I'm a rec instructor. I want to be a tec instructor. No tec experience. I'm gonna need your help.

[stuartv]

I appreciate your pragmatic view, and you may very well be completely correct. At bare minimum, you're certainly answering the question for the next person that comes in and reads the forum by searching.

To play devil's advocate to your devil's advocate and to play with your metaphor a bit, my reading of his posts leaves the impression that he isn't saying "Hey, what's it take to be a race car driver?" but instead "Hey, what's it take to teach race car drivers? I want to do it as quickly as possible while minimizing spending time on that pesky race track."

That could be nothing but a communication error, but that's the impression I believe many of us have been left with based on his posts.

"I want to teach people to drive race cars. What is the cheapest and quickest way to do that?"

You can interpret that as "I want to teach race car driving. I don't care how good I am at it. What is the quickest and cheapest way to get there?

Or you can interpret that as "I want to teach race car driving. I want to be good at it and produce students that are good race car drivers. How can I achieve that goal in the way that is most efficient in terms of my time and money? I want to do it right, but I don't want to waste my time or money on things that are not helpful towards that goal."

Which way you interpret the initial question is on YOU, not the person asking.

If you read ALL of the initial post, including the parts about what things to read in advance, you MIGHT be willing to give the OP the benefit of the doubt, as I did, and interpret his question in the latter way.

That being said, do you think you would have anything of value to teach an aspiring race car driver?

I think I would if I took the best path to becoming an instructor. I expect it would involve spending a lot of time racing cars first, and then a lot of time working with/for a really good race car driver instructor, to learn how best to teach it.

And if I WANTED to teach race car driving (and let's assume I had already been teaching Driver's Ed in a local school for 10 years), and I went on a car driving forum and asked the fastest and cheapest way to achieve that goal, I would HOPE that I would not (as @EastEndDiver put it) get kicked in the balls for not already knowing the answers to my questions.

I think it's pretty simple. I TRY (albeit, not always successfully) to treat people the way I want to be treated. If I ask a person or a group a question, I would HOPE to be treated as if I am presumed to be a good and sincere person and if my question sounds stupid or ignorant or like I could be trying to take shortcuts, that it is probably because I simply don't know what I don't know and not that I am not willing to do things "the right way" once I learn what "the right way" is.

I tried to treat the OP, a stranger to me, the way I would want to be treated. I wish more people around here would do that.

 

[The Chairman]

This person asked a question and got kicked in the balls for asking.

Exactly. We're a discussion forum. I don't understand the need to eviscerate anyone over such a simple question. Calling them a troll does what? It shuts the discussion down. Why do that? Why shut down discussions in a discussion forum? If they don't like a discussion, there's no need to be unfriendly and assign horrible motives to the OP. Just move on to the next discussion. Dive and let dive. Post and let post. Ask and let ask.

 

[hroark2112]

If the OP is a good OW instructor and progresses to tech diving, he should realize as he gains experience that there is a lot more to learn, understand and master in tech diving than in OW, and will strive to gain the knowledge and experience he will need to be a good tech instructor. Hopefully he will have some great tech instructors along the way who can guide him in the right direction.

From my own experience it is a tough pill to swallow to hear that you're not ready to be an instructor, even if you meet the minimum requirements to do so. I was working on an instructor certification and was told to go get more experience. Initially I argued the point that I met the minimum requirements set forth in the standards. Pretty much as soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to reach out and pull them back. Too late. As I gained more experience I realized that he was right, I had a lot more to learn before I would be ready to teach anyone else. My biggest regret in the whole process is allowing myself to argue with the IT. Sometimes I need to engage that delay between my brain & mouth!!

 

[admikar]

I asked first, wait for your turn!!!

OK, so it's war time. I offer to pay $1,05 for course. Of course, you're welcome to come with me, buddy is needed anyway.

From my own experience it is a tough pill to swallow to hear that you're not ready to be an instructor, even if you meet the minimum requirements to do so.

That could be said for any level of diving. I have witnessed a bitter reaction for being rejected for next level of dive cert.

To get back on the subject.....I will give OP the benefit of doubt. I might be wrong, but I didn't get impression that OP is looking to cut corners.
The question about taking multiple courses......honestly, any and every one of us is looking for getting a value for your money. I don't see it as "I'm a cheap sob", but merely "is it a good idea". There are some things that do sound a little bit off, but we must consider that OP is probably not a native English speaker.

 

[almostDIR]

That Mark Powell tech intro book seems to be pretty good, just got it and reading right now. I also have the deco for divers book to read next and then some cave diving basics and history books after that which an cave instructor recommended. Some 2000 pages at least and will order more after have read them

I don't expect to know anything after reading those 2000 pages, it is just to understand the sport better so that I have more questions to ask. Of course it will benefit if learning some helpful tricks too but I don't expect anything. It is just for the basic knowledge base so that it will be slightly easier in actual tech training sometime later. And it is interesting to read anyway

For the actual courses, I don't expect to get the card, I am there for the training. Well, they can give me the card if they want but I am there just for learning the stuff the best I can. If there is even one minor thing I should do better I definitely will, even if have to go through the whole course again. Then, when finished, more practicing and diving and sometime later when it is a perfect time for it I may take another tech course. There is no strict timeline I need to follow and there is absolutely no need to hurry. I can even take a complete year off of diving if it feels right. There is no hurry for anything and money and effort spent is not important. You are ready when you are ready and you wont go anywhere before being ready for it. The "I want to be an astronaut in two years" attitude will get you nowhere and you will be dissappointed if trying to live up to unrealistic expectations.

