- Messages
- 7,657
- Reaction score
- 6,574
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
including jacuzzi in your suite people to fill it and free mini bar?
Question How to look out for "Good" instructor?
- Thread starter HappyNoots
- Start date
-
- Tags
- dive advice newbie diver
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
ginti
Contributor
Pay lots of attention to word of mouth.
Most divers never accumulate enough experience in their whole lives to understand what good training is or isn't. They will probably think that what they have learned is fine, and they will tend to think that those instructors with a sort of "passion/love" and good charm are excellent. But if you remember the 3 points I mentioned in a previous post, this factor is only one of those you need to consider (the third one). You still need to ensure the instructor is a good diver and a capable teacher, the former one being the hardest thing to understand without extensive diving experience.
GUE instructors are almost surely high-quality divers since this agency is one of the few with very strict quality control. However, this does not guarantee that the instructor is an excellent teacher and that his personality is the right one for you - you should have a chat with the teacher to understand his style and personality. The biggest variation in teaching style I have seen within GUE is about how structured is the course:
1 - some instructors follow a very rigid schema and ensure you get very efficiently all the content of the course
2 - some instructors allow more flexibility and tend to answer even questions that go beyond the content
None of the above is good or bad, it really depends on you (I prefer 2, some of my friends prefer 1). On top of that, usually, more experienced instructors tend to run smoother courses providing even more knowledge (yes, you feel the difference between Mario Arena and the new young Tech-1 instructor), although overall their courses will leave you well equipped with anything you need for your dives.
On top of that, you should at least not dislike the instructor (personality-fit factor), and it is even better if you get along very well.
In case you want to search for other instructors, be aware that despite GUE having such a good quality control, it is enforced only during courses and on instructors. This means that a GUE-trained diver who is an instructor for another agency is not necessarily a good diver (many divers get training and then don't exercise anymore). With agencies that enforce less strict quality control (e.g. PADI), you really need to find your way to verify if the instructor is a capable diver or not, and this could be difficult for a person without experience since "you don't know what you don't know." This is where knowing some insiders can help you identify the right instructor for you. Just to be clear, there are exceptional instructors with any agency.
We did OW, AOW and Nitrox (+training dive) with 3 different dive centers in Egypt and Oman, I also tried (and failed) an OW course in Thailand a few years back. I would say for OW the instructor and diving conditions are extremely important, however for AOW and other minor specialty courses it doesn't matter that much.
Instructor always matters - why else are you taking the course? Folks who are saying that the instructor doesn’t matter likely have not had the experience of having truly great instructors; the dive industry is certainly full of many mediocre ones.
Honestly, unless you are lucky enough to be local and see classes yourself/get to know instructors, it’s very difficult as an outsider to know who is a good instructor and who isn’t. The solution? Ask the locals who do know. If you know where you are traveling ask here on SB for recommendations for shops and instructors. Don’t rely on reviews.
For instance, I’m in north central Florida. If you asked me for instructor recommendations there’s at least one shop and one independent instructor I’d strongly advise you to avoid, several independent instructors I’d highly recommend, and several shops/instructors I’d tell you are “fine.” All have highly positive (4.5+) Google reviews, and you wouldn’t know which was which if you relied on those.
Honestly, unless you are lucky enough to be local and see classes yourself/get to know instructors, it’s very difficult as an outsider to know who is a good instructor and who isn’t. The solution? Ask the locals who do know. If you know where you are traveling ask here on SB for recommendations for shops and instructors. Don’t rely on reviews.
For instance, I’m in north central Florida. If you asked me for instructor recommendations there’s at least one shop and one independent instructor I’d strongly advise you to avoid, several independent instructors I’d highly recommend, and several shops/instructors I’d tell you are “fine.” All have highly positive (4.5+) Google reviews, and you wouldn’t know which was which if you relied on those.
- Messages
- 7,657
- Reaction score
- 6,574
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Seriously a course is a couple of days so find yourselves a shiny happy place where you will have some fun
Pass the course with the rest of your lives between courses to put into practice what you have been shown
Oh no they're vertical, where it's comfortable to chill hanging around looking at stuff and talk to each other
Pass the course with the rest of your lives between courses to put into practice what you have been shown
Oh no they're vertical, where it's comfortable to chill hanging around looking at stuff and talk to each other
Octagon4602
Registered
Not as experienced as many folks here, but I definitely have felt a “vibe” (for lack of a better term) in different LDSs, and that helps me narrow down which shops and instructors I want to do business with. I’ve also had great luck with getting referrals. My LDS owner is a technical diver who referred me to his technical instructor who has easily been the best instructor I’ve ever worked with.
Chat with people you dive with, look into names that are posted on the forums, go diving with local clubs. You’ll end up finding someone who you like working with. I’ve worked with a dozen or so instructors so far, and only about half of them would I say I enjoyed working with.
