Instructor Professionalism

[boulderjohn]

Swearing underwater! That is intolerable, I would report it.

When I was researching potential cave instructors, I encountered an example in which people praising a certain instructor raved about his ability to curse you out articulately under water. I stayed away.

Tech instruction is by itself humiliating, and students are generally giving themselves all the bashing they need. They are trying to think their way through difficult situations, and having someone adding to their humiliation does not do one iota of good.

 

[tursiops]

I have no tolerance for sudden unannounced "failures" by an instructor. at any level of scuba training. None.

 

[johndiver999]

I once knew an instructor who was a terrible bully. He did it to me, but the way he treated women and children was the most disconcerting.

I went so far as to write a detailed letter to his employer - a well known dive shop chain. Never heard back from shop, but the instructor made it a point to tell me later that he and the management got a good laugh at my letter detailing his unprofessionalism and violation of "dive safety rules" during training.

Not so long afterward, he did his last dive, for about 3 weeks - before he made his way to the surface. They never did find his buddies.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Some sports activities have so much stress training that it seems like it's all nothing but Stress Drills. I took up Parachuting in 1982. I took the Solo course, not the tandem jumping. That was nothing but Stress Drills for a week. It all paid off on my very first jump. It was not a jump though. It was a fall. I fell off the friggin' door ledge and fell out of the aircraft at four thousand feet and went into a violent tumble. A tumble is a death sentence. The Instructors had trained us for that with hours of Stress Drills hanging from the "rack" so I was able to get it under control and safely deploy my canopy before I ran out of air space. Stress Drills properly traught save lives.

Interesting skydiving story.... I also took up sport skydiving in the early 80's (solo and not tandem) but it was a completely different experience than yours. Just two days of ground school with the first jump at the end of the 2nd day if vis and wind conditions were right. First 5 jumps were all static line so there would be no chance of a free-falling "tumble" unless there was a static line failure which is VERY unlikely. After the first 3 static line jumps, we were issued "dummy" D-Rings for jumps 4 & 5. Even though we were still on static line, the instructor needed to see you actually pull the dummy D-Ring.

After that, dives 6 - 10 were called "hop & pop's". No more static lines. Live D-Ring on cable to grommet release of spring loaded pilot chute. Immediate deployment upon egress and back check. After those first 10 dives we then graduated to higher altitudes and incremental delays.

 

[KenE]

My experience is that the US Government utilizes those exact same tactics in military basic training.

But only at the beginning of basic training. Is your experience at the teaching level or student level. If at the teaching level then you missed a very big piece of your DI training. Basic training is to take a civilian and convert them to a military trainee. They are not actually intending to train them yet into their chosen field, ie. computer tech, infantry, MP, etc. They are only molding them to military customs and chain of command. This is primarily done because obeying orders can mean life or death and is instilled early and often in basic training. This is very different than scuba training is so many ways. You will typically see a change in style after the first release for R&R which is generally about a third of the way through basic training.

A better comparison is MOS training which occurs after basic training. This is done with respect and with the student and student's learning style in mind. Please try and compare apples to apples.

 

[Lanny]

I have no tolerance for sudden unannounced "failures" by an instructor. at any level of scuba training. None.

I would hate to teach a cave or tech course without unannounced failures. Poor quality, low level training generally consists of pre-announced drills that are done for a finite amount of time. A better and more effective training method is scenario-based, where the team goes diving and has to deal with realistic, unannounced failures that require some thought. Failure responses would obviously have to be learnt and drilled in a controlled environment first.

This can be done in a safe, effective and intelligent way. For example, by use of a bubble gun to simulate gas failures, so that the student will shut down the failed valve and start gas sharing. Use of a bubble gun has to be planned ahead by the instructor, and training protocol is for the instructor to turn any isolated valve back on for real life safety, although it would remain unusable for the purposes of the exercise.

Regarding shouty and abusive debriefs - they are completely ineffective and just causes the student to shut down. This style is equated with the military mainly by people who have seen some war movies but not received any complex training within a military environment. Although all students are different, a calm and fact based debrief, with some guidance on improvement is far better. The DEBRIEF format from the Human Diver is pretty good for this: DEBrIEFing - Capturing the experience and improving learning.

If any instructor is struggling for something positive to say, I find that "I really liked how all your bubbles went in an upwards direction to the surface" helps. Not applicable to CCR classes, obviously.

 

[Waterwulf]

Interesting skydiving story.... I also took up sport skydiving in the early 80's (solo and not tandem) but it was a completely different experience than yours. Just two days of ground school with the first jump at the end of the 2nd day if vis and wind conditions were right. First 5 jumps were all static line so there would be no chance of a free-falling "tumble" unless there was a static line failure which is VERY unlikely. After the first 3 static line jumps, we were issued "dummy" D-Rings for jumps 4 & 5. Even though we were still on static line, the instructor needed to see you actually pull the dummy D-Ring.

After that, dives 6 - 10 were called "hop & pop's". No more static lines. Live D-Ring on cable to grommet release of spring loaded pilot chute. Immediate deployment upon egress and back check. After those first 10 dives we then graduated to higher altitudes and incremental delays.

I'm not even sure if there's national standard for Parachuting. I've heard three days ground school, six days, etc. Mine was a week but the days were pretty short. It was a static line jump but my tumble tangled me up in it so it didn't pull the canopy out right away. The aircraft was a little bitty tired old Cessna 172. Three jumpers, the Jump master and the Pilot don't leave a lot of room to move around in. I fell off of the step. I banged against the underside of the fuselage one time before unraveling but at least I missed the tail feathers.

When the static line yanked the canopy out, my one side arm and leg were stuck out as far as I could stretch them to offset my spin. My lines were only spun a few times and they straightened themselves out on the way down. I have stated in the past that training has saved my live several times. In all honestly, I think this time was beginners luck. Twisted lines can still be a safe descent but tangled ones are really bad.

Even so, I was way off course and landed in a ditch. My left knee blew up some more cartilage. I knew they'd never find me at the bottom of the drainage ditch so I daisy chained my shroud lines and canopy and hobbled back to the field. After I healed, I went back and did more jumps until I landed on the bullseye. Then I quit and haven't jumped since. The plane is going to be on fire, the wings falling off and the pilots all gone before I jump out of an aircraft again!

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I instantly realized my instructor had shut off my left post

Crazy as hell.

 

[Vicko]

Unexpected failures are a must in any quality scuba instruction, usually done with cue cards and pre agreed signals. Shutting someones gas off, ripping their regulator out or rendering any of their gear inoperable is attempted murder.

 

[kensuf]

I have no tolerance for sudden unannounced "failures" by an instructor. at any level of scuba training. None.

Failure training is common in cave diving. I use it all the time, the only drills I always announce are the very first backup light deployment (on the first dive), air share WITH lights out drills, and lost line drills. We discuss all of the other scenarios (lights out, air shares, valve failures, lost buddy, etc) and I continually quiz my students throughout the course ("what would you do if you lost your buddy?") to make sure they know how to handle them, but they won't know the drill is coming until I pull out my wet-notes that say "I have lost my buddy!"

Having said that, there's a difference between reasonable use of failure drills and hazing. What the OP described is not what I would consider reasonable.