Is he a bad instructor, or is it me?

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AquaHump

AquaHump

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
254
Reaction score
4
Location
DE
# of dives
200 - 499
Please give me some feed back on this so I know where I stand. I took my open water class at a local dive shop in Wilmington DE. During my 2nd we had set of goals to achieve, such as mask flood and buddy breathing. Well, when we got to depth (about 30 feet) my dive instructor started going threw the motions of the drills. Now there are 2 classes down there with 2 instructors and 4 dive masters and about 8 students. One of the other dive instructor saw some problems and sent some students strait to the surface, one of them being my buddy. Then my instructor buddied me up with some one else and instructed us to do buddy breathing to the surface. Now I found this odd because I had just got to depth. Anyway I was to be the buddy that was out of air. So, I signaled my buddy that I was out of air and then made a big mistake and dropped my regulator out of my mouth (I know I know) then my buddy tried to help me by getting her octo for me. Well needless to say you can see where this got ugly. The short of it is that I ran out of air and panicked. When I did get the octo I put it in my mouth upside-down and drew wet. At this point I started kicking for the surface and was swamped by the other instructor and dive masters. The other instructor got me to the surface and made sure I was all right. M y instructor came up and did not even talk to me he had another dive master take me to the side and do surface skills. After we got out of the water he still did not speak to me about what happened. The other dive instructor pulled me aside and reassured me and talked to me about what happened. My instructor never spoke of it.
Needless to say I feel a little apprehensive about being taught by this guy again. He seems to be the lead instructor of this dive shop. Should I give it another go or is there some other action I should take?
 
AquaHump:
Please give me some feed back on this so I know where I stand. I took my open water class at a local dive shop in Wilmington DE. During my 2nd we had set of goals to achieve, such as mask flood and buddy breathing. Well, when we got to depth (about 30 feet) my dive instructor started going threw the motions of the drills. Now there are 2 classes down there with 2 instructors and 4 dive masters and about 8 students. One of the other dive instructor saw some problems and sent some students strait to the surface, one of them being my buddy. Then my instructor buddied me up with some one else and instructed us to do buddy breathing to the surface. Now I found this odd because I had just got to depth. Anyway I was to be the buddy that was out of air. So, I signaled my buddy that I was out of air and then made a big mistake and dropped my regulator out of my mouth (I know I know) then my buddy tried to help me by getting her octo for me. Well needless to say you can see where this got ugly. The short of it is that I ran out of air and panicked. When I did get the octo I put it in my mouth upside-down and drew wet. At this point I started kicking for the surface and was swamped by the other instructor and dive masters. The other instructor got me to the surface and made sure I was all right. M y instructor came up and did not even talk to me he had another dive master take me to the side and do surface skills. After we got out of the water he still did not speak to me about what happened. The other dive instructor pulled me aside and reassured me and talked to me about what happened. My instructor never spoke of it.
Needless to say I feel a little apprehensive about being taught by this guy again. He seems to be the lead instructor of this dive shop. Should I give it another go or is there some other action I should take?
Click to expand...

There may be a plausible reason why he has not spoken to you. Tell him your concerns in a nice way and see what he has to say.
 
Sounds like you weren't ready to leave the pool. Bad call on the instructor's part. Never take students to open water before they are ready.
 
He should have at least given you the opportunity to talk to him about it. He needs to give you feedback as to what went wrong and how to deal with it next time.


Scott
 
May be the instructor had a bad fright with this incident and had another instructor deal with it. Second guessing will not explain the problem, as I said ask him if there is a problem as the atmosphere makes it hard for you to concentrate.
 
I could be wrong, but I thought that you did those exercises in the pool first then in ocean. I was in the pool until I felt fully capable of doing each one without worry. Then my Instructor had us do them all again in the ocean. Still nervous but could handle it. I think I would tell the Instructor that I need his feedback on everything I did, good or bad.
For my very first time with all gear on, never been in the water, he had me stand on side of deep pool and put air in BC then giant stride. As you can imagine, I put wayyyyy too much air in and popped out of the water. I really started to panic and I really let him have it. He turned out to be a good Instructor but I was always a little distrustful of him. I think Instructors probably get so used to being in the water and being around nervous divers, they may not have the same intensity that you do. I think it is definitely up to you to talk to him, it is your life in his hands !! And maybe start in the pool.
 
Scottri:
He should have at least given you the opportunity to talk to him about it. He needs to give you feedback as to what went wrong and how to deal with it next time.


Scott
Click to expand...

I agree....It is important for an Instructor to give feedback positive and negative...The Instructor should have stated what went wrong, the consequences and how to correct the situation.
 
AquaHump:
Please give me some feed back on this so I know where I stand. I took my open water class at a local dive shop in Wilmington DE. During my 2nd we had set of goals to achieve, such as mask flood and buddy breathing. Well, when we got to depth (about 30 feet) my dive instructor started going threw the motions of the drills. Now there are 2 classes down there with 2 instructors and 4 dive masters and about 8 students. One of the other dive instructor saw some problems and sent some students strait to the surface, one of them being my buddy. Then my instructor buddied me up with some one else and instructed us to do buddy breathing to the surface. Now I found this odd because I had just got to depth. Anyway I was to be the buddy that was out of air. So, I signaled my buddy that I was out of air and then made a big mistake and dropped my regulator out of my mouth (I know I know) then my buddy tried to help me by getting her octo for me. Well needless to say you can see where this got ugly. The short of it is that I ran out of air and panicked. When I did get the octo I put it in my mouth upside-down and drew wet. At this point I started kicking for the surface and was swamped by the other instructor and dive masters. The other instructor got me to the surface and made sure I was all right. M y instructor came up and did not even talk to me he had another dive master take me to the side and do surface skills. After we got out of the water he still did not speak to me about what happened. The other dive instructor pulled me aside and reassured me and talked to me about what happened. My instructor never spoke of it.
Needless to say I feel a little apprehensive about being taught by this guy again. He seems to be the lead instructor of this dive shop. Should I give it another go or is there some other action I should take?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the board. It's a shame you had this experience but as the others are said, it's a common thing to have happen (perhaps unfortunately) so you just have to learn from it and move on. Nobody....and I mean nobody who has been diving for very long has never made a mistake

It sounds to me like two things were happening: (1) the instructor didn't intervene when he should have. In the checkout dives you have to be a little more careful to make sure students don't panic. You have to be a little quicker to stop the excercise and make students do it again. Safety first. and (2) As Walter said this skill probably wasn't completely sorted in the pool so you ended up "practicing" it in open water when you should have been at the point of simply demonstrating that you know it. Both issues are things the instructor is responsible for.

Based on what I know about dive training I'd say the instructor may have been in a bit of a hurry.

R..
 
goofystan:
I agree....It is important for an Instructor to give feedback positive and negative...The Instructor should have stated what went wrong, the consequences and how to correct the situation.
Click to expand...
I've seen that same behavior in MSF classes (motorcycle training), a student would lose control of the bike and drop it, break time rolls around and the student is sitting in the grass dejected and ready to quit and the instuctor ignores them.
 
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