You might not get it right the first time and that’s ok! This sport requires continuous learning anyways, just because you took a course doesn’t mean you’re suddenly the expert, as you do more of that type of diving, you’ll meet people who are way more experienced than you that are happy to help, and give you tips and tricks. Ask them who their instructor was, and you’ll get some good info.
I love not being the most experienced guy on the boat, it means I can learn from the people who are better than me during the trip!
Chat with people you dive with, look into names that are posted on the forums, go diving with local clubs. You’ll end up finding someone who you like working with. I’ve worked with a dozen or so instructors so far, and only about half of them would I say I enjoyed working with.
You might not get it right the first time and that’s ok! This sport requires continuous learning anyways, just because you took a course doesn’t mean you’re suddenly the expert, as you do more of that type of diving, you’ll meet people who are way more experienced than you that are happy to help, and give you tips and tricks. Ask them who their instructor was, and you’ll get some good info.
I love not being the most experienced guy on the boat, it means I can learn from the people who are better than me during the trip!
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Why don’t we first define what is a “bad” instructor and what is a “good” instructor and go from there.
- Messages
- 7,657
- Reaction score
- 6,574
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Ha ha ha ah ah ah ah ah ah aha!!!
- Messages
- 7,657
- Reaction score
- 6,574
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Man with so many instructors I would have thought you are a fully fledged expert almost ready for retirement
I don't think I've ever even seen as many instructors as a dozen in my entire lifetime, let alone been instructed
Good luck with your projects!
Nosmosis
Contributor
Here‘s a few things I would look for:
1. Are they communicative and responsive? The dive industry really lacks in professionalism and the true professionals stand out. They return calls, the respond to emails, the are interested in your business and are not flakey.
2. They teach not just the minimum standards. In other words, are they checking boxes on the slate or are they adding other skills or tricks that they can give you based on their actual experience.
3. They not only are certified to teach the specialty but have real world (not training dives only) experience. As an example, I see many scuba instructors teaching wreck classes on houseboats sunk in quarries. This doesn’t prepare you for real wreck dives and if they are not also doing real wreck dives, they should not teach others to do it either.
4. Dive experience as measured by quality of their dives. 1,000s of dives in the same quarry is not experience. I rather have an instructor with 500 dives that did them in multiple environments. They can teach me something more likely than the guys boasting about their 1,000s (which are really their teaching dives)
5. They are doing the dives you want to do. If you aspire to dive the Doria, learn from someone who did it. Or if cave diving or CCR is in your plans, learn from someone who knows how to get you there.
6. They invest in their own education. What classes are they taking? They should want to better too.
7. They recognize the value of what they teach and want to charge you for it.
8. Who are there teachers and where did they learn to teach diving? This goes with the one about self-investment but they likely are investing in themselves and learning from the best.
9. They are patient and generous with their time. Yes, they should be compensated for training time, but they should like mentoring divers and the relationship shouldn’t end after the class does. Do they continue to have relationships with past students.
10. Teaching experience is important too - but balanced with real world diving
11. They have passion for diving and dive for their own fun too. I sometimes hear people talk about their other hobbies more than scuba - like bicycling, mountain climbing etc. I want someone as obsessed with diving as I am!
12. They can tell you the „Why“. So when they tell you something they have a why for it. Doesn’t need to be the only answer but they are justifying it.
1. Are they communicative and responsive? The dive industry really lacks in professionalism and the true professionals stand out. They return calls, the respond to emails, the are interested in your business and are not flakey.
2. They teach not just the minimum standards. In other words, are they checking boxes on the slate or are they adding other skills or tricks that they can give you based on their actual experience.
3. They not only are certified to teach the specialty but have real world (not training dives only) experience. As an example, I see many scuba instructors teaching wreck classes on houseboats sunk in quarries. This doesn’t prepare you for real wreck dives and if they are not also doing real wreck dives, they should not teach others to do it either.
4. Dive experience as measured by quality of their dives. 1,000s of dives in the same quarry is not experience. I rather have an instructor with 500 dives that did them in multiple environments. They can teach me something more likely than the guys boasting about their 1,000s (which are really their teaching dives)
5. They are doing the dives you want to do. If you aspire to dive the Doria, learn from someone who did it. Or if cave diving or CCR is in your plans, learn from someone who knows how to get you there.
6. They invest in their own education. What classes are they taking? They should want to better too.
7. They recognize the value of what they teach and want to charge you for it.
8. Who are there teachers and where did they learn to teach diving? This goes with the one about self-investment but they likely are investing in themselves and learning from the best.
9. They are patient and generous with their time. Yes, they should be compensated for training time, but they should like mentoring divers and the relationship shouldn’t end after the class does. Do they continue to have relationships with past students.
10. Teaching experience is important too - but balanced with real world diving
11. They have passion for diving and dive for their own fun too. I sometimes hear people talk about their other hobbies more than scuba - like bicycling, mountain climbing etc. I want someone as obsessed with diving as I am!
12. They can tell you the „Why“. So when they tell you something they have a why for it. Doesn’t need to be the only answer but they are justifying it.
Similar threads
