unless you were VERY clear about what to do and when to do it.
That is still part of problem solving. I like that part.

And as for this topic. I'm sorry if this is blunt. Actually I'm not. What do I think? I think it's crap. Setting up accidents waiting to happen.

Oh, and I wouldn't want to learn to fly from someone who just finished something like this either. That is why you ask your instructor about his/ her background. So you can run if need be.
 
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