HI All
I just wanted to air a trainee frustration into the cosmos
I am currently a BSAC Ocean Diver Trainee and have been for almost 3 years now .... yes 3 years. I know that Covid and lockdown had an effect on this but still .... 3 years !!!!
I am getting my training from a local club so it is all volunteer based, because of this i don't feel like i can really complain hense my posting today.
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey time
Back in the good old days before Covid was a thing circa October 2018 my hubby and I came to the realisation that there was no reason why we coudn't start scuba diving ..... hubby wanted to take off abroad and do a course somewhere hot but silly me said we should do it here in sunny England so we can dive all year round. As Hubby is very well trained he agreed(yes i have had a lot of I told you so's) so we contacted a local club and set off for a test dive and LOVED it and so our adventure into Scuba started.
Little did i know that 3 years on, instead of loading up the car on a weekend and going and diving any muddy puddle we can find - Hubby is Ocean Diver trained but with no further experience diving and I am still a trainee.
I have completed all the "classroom stuff" and have 98% of the skills signed off but i have found that our local club isn't taking tranees out enough (2-3 time this year) and i do not forsee any more trainee dives in the near furture.
So cosmos here is my quandry..... do I
A. Search for a new club and hope it is better there - next nearest one is 1hr and 30 min (ish) away
B. Search for a BSAC instructor who will do a intensive trainee course with me
C. Dump BSAC all together and switch to SSI or PADI
(I have been in touch with a SSI/PADI instructor who will take me but would be starting from scratch and i am so damn close)
Ok that is it - frustration released and calm has once again assended
I don’t think I have any couples in this exact position in my branch, although I do where one is a Sports Diver, so I don’t think you are talking about me specifically
The biggest advantage of using a commercial school is predictable timing. A major headache for a club is getting all the students in the same place at the same time doing the same lesson. Ideally you have two or three OD trainees at a lake doing the lesson. A school has a continuous stream of people just doing OW and can manage that. A club has a given set of people, not too many, doing courses progressively and so there might be only half a dozen people that need a particular lesson. Getting those particular people to agree and actually turn up is a major challenge. Mix in other constraints such as not putting people into 8c water for their first open water dive, and getting people done is hard. Since lessons tend to be spread out over time the students are often badly rusty when you do round them up.
In your case were you training as a couple? Did you start at the same time? Did your husband need fewer lessons, is he a fish and you struggle, or were there events you could not attend?
In my experience, and we’ve had a disappointing number of people fail to finish, the difference between success and failure is whether the student is prepared to prioritise the training. People who turn up get trained. People that remind the instructors that they exist and are available get trained. People that say “yes” get trained. People that have a wedding to go to/a mate moving flat/etc etc don’t.
What clubs want to do is to go diving. Half trained people are not useful for that and generally some considerable effort goes into getting people finished.
My specific advice to you is to talk to your DO and say “I really need to get finished, I can do these dates <insert every possible date> and you can use my husband as a body/buddy if necessary, when can you or another instructor take us to a lake?”
Once qualified you need to go diving and get solid skills by practice. That will involve getting on trips, eventually organising trios and generally being a proper adult. All that involves prioritising diving activities. There will not be a huge choice of dates, boats get booked, people have to agree to dates etc etc. If you can’t fit some of those dates into your life, and often the boats need booking a year ahead, then you will not get to go diving with your club.meanwhile your club has boats with empty spaces, wasting money and making the treasurer suggest booking free boats next year, then next year the story is “I can’t do any of those dates, why so few?”
Most clubs end up with a hard core of people who actually do all the diving. Those are the people who prioritise diving and are not scared to commit ahead of time. The rest are at wedding, helping people move house, at Glastonbury or whatever.
Is that like snow skiing in Kansas ?
