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.
