It took a great deal for me to wright this mail to you, and i was unsure how to handle the situation, then I decided to just tell it like it is.
Please understand I do not want to cause any bad feelings between anybody.
The last pool, session with ****** and myself with the the two open water students did not go well at all. In my opinion there is a personality clash between myself and Wouter.
I understand he needs to be strict, but there is a difference between being strict and breaking a person, on the day, i was expected to know things that i wasn't taught, i didn't attend previous pool sessions except for one previous occasion with the rescue students that we subsequently went to miracle with the following day.
The last pool session i needed to demonstrate the hand signals for some of of the open water skills, not having done this before as i mentioned, i was nailed and made to feel like a idiot for not knowing something i was not instructed on.
Further more, when i had to swim with the students around the pool at mid level, the one student cut a corner managed to get ahead of me and bailed for surface, Wouter holds to what he saw, and reckons i was not doing a proper dm job allowing the student to get ahead of me, yet i feel i still did the right thing going after him up to surface, nonetheless, whether i was wrong or not, even if i did make a huge error, i don't feel that it warrants to be yelled at the surface in front of the other students to "get with the program" , this was uncalled for in my opinion.
If there was a problem to be had, with how i dealt with the situation a talking to aside out of ear shot would have been much better. Also promised to me was that i would have been contacted to make arrangements to receive a padi dvd on the skills and how to demonstrate, yet this was not forthcoming either, i don't want to call continuously to the dive shop to follow up on things and then resulting in me being called a nag. Not much communication either has happened in Kim's advanced open water course either... why must *** always initiate communication, isn't it also the instructors responsibility to encourage students?
Please understand, i do not have any intention to disrupt anything in your household or your dive operation, however i do wish to conclude my DM under positive atmosphere without personality clashes. I know that as a DM , i wont be able to choose my customers one day, yet i feel that i get enough pressure from work and do not need more pressure after hours in something i am supposed to enjoy, in my work i also deal with allot of very difficult people, and i teach a variety of personalities , yet i deem it necessary for me to do my DM course under good climate as i am after all paying to do the course and i am still a customer.
I hope this mail finds you well, and that you can understand my position and that this writing in no way causes bad friendship between us.
---------- Post added September 13th, 2015 at 05:27 PM ----------
The reply to the letter i sent:
Please note the following:
1. When you do a DM course you are training to become a PADI professional,
this rating is held to a very high standard and has international qualifying
norms.
2. When you train as a DM you stop diving for yourself OR FOR FUN and you
start to dive for others. - you become a member of the team
3. With these statements in mind to qualify as a PADI DM you get critiqued
on physical fitness AND the way you conduct yourself with students both in
the water and out. (the theoretical test is only a small part of the
requirement)
4. When an instructor is conducting a confined water course, the most
important person to him/her is the open water student, who has never dived
before.
5. At this level of training you need to start thinking for yourself,
thinking for the students, and being an asset to the instructor as well as
the school you are representing.
6. Should you require time in the pool to train the skills or require the
dvd, it is YOUR responsibility to organize with the staff at the shop to
pick it up. Unfortunately we do not have the time to drop it off for you. It
is not a requirement for the course, but something we are willing to give
you, to help you better your skills.
7. I am not always available on weekends to train as I also have a busy work
schedule, so we all train as a team, this helps DM's learn different
techniques and ways of handling situations .
8. A person doing a DM course should be familiar with hand signals as he/she
did them in their open water course as well as observing the instructor
during briefings with new open water students.
9. I am still going to get Wouter to do the final evaluation as he is very
thorough and IF we qualify you as a DM you will always be a reflection on
our school and if you go to instructor level and your skills, technique and
student interaction is not 100% it is a poor reflection on us.
10. In DM training the instructor is not there to be a friend, but rather a
mentor, so you should not take constructive criticism personally but learn
from it and grow.
We have let you and Know on numerous occasions when we are going to
Miracle Waters to finish her advanced, and she has even been there with you.
She does not want to finish it in Miracle Waters. We have sent our sea
trips itinerary to you. On every trip we have advanced courses running. If
you do not join on the trip or go to Miracle, we are not left with any
choices. Her theory is done, we just need to do the dives.
