instructor course review - did you know...

[Jim Lapenta]

Agreed. Where I have an issue is the stores that expect one to push top of the line regs to students who really do not need them. I have students who will say they want to go on to advanced and get into wrecks, maybe cavern or cave at some date, cold water, etc. I have no issue recommneding that they get the best. The ones like my boss and his wofe who will only be doing tropical and local when the water is above 75 degrees do not need them. They bought TUSA piston regs with a standard octo, analog gauges, and Zeagle Express tech BC's. Two sets of gear for not much more than the price of one very high end reg. And the shop owner was happy. Because they were and saw they were not getting screwed and have since gone back for more gear. Little stuff yes but they are still in the store and telling others where they buy and how great the service and prices are.

I also have an issue with pushing con ed before the OW class is even half over. THey should not even be thinking about anything other than what is going on at the time. Personal experience here was me thinking about wreck diving when I should have been being talked to about gas management and fine buoyancy control.

I'm also firmly against AOW right after OW becasue that is what I did under the false idea that more dives with an instructor justified it. What would have been justified is just going out and diving with my instructor on simple OW dives and not in a class setting. Getting tips on moving this here or that there, working on basic skills, and not pushing my limits before I was ready. Thankfully there was a DM candidate who did have that philosopy who took me under his wing and instilled the every dive is a skills dive attitude and that just diving and spending time swimming around at 20-30 feet can teach more than any class that one takes before they are ready to do so. I don't allow students right out of OW to take my AOW class. They are not ready for the new skills and increased task loading involved with slung bottles, the required buoyancy control, comfort in low vis situations, bag shoots, etc. They need to have their basic skills down pat before going on. I want ot see them just get out and do 10 or 20 more dives on their own or with me just for fun and polish the OW skills they just learned.

For me diving is not a business that I need to live. I have a job that pays the bills(barely at times but it does when not getting F'd by the IRS or the company), and teaching is a business that has as it's first goal the needs of the student being met. I don't want to do this for an actual living. In this area it would be damn tough to do anyway. I've since changed my policy on private classes when I have an OW class scheduled and only one person signs up. I try to get more but if not I teach the class at no extra charge unless the student wants certain extraordinary conditions. If they want me to travel to them it's extra. But if they are willing to come to my home for classes and meet me at the pool that is 15 minutes from my house I'm not going to penalize them. We'll also do checkouts on my schedule say a weekend when I was planning on diving anyway so why should they pay extra. I'm also pursuing other avenues pf teaching like snorkeling and skin diving classes. I have three of those set up now and they are easy and quick as well as alot of fun to do. My goal is to make enough to cover insurance, dues, expenses, and hopefully pay for more training for me and few bucks in my pocket while at the same time turning out safe, skilled, competent divers and now snorkelers.skin divers that DO NOT NEED to come back for more training but come back because THEY WANT TO.

 

[SDAnderson]

Yeah, I heard that but a little too late! I put quite a few dollars in. In truth, my only regret is that it was not what I thought (which is my own fault) and that I didn't really come away with anything of value to me - i.e. increased skill as a diver. Also, don't think I should be teaching anyone with such limited experience - min. 100 dives required for instructor.

If you thought that the IDC was going to make you a better diver, you were misinformed. The IDC is about teaching you how to teach the PADI program. You're supposed to be a "demonstration quality" diver before you start the IDC.

If you thought that selling isn't part of being an instructor, you were misinformed. Every time somebody tells you that a BP/W is better than a poodle jacket, they're selling. Every time somebody tells you that you should continue your training, they're selling. If you're going to be successful, even as an independent, at the very least you have to sell yourself.

You are correct about one thing: someone with only 100 dives is probably isn't ready to become an instructor - for PADI or any other agency. At it's best, teaching is about leading and sharing. 100 dives doesn't give you enough experience to be effective at that, no matter how perfectly you can execute a praying Buddha in the pool.

 

[TSandM]

Agamemnon, I empathize with you. I was on the same track you followed, until I was lucky enough to get derailed by an experience that showed me that the people who had been teaching me weren't particularly polished divers themselves.

