Fastest way to instructor

[archman]

Most of the PADI and NAUI instructors I've worked with have less than 300 dives and were barely older than the teenagers they taught. Several had under 200 dives. Maybe I'm just seeing a lot of brand-new instructors? I know at least five or six OWSI's whose first teaching gigs were with my biology students.

 

[String]

The question to ask is would you want a relative or loved one taught by a "fastest path instructor" ?

The reason i think you see a lot of young instructors is people do it for a year or so, realise its not as glamorous as they thought, how long the days are and how low the pay (if any) is and give it up and do something else. People get suckered in thinking its a dream job, then find out the truth and stop.

 

[alcina]

Colliam - thank you for actually answering the OP

 

[diver 85]

I just got SSI open water certification. I would like to know who has the fastest path to becoming an instructor - SSI or PADI or NAUI?

I know that experience is what matters more than the certification and the more dives i have would make me a better instructor, etc. but i would also like to know which path is the quickest.

Experience is what you need......Let me tell you a story----->our middle child, then 19 YO who was certified on his 12th birthday, moved to Roatan(for 6 months----ha-ha)...Now, we had a house there for a couple years & he was very familiar with West End etc- ie made a couple trips there each year........He had 125+ dives upon moving, got his DMs in the 1st 2.5 weeks there and 2 months later went to Gunauja(sister island) for a week & got his instructors......In other words, after you're confident in diving-& experienced enough, you can get your DM/instructors license in a month or less---but you have to be willing to eat & sleep diving for that time......Now,(remember the 6 month deal in the beginning) he moved off the island 3.5 years later with over 3500 dives----left out as a Water Sports Director for the Wind Star Cruises(3 450 ft & 1 550 ft. cruiseship sail boats) & HAD A BALL sailing half the world for the next 2 years........

 

[beester]

I'm always amazed how fast you can go from no dives to instructor with certain agencies... ours is a bit slower and these are the min requirements:

OW (*): no prerequisites to start certification
AOW (*): min 5 dives to start certification
Rescue diver (**): min 15 dives to start certification
DM (***):
-Have been min 6 months Rescue diver
-Logged at least 30 dive hours
-Logged at least 60 dives of which 40 deeper then 30 feet and 25 deeper than 90 feet. Have done at least 4 boat dives and 4 sea dives.
AI (****):
-Have been min 12 months DM
-Logged at least 40 dives after DM certification
-Logged at least 120 dives and 60 diving hours
-At least 40 dives deeper then 90 feet
-At least 20 dives deeper then 120 feet
-At least 30 dives deeper then 90 feet in sea
-At least 4 dives in tropical (clear) sea
-At least 4 dives in quary deeper then 90 feet
OWI (*I):
-Have been min 12 months AI
-Logged at least 200 dives and 100 diving hours
-Logged at least 60 sea dives deeper then 100 feet

Etc etc etc

So you need to spend a significant amount of time in the water to become an instructor...

I'm not saying that this way with alot of rules is the best way... no... but it does show that to teach scuba you need alot of educational skills but also experience to go along with that so you can explain a 'why' not from a book but from personal experience.

Good luck!

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Thailand has several dive centres that offer 'Zero to Hero' courses: be a dive master in a few months, and an instructor in around half a year.

I should know: I've had to come to the assistance of a few of them during various dive trips.

Don’t fool yourself that people will respect the card that you hold: when you don’t have the skills and knowledge that comes with experience it shows.

 

[diveandclimb]

Although I must say that I would be more than a little bit scared of an instructor who took the fastest path you can do it in about a year if you live diving non-stop day-in and day-out. Just get 10 logged dives than do your AOW then get another handful of dives and do your Rescue divers then I would STRONGLY recommend that you so several specialties to build breadth of knowledge and to add some more dives to your log. Then you can do your DM, AI, and Instructor. Will you be the best instructor out there? No. Would I ever get trained by you? No. Could you reasonably train basic OW divers and not kill anybody? Most likely although it depends on your level of good judgment.

 

[moneysavr]

the best way to get to instructor is probably pay off any shop that offers the course,dam 12 dives you should be more qualified than half the sb instructors!
as said merit badge,rd-md-dm-in you got it!
don't blame me just blame the money hungry agency's!
BI

 

[wreckchick]

the best way to get to instructor is probably pay off any shop that offers the course,dam 12 dives you should be more qualified than half the sb instructors!
as said merit badge,rd-md-dm-in you got it!
don't blame me just blame the money hungry agency's!
BI

Wow.

Just... wow.

I hope you're not inferring that 12 dives is more experience than half the SB instructors or that you should be more qualified than half the SB instructors are before you should be an instructor.

Oh, and let's not be so quick to blame the agencies, shall we? Look at the OP's original post... "How fast can I get to instructor?" Does that look like it's the agency driving the market or the market driving the agency?

Rachel

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Ocean Divers in Key Largo will take 26 days; AOW(2 days), EFR(1 day), Rescue(3 DAYS), DM(7 days), Dive Theory Prep(1 day), IDC(10 days), IE(2 days). There are no days off, even for the session starting Dec. 26.

You have to be 18 years old with 20 logged dives to start the DM course; 60 dives to be certified DM. At a Career Development Center (CDC), an Instructor Candidate must have been a certified diver for 6 months and can start the IDC with 60 dives; 100 logged dives required to take Instructor Exam (IE).

Another 6 days gets you; EFR Instructor(1 day), DAN Diving Emergency Management Provider Instructor(1 day) and 5 Specialty Instructor ratings (MSDT Prep - 4 days). Still no days off.

They will continue to take your money for further training, all the way up to the IDC Staff Instructor Course; that does require spending some time as a working Instructor, you can't just take a course for this one. They have been doing it a long time; If you apply yourself, a sharp, athletic, water person who is good at teaching will have a very good foundation to go out and start learning how to teach diving, by teaching diving.

In that area there are plenty of significant brains to pick for the history, science and teaching of diving, and much, much more. Try to hang with them and you just might learn more about diving than the 1000 dive "local diving" DM who shows up just to do the IDC/IE.

I stayed 6 or 7 weeks and logged over 200 dives. The conversation over beer at Sharkey's was probably the best part, but the diving was pretty educational and challenging too. The high cost does a good job of weeding out students who are not motivated and capable; the few true noob's that do sign up do not make it in one session, or even two.