Diversity in Training

[antattack]

If you have an instructor you respect, when is it time to search for a fresh perspective?

I think sometimes we stick with one shop or instructor out of loyalty. I know I've felt it. But there's a lot of experience out there. Maybe after a couple of classes it's just good drill to change things up. Keep the friends/mentors you have and make some new ones.

What do you think?

 

[danpass]

I've wondered this myself concerning AOW.

 

[antattack]

I was OW certified by a NAUI instructor and didn't take another class for years. NAUI felt very high touch and customized by the particular instructor.

Then I took Nitrox from SSI, and it was very interesting to learn how different the class structure was, just a quick class, but I could tell there was a lot more structure and paperwork. Which is probably why they can look up my cert and NAUI can't...

Then I took AOW, Deep, Rescue and Wreck from PADI, and each class was structured, step by step, efficient and easy to get through. Great instructors, well prepared, but all the learning is metered out in easy to consume bites and no distraction from depth or complexities... Just do the thing the same way. Don't get me wrong, the instructors who teach this stuff really know their stuff and love diving, but each agency has a style.

Each instructor has a style.

Maybe there's value in just changing things up once in a while.

 

[Wookie]

I'd have to go back and look at my cards, but I had one instructor for OW, I think I had a different instructor for AOW, I know I had a different instructor for Rescue, multiple specialties, and MSD, back to my AOW instructor for DM, and never repeated with the same instructor through Trimix. I feel that it is imperative to get varying viewpoints. I have LDS loyalty (not really) but not instructor loyalty. I am very clear with any of my instructors going in. I'm here for what they can teach me, and I'll be using someone else for the next progression. That way there is no hard feelings.

 

[mala]

good instruction should make you able to conduct dives independantly .

then the learning begins.

 

[decompression]

I have to agree, when I was only a padi instructor, I took a ANDI tech course and a TDI rebreather course and have since done two instructor crossovers. I think I've really benefited from seeing other perspectives.

 

[Colliam7]

I think sometimes we stick with one shop or instructor out of loyalty. . . Maybe after a couple of classes it's just good drill to change things up. Keep the friends/mentors you have and make some new ones.

I did virtually all of my training, with a couple of exceptions, with one shop. But, I did the classes through that shop with multiple instructors. Even the outside-the-shop training was the same agency (PADI), though. I now teach through that shop. So, I could reasonably be accused of suffering from a degree of in-breeding (hmm, I wonder if that may explain the third ear, and the 6th toe on the left foot).

I have often thought it would be interesting and valuable to take a class from another shop / agency, feigning some level of innocence (i.e. not showing by instructor credential), just to see how others (agencies and instructors) teach.

In the case of students who do OW with us (the shop I am affiliated with), we encouage students NOT to restrict themselves to one instructor. If someone does OW with me, I want them to do AOW with a diffrent instructor, and Rescue with yet another instructor, etc. It is good for them.