Instructor course - advice.

[Santa]

I'll be starting my instructor course (padi) in two months. It's gonna be a cold-water deal done over a course of 10-12 days excluding final exams.

my current status is:
- I'm 33, and a DM of a modest 140odd dives. I have DMed in Indonesia and Scandinavia. I did my DM and one month internship on Bunaken Sulawesi.
- I'm very comfortable in water and a strong swimmer, if a little out of shape (tough summer).
- I'm a confident practical diver, and have done a fair amount of guided dives and course assists (although rarely on a daily basis), but some of my theori and demonstration skills are admittedly a bit rusty.
- I bought my own equipment a year ago and am getting quite comfortable with it. I am however seriously debating the issue of my split fins with myself - My frog kicking is not all that great.
- I'm a teacher with many years of experience in other areas and routine handling the stress, anger, anxiety or fear of others. I communicate clearly and know myself pretty well personalitywise.

My overall take on this, recognising that I'm going to be a rather "young" instructor divewise, is to proceed slowly and conservatively when it comes to doing actual courses and picking my OW sites and conditions very carefully. Actually I may start out doing mostly trial dives and scuba reviews and kinda take it from there, based on how I feel about it.

Overall I feel confident about proceeding. I want to do well. I have some strong opinions about diving - and teaching in general - and realize that I will be in charge of the safety of others and probably instrumental in inspiring safe diving habits. I've had enough potentially dangerous buddies to want to make a difference.

One thing that I do consider is that I did rescue diver training in tropical conditions. The local diving where I live now (denmark) is pretty safe and easy - mostly beach dives from easily accessible shorelines with little or no current, medium bay-type waves and max-depths of 6-10 metres (we do have a few sites for the deeper part of the course but rarely manage a full 18 metres). I've done lots of this type of diving and know my procedures, but the cold and heavier gear + gloves are a factor and I haven't done any scenarios here, yet.

If anyone have any comments or advice on things that I should consider regarding course preparation and future working practise I'd welcome it.


sincerely.

 

[Diversauras]

Firstly let me say good luck to you, I think you might need it. Your first couple of paragraphs really indicate that you aren't ready, at least not at the top of your game. I understand that my opinion is unimportant in the overall scheme of things but I would add that if you waited another two hundred dives as varied as you current CV shows, you would probably understand a bunch of the things you don't now.

Just for the record I think 500 should be the minimum entry point for instructor. I do hope you are the exception and are a truly fantastic and capable instructor right out of your IEC.

 

[Diver0001]

What's the hurry? If you want to start out doing trial dives and scuba reviews you can do that as a DM.

Your experience as a teacher will clearly give you a head start but with 140 dives you're probably just starting to get a grip on your own diving ....

I would suggest doing your AI now so you can start doing the theory lessons and focus on trial dives, scuba reviews and assisting with OW courses while you go make another 250 dives first.

R..

 

[ScubaSarus]

My buddy who got instructor certified claimed it helped to do a lot of lap swimming in the pool to clear the physical part of the course.

 

[Pez de Diablo]

As a Dive Master you can join the Instructor to Instructor forum that is reserved for dive professionals. There is lots of good advise for the DM thinking of or going into the IDC.

Check it out,

Dennis

 

[Wildcard]

You will do just fine. Some claim that you need thousands of dives to teach some feel that 100 is enough. Your honest about your abilities and have dove in varied locations. That will be a big help. The physical portion is no big deal, there is no time limit so just enjoy your swim. Id say to prep, do your DM stuff again. And a hint when testing, don't be first. When the tests are handed out they are numbered. sit in the middle of the room so your not number one. That way you get to watch others do the UW demos first and it helps to rember eveerything you need to do. I got stuck with 1 and it sucked! Good luck.

 

[Santa]

Firstly let me say good luck to you, I think you might need it. Your first couple of paragraphs really indicate that you aren't ready, at least not at the top of your game. I understand that my opinion is unimportant in the overall scheme of things but I would add that if you waited another two hundred dives as varied as you current CV shows, you would probably understand a bunch of the things you don't now.

Just for the record I think 500 should be the minimum entry point for instructor. I do hope you are the exception and are a truly fantastic and capable instructor right out of your IEC.

Thanks for the input.

The thing is I can't say I downright disagree. Reason I'm going ahead now is that my course will be paid for by an employer of mine if I do it now. It's no dive op and what they'll have me do is probably do a lot of pool work (trial dives) and some open water guiding and dive trip arrangements for certifieds. They're not really into the course part. I guide locally on a regular basis anyway, so it's probably more of an official thing that they wanna be able to say instructor rather than DM.

Someone here suggested sticking with theory lessons and keep assisting to begin with, while I pack some more dives in, and maybe that's a good idea. I guess I'm trying to find reasonable way to approach this that allows me to grow with the job in an acceptable way.

It's an old bone on the board, I guess. To me further study can only improve my diving on a personal level. It's what would be best practise after, with other people that I'm really contemplating.

 

[Diversauras]

Thanks for the input.

The thing is I can't say I downright disagree. Reason I'm going ahead now is that my course will be paid for by an employer of mine if I do it now. It's no dive op and what they'll have me do is probably do a lot of pool work (trial dives) and some open water guiding and dive trip arrangements for certifieds. They're not really into the course part. I guide locally on a regular basis anyway, so it's probably more of an official thing that they wanna be able to say instructor rather than DM.

Someone here suggested sticking with theory lessons and keep assisting to begin with, while I pack some more dives in, and maybe that's a good idea. I guess I'm trying to find reasonable way to approach this that allows me to grow with the job in an acceptable way.

It's an old bone on the board, I guess. To me further study can only improve my diving on a personal level. It's what would be best practise after, with other people that I'm really contemplating.

Your head is in the right place and you'll do fine in the course. My concern with you as well as with every other instructor including myself is that with more experience you have a larger data base on which to draw when nothing goes as it should, and there will be those days.

I think that in an instructor or any other leadership position you can learn your most invaluable lessons FROM your students and charges. They will make mistakes that you never considered, they will do something in a new way that is better than you had been taught, and they will do things that you can't even imagine at this point. Having a really comprehensive understanding of all the things you put out in a basic or AOW class will let you explain to the various offenders the reason that their way is not correct because..., and because you have this deep knowledge you will be able to seamlessly incorporate the better idea into your syllabus while you test out whether it really is better, and your experience applying this deep knowledge will let you keep that really dumb novice stunt in the "that could have really been bad but..." column.

Keep us informed as to your progress, and again, good luck.

 

[Santa]

Keep us informed as to your progress, and again, good luck.

Thanks, will do.