I did a Scuba Refresher

[redrover]

The set up:
I’ve diving a while and feeling good about it but I haven’t got much feedback from other divers. I figured it was an indication I was at least not some disaster on the verge of happening. I’ve read a lot and pretty much self taught after BOW. I’ve asked for advice but my gear is different and not really getting much help with some issues, real time look and see what my complaints are.
I was concerned I may be

1. over confidant
2. there had to be some way to solve my gear issues
3. with room for improvement in basic skills, and
4. exactly what I was doing was right or wrong

I arranged for a private class so I’d get full attention and requested in the pool so no fun distraction and easy surface for discussion. Chose my instructor for little chance of letting anything slide by as ‘ok’ but corrections with kindness. I think he was in the pool once or maybe watched when I was in BOW class but I had not dove with him before. I asked for a complete and through evaluation and was a little nervous I’d embarrass my self. While no one told me I was a bad diver, they weren’t saying I was a good one either.

The class:
While setting up we talked about my gear choices and configuring. He picked up right away something to possibly help with my nagging complaint of getting head whacked and specific clues to accomplish the desired result. I felt it was a great start. He was seeing what I was looking for and realized how to communicate what I needed to learn.
He told me what I was to do, and a brief explanation of what he was going to do. Such as ‘Do a Giant Stride in the water, and I’ll follow you” neglecting to mention how closely he would be watching my execution of task and things he looked for. I liked not being able to cheat.
We surfaced frequently for feedback, what he looked for and what he saw. And asked questions to demonstrate if I knew how severe something was, how or when I would recognize it, what my options were.
Going through the skills was actually a lot of fun to accomplish the various ways again. He nailed me on every little hesitation or correction. While I could do them easily ‘my way’, if for some reason I couldn’t, showed I wasn’t thinking through the physics and needed to expand my practice scenarios to resolve problems.

Summary:

• He listened to my specific gear issues, observed how we physically related, understood what works for many people wasn’t working for me and provided tips for the fine tuning I desired. One highlight was; it’s ok to be fussy.
• I was able to visualize more ways and things to practice on future dives.
• We looked at the general parts of my type of diving, from my ability, and didn’t dwell somewhere unnecessarily, moving right on to higher expectation of capability.
• I learned things I’d figured out for myself were good. I honestly didn’t know if they were or just some aberrant thing I didn’t need or poorly executed.
• While I got far more positive feedback than I hoped for, the explanation of each why, didn’t leave me feeling it was unearned. I got a great deal of affirmation of my confidence for the type diving and how realistic I am about it.

Overall it was a very good experience I’m happy to have invested in. I got out of it exactly what I asked for and had more fun doing it than I expected.

 

[beejw]

Well thats good.
at least you didnt feel like it was a waste of money.

 

[NJMike]

Good deal, redrover. Sounds like something more people should consider doing. I was fortunate when I got back into diving this year that I knew someone who was an instructor and spent time with me before getting in the water, including time in my pool, going over the equipment, we had dinner and talked about the first upcoming dive....

So I know how you feel to get someone to help you and at the same time not make you feel uncomfortable.

 

[redrover]

As a private lesson I structured what I wanted – along the lines of a refresher but more of an evaluation – did my competency reflect my confidence realistically and what fine tuning would improve my diving skills. So, nope, not a waste of money at all for that alone. In addition I gained a lot better understanding of how to fix my gear gripes.
In parting the instructor said how much he wished the people that needed it would do it, that’s why I posted my experience here. Maybe it’s not commonly possible but I think almost anyone could benefit from a focused private ‘lesson’ to check on any aspect of diving they choose. From what I gather from reading here about diving instructors, they teach out of enjoyment seeing people gain, they want to share. From my experience teaching, I always enjoyed teaching people with a clue more than those beginning from scratch. Providing the little details that made one good and not just OK was a lot of fun.

 

[beach89]

I think smaller(under 4) size scuba classes are the way to go. There's so many little things that you need to do right while learning that it's best if the instructor can watch closely.

 

[Jason Ooi]

Good refreshment course! refreshed all s drill.