Being in the middle of a DM class myself, and having watched my husband go through to OWSI and discussed the process with him, I agree that the professional track from PADI does almost nothing to improve your personal diving skills. You WILL be better at demonstrating skills while sitting on the bottom of the pool, and you will probably have some better situational awareness from learning to keep track of errant students, but other than that, you'll be the diver you were when you started the program.

But don't give up on training. There IS training out there that WILL improve your diving skills -- make you smoother, more precise, more confident, and better educated. It just doesn't lie within the PADI professional training path. Go look at some of Gombessa's videos . . . if the divers you see look like what you have in mind, consider GUE or UTD training, both of which are easily available in your area.

 

[wedivebc]

. . . if the divers you see look like what you have in mind, consider GUE or UTD training, both of which are easily available in your area.

See and that's exactly the kind of selling PADI wants you to do too

 

[DaleC]

I'm not a big fan of the continuous training regime treadmill some people get on although I think I understand it.

For some people the LDS or training agency is the only link to diving they have. Diving and some sort of course just seem to go together. For them the alternative may be only diving several times a year on vacation or diving with one or two other divers (limited information pool).

I was on the same path as Aga and TSM describe up until rescue and then I just stepped off for awhile. After looking at the course content and hearing some rather negative reviews of the instruction/course quality I realised I already knew the bulk of the material, could probably teach it and was really just paying for the card (not knocking rescue for those who can benefit from it). One could probably benefit from other agencies if they had the same kind of active diving cadre.

At the same time my buddy pool expanded greatly and I began to just dive. On each dive I learn and refine my skills, discuss ideas with my buddies and plan progressively more challenging activities - which is what many of those above people are doing via the courses. TSM suggests some agencies but I suspect that the benefit for most going that route would be the connection with the community that exists within it and the fact that they get out and dive/mentor regularily.

I decided to stop taking useless courses and just become a solid recreational diver - something that doesn't seem in "vogue" these days. It seems the current pathways are either OW--> Instructor or OW --> cave/technical diver. Being a journeyman recreational diver is soooo 1950's. Once I get that nailed down I will step it up with some more core courses to become a basic technical diver and then solidify that. Boring....

I would appreciate a system that had entire courses or modules on such core skills development as gas planning, bouyancy systems, redundancy systems, finning techniques, buddy contact and communications (body positioning, hands, lights), Dive planning, entry and exit techniques etc... but then the instructors would have to be proficient wouldn't they. I'm sure someone will say that should all be covered in OW-AOW but in reality it isn't. It's just mentioned but not practiced in depth in the way that a diver would be considered skilled.

That would be a progressive agency training regime worth following.

 

[Thalassamania]

instructing scuba is a business.If you treat it as a hobby,then that is your choice. ...

That's an excellent example of the way in which your world is skewed. In my view teaching is a profession that should not be made into a business, which is something quite different. When you do so, you are no longer a teacher. Every one of my students (that's 100%) buys a full set if gear, but I do not profit one cent from what they buy. Thus my only concern is that each gets the equipment that is best suited to their individual needs.

 

[ditch-diver]

instructing scuba is a business.If you treat it as a hobby,then that is your choice.I have no problems describing benefits and features of poducts and have student make their choice.How many classes a year do you teach?How many people you teach a year? If you deal with 60-100+ students a year then I will call it a business.Deal with 5-10 students a year I call it a hobby.There is no conflict here to push sales.The store I owned and the one I currently teach at does not.Instructors job is to describe benefit/features of gear and have student make their own decisions.As to pushing brands that the store sells,what is the issue with that? Does a Ford dealer send a customer to Chevy? The facility I currently teach out of deals with ScubaPro-Sherwood-Oceanic-Dive Rite,among others..We have a second store in Brooklyn that handles US Divers.So there is a good choice.Been an instructor since 1971 with different agencies,so I know its not just a PADI agency thing to talk ownership of gear to students.A good instructor with any agency should inform students on what is available to them.