As for the OP, I think it does not matter at all if hes troll or not. Other people will learn from these threads too and they may benefit even more than the OP

Like others said and maybe I said earlier too, there is no point for the OP to try to be a tech instructor if he does not love tech diving in the first place and want to do it on his pastime just for the love of it. Exploring deep wrecks etc like he mentioned. He should just get to that level first and then when done tech diving couple of years he can evaluate if he would still want to teach it too. If yes, then go down that road and get more training and experience for it. If not, he still has great new skillset to use in all his diving and his limits have expanded more than he could have ever hoped for.

The time is the greatest consideration here and I think the OP should just drop that out of his requirements and concentrate on actually learning things now instead of trying to hastily get somewhere. Money needs to be dropped out too I think. If you need something you just need it and you have to pay for it. Equipment and training and travelling etc. You can't cheap on them if you want to be good. Just use everything you can, especially time, and see where it gets you in the end.
You don't have to get anywhere in the end. You can hope for it but it may also change during the journey. The things you do in between are most important and you have to enjoy the learning process to be able to advance in the sport

 

[Compressor]

The answer to the OP original question is as follows:

1. Take some tech course first and see if it's your cup of tea
2. Talk with tech divers and see if it's your cup of tea
3. Read a few tech diving books and see if it's your cup of tea
4. Research ideas why you are so bored with your teaching and see why your cup of tea is bland. Maybe you are bored because you approach the current classes in a boring way.
5. There are plenty of ways to to drink tea. Find one that gives pleasure.

 

[AJ]

Like others said and maybe I said earlier too, there is no point for the OP to try to be a tech instructor if he does not love tech diving in the first place and want to do it on his pastime just for the love of it. Exploring deep wrecks etc like he mentioned. He should just get to that level first and then when done tech diving couple of years he can evaluate if he would still want to teach it too. If yes, then go down that road and get more training and experience for it. If not, he still has great new skillset to use in all his diving and his limits have expanded more than he could have ever hoped for.

Exactly this ^. It seems to me the OP is someone who is in love with teaching, maybe even more than diving itself? I did not read anything about becoming a good tech diver. To be honest, looking at tech teaching from a recreational perspective I can understand this question. A lot of rec instructors I know don't have the faintest clue about tech diving and what's involved. A rec instructor even asked me once where my droppable weight was placed when I kitted up my Hogarthian rig. He really and sincerely did not understand my config.

On the other side, the tech instructors I know love diving. Even in their spare time they go fun diving, even if it's shallow in the local lake. It's not part of their life, diving is their live. And yes, they love to initiate other people into the world of tech diving. It's not just teaching tech diving, it's much more than that. A mindset I have hardly ever seen with rec instructors.

 

[The Chairman]

It seems to me the OP is someone who is in love with teaching, maybe even more than diving itself?

I love diving, but I definitely love teaching more than diving. I know a few great divers that make lousy instructors because they don't have that thirst and/or gift. Skills are much easier to master than patience, insight, situational awareness for others (and yourself), knowing how to assess, knowing how to critique and so on. A Pop-Warner Football coach, will often aspire to become a High School coach, who may aspire to becoming a college coach, who then aspires to coach in the NFL in some capacity. With each promotion comes another level of love for the craft.

 

[Compressor]

I love diving, but I definitely love teaching more than diving. I know a few great divers that make lousy instructors because they don't have that thirst and/or gift. Skills are much easier to master than patience, insight, situational awareness for others (and yourself), knowing how to assess, knowing how to critique and so on. A Pop-Warner Football coach, will often aspire to become a High School coach, who may aspire to becoming a college coach, who then aspires to coach in the NFL in some capacity. With each promotion comes another level of love for the craft.

That is also what I was trying to state. Teaching anything well takes patience and is a dynamic process. Sometimes, the challenge is not the environment but the student who needs to be motivated to stay interested and successful. It's not just do what I do and will be done soon. You've got to get insight into the student in order to help them become better divers. That's where many instructors fail IMO.

 

[MichaelMc]

Being able to make an *informed* choice to jump toward being a tech instructor from no tech seems very hard.

For non diver to recreational instructor, learning the activity, diving, is not that hard. It's done shallow, so fairly cheaply. And there are many examples of instructors around, and board discussions about challenges to making money.

Having an existing job and deciding to invest in becoming a tech instructor seems more daunting. The activity, tech diving, doesn't pay and is expensive to try out and it will be a while before you are good. That is all before issues about becoming an instructor, and the viability of that as a job that pays.

Trying the early stages of tech diving seems the only first path, beyond the basic layout of course progressions. It would give essential feedback on how suited you are to it. Which you cann't get any other way. Doing that might also start answering 'If I'm good at tech, what does learning to teach look like?"