Why not spend the time and money taking training/classes with a really good instructor to refine your skills instead? The fact that your instructor recommends doing non-relevant training for what you want to achieve makes me think you should at least try a different instructor to get a different perspective. I'm sure you could get recommendations for good instructors in your area, but personally I would also be open to traveling for good instruction, or inviting an instructor to come to you. In my mind, there is no better investment than a top notch instructor that will give you honest feedback and a clear plan for improvement to reach your goals.
Question Become an instructor or a rebreather diver?
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This actually isn’t even remotely true. It was meant it to be funny; and when I read it this morning, I don’t think it came off as funny at all. I read it now and it’ll comes off as stupid and hurtful.I’d find that a bit hurtful if I had even an ounce of respect for you.
I’d like to blame it on drinking, but I don’t drink. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I actually like Ken and you can even find threads in here where I have recommended him to students for instruction.
Sorry Ken. Still love you man. @kensuf
L13
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It takes courage to publicly admit when we are wrong. Thanks for setting an example here.
I didn't take it as anything more than locker room joking, I'm good. But thank you Pete, I hope you have a happy holiday season and that 2024 is good to you.
There are probably some (IMO small) advantages of being an OWSI, but those are far outweighed by learning tech diving.
I'd say that most of the instructors here would agree that you need to teach for a year or two tat the rec. level to have a pretty good body of experience. When I went down the pro path, I spent about a year as a DM candidate and maybe 6 months as a DM. I spent almost every weekend of that time in classrooms, the pool and open water trying to get as much experience as possible. Then I did the same thing as an instructor.
I'm not a rebreather diver, but most of the rebreather instructors I know advise people to spend a year getting experience on a rebreather. I don't see how you could do that and spend time teaching too...
More importantly, unless you are fired up about teaching scuba, you probably aren't going to teach it that well. There's more than enough mediocre/do-the-minimum instructors out there. Go do some tech dives.
A second point against going the OWSI route is the number of instructors who have been expelled in China. There are threads here that discuss that issue, but suffice it to say that it appears much more likely that you'd be pressured to cut corners and standards as an instructor than you would be elsewhere in the world.
If I could do it all over again, I would have gone straight to tech diving and bypassed the whole instructor thing until after I'd completed a bunch of tech courses. I'd have been a better instructor for it too.
I'd say that most of the instructors here would agree that you need to teach for a year or two tat the rec. level to have a pretty good body of experience. When I went down the pro path, I spent about a year as a DM candidate and maybe 6 months as a DM. I spent almost every weekend of that time in classrooms, the pool and open water trying to get as much experience as possible. Then I did the same thing as an instructor.
I'm not a rebreather diver, but most of the rebreather instructors I know advise people to spend a year getting experience on a rebreather. I don't see how you could do that and spend time teaching too...
More importantly, unless you are fired up about teaching scuba, you probably aren't going to teach it that well. There's more than enough mediocre/do-the-minimum instructors out there. Go do some tech dives.
A second point against going the OWSI route is the number of instructors who have been expelled in China. There are threads here that discuss that issue, but suffice it to say that it appears much more likely that you'd be pressured to cut corners and standards as an instructor than you would be elsewhere in the world.
If I could do it all over again, I would have gone straight to tech diving and bypassed the whole instructor thing until after I'd completed a bunch of tech courses. I'd have been a better instructor for it too.
It's funny. Standards are supposed to be the bare minimum, not what everyone thinks is acceptable. Strive beyond the bare minimum.
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