I agree with your last statement. However my point is that the act of teaching the student is the profession, not the business. Shops teach students for one reason, to widen their client base, which makes sense. That is the business of running a dive shop. Your JOB as an instructor is to provide the student with the best information and skills possible..., that includes information about SCUBA equipment. If you are only talking brands your shop carries..., to me that is a huge ethical issue.

Oh.., and lemme see. Full time Instructor, teaching hundreds of students per year, everything from basic OW to courses you've probably never even heard of. And when not teaching I am working on multiple course developments and fielding calls and requests from literally around the world from places looking for my advice, assistance or opinions on diving related subjects. I consider it a little more than a hobby and still not a business. And I never sell gear.

 

[TSandM]

I would appreciate a system that had entire courses or modules on such core skills development as gas planning, bouyancy systems, redundancy systems, finning techniques, buddy contact and communications (body positioning, hands, lights), Dive planning, entry and exit techniques etc.

The agencies I mentioned both have a recreational curriculum that thoroughly covers these things. I know instructors from other agencies who teach excellent con ed classes that cover these topics, but you have to find the individual instructor in some fashion. These agencies have a formal curriculum that the student can examine and evaluate, as to whether it meets his needs or not, and if it does, any instructor for that agency will teach that class.

 

[tkdgodess]

Quote:
I would appreciate a system that had entire courses or modules on such core skills development as gas planning, bouyancy systems, redundancy systems, finning techniques, buddy contact and communications (body positioning, hands, lights), Dive planning, entry and exit techniques etc.


Or you could just get out and dive. I was blown away when I did my IDC that there were people still trying to log 100 dives, and then I found out there was such a thing as "double dipping".
I met a know-it-all dm who had only dove 2 sites, never exploring and planning dives at new sites. I had an awesome buddy from the get go, both of us fresh out of AOW, bought all our gear and explored, learned, dove..... we did all those things you mention together, no course necessary, all table diving, starting from cautious and getting more comfortable as experience increased.

We planned everything. Max depth, air use, contingency depths, times, entry, exit, seperation, who's on left/right, who leads, who follows, practiced skills (remember buddy breathing in ow?) emergency plan (before cell phone service was everywhere) we became obsessed with neutral buoyancy, obsessed with leaving no silt trails... dove every shore site in the guide books plus more courtesy of her 4x4.... save $$ for boat dives....

We loved diving so much we both wanted to teach diving. I didn't expect to learn how to dive, when I was learning how to teach diving.

Shops make good margins on selling the professional path, when it seems like many people would rather just be more educated divers, I wish there was a stronger emphasis on msd... I bet if every dive shop sold 5 specialities plus rescue, efr to those wanting "more" in diving... it would be just as profitable as selling aow, rescue, efr, dm & idc.... without someone like you being dissapointed.

 

[DaleC]

???

A peek below my avatar shows I do get out and dive (once in a while) but I was refering more to modules or mini courses that cover some of those core skills in depth. Like you I am a learn it by diving person but I also know that is why at any dive site there are twenty divers with twenty ideas about everything.

I also think that go out and learn by diving can sometimes be a cop out for lousy instruction.

Finning techniques is a good example. You don't really learn anything beyond the scissor kick with PADI OW/AOW (I'll use PADI only because I am familiar with the courses) and most divers don't initially know there are really any other kinds of kicks to learn. It would be great if one could take a finning course where the frogkick, reverse frogkick, helicopter kick etc... could be learned. I've self taught myself by getting out and diving but it takes a while and I probably have some poor techniques and still really suck at the reverse frog. Doing a course with an instructor and video etc... would be an asset in that regard. I could rent an instructor for private lessons but I don't see why this sort of thing isn't a preplanned course.

Buddy contact and communication; not a line or two in passing during the already overloaded OW course but an actual course that really teaches it. Hand signals, light signals, appropriate ranges, inline or side by side etc... Talking about the theory and doing dives where the theory is practiced.

Bouyancy devices: Wings, SMB's (large and small), Liftbags, drysuits. Learning how to use them all interchangeably, what the common failures are and how to compensate etc...