Well Im having a wee discussion with a guy on another thread about Instructor quality for newbie divers and have a little story to pass on. I have already hijacked the heck outa the thread so I thought I would tell my wee story here.
BTW-Mods if this is in the wrong forum please feel free to move it.
This is a story about a 100 Dive Wonder Instructor. It happened about 2 years or so ago when I was a DM right before I was to undertake my IDC (Instructor Development Course)
Just for a little background at this stage I had around 400-450 dives under my belt and was also certified as a TDI Deco Procedures diver with around 250 dives under 30 metres and quite a few staged deco dives I cant remember how many but its not really important. I had assisted on quite a few courses previously, with a really great team, when I lived up north enjoyed helping new divers discover the exciting underwater world.
So anyway enough rambling lets get on with the story.
I was doing some DM work with a new shop I had joined to do my IDC and they asked me to help this Instructor out on the OW dives of a course. All keen to get back into the PADI world after a hiatus of around 8 months or so I was feeling rather enthusiastic.
The 100 Dive Wonder Instructor had about 110 dives (although I didnt know this at the time) and seemed pleasant enough from a previous meeting (although he did have a tendency to flap his jaws a little too much-btw this bit has nothing to do with the story but I thought I would throw it in here to give a little entertainment ) and I turned up early to introduce myself, welcome the 4 students and help them gear up.
We geared up; buddy checked, walked across the road and waded into the sea in the shallows.
The 100DWI asked me to just keep an eye on the other students while he conducted the weight checks.
There was this one wee little lass about 5 foot high and maybe 60 kg in weight. The wind would have knocked her over she was so small. I had loaded her weight belt with around 8 kg that morning, considering she is wearing a two piece 7mm and the water is around 10degrees Celsius.
Mr 100DWI asked me how much I put in her belt, so I told him; he then proceeds to spout on how that is not enough. So he loads another couple of kg in her belt, then another, then another and then finally at 14kg he gets her to sink.
Perfect he announces with big grin on his face
I pull him to the side and say that she far too over weighted and cant possibly dive like that. I explain that she is probably just nervous and has a fair amount of breath retention and maybe I could take her to the side and work on her breathing and relaxing instead.
Nah Nah Nah he says. I always overweight my students; its the best way to get them to stick to the bottom like a rock
I tell him that we dont really want them to stick to the bottom and especially not on Dive 1, which is a simple swim around. But he just turns around and says;
Look buddy, you stick to being a DM and I will stick to being an Instructor
I did feel tempted to have a few strong words with him but, considering I am a DM who is hoping to do my IDC in a month or so with this guys boss, and the fact he is an Instructor I decided to hold my tongue.
He decided we are going to swim out into the middle of this little bay and drop down into around 2-3 metres of water. Again I pull him to the side and say that the standards dictate we have to follow a line or a sloping bottom.
Once again I get the lecture that he is an instructor blah blah blah and I decide, Thats it Im outa here, I want nothing to do with dogs breakfast.
Then thinking again I decide that I cant leave the students alone with this guy. Thats a scary thought for a DM to be thinking about an instructor.
So anyway we swim out the short distance to the middle of the bay and he gives the thumbs down so off we go. I have 2 students and he has 2 (which is a breach of standards again-the instructor it supposed to take all students down personally) not including the wee lass with the 14kg weight belt. One of the students drops like a stone so I have one hand on her and one on the other student but we make it to the bottom ok. I give the students the ok signal and get the ok signal back in return, we have around 6 metres viz which is pretty good and I can see the surface. Nice. I look around and see that Mr 100DWI is not with us, and one of his students is about 5 metres away on her own, kneeling on the bottom. I beckon her over and she swims over and settles down beside us.
Looking around I can see Mr 100DWI and his student on the surface. She is doing massive bicycle kicks trying to keep her head above water while he is holding her also doing big kicks.
There is nothing I can do as I have to look after these 3 other students so while hovering there I start pointing out little Blue cod that are swimming around in fighter formation checking us out to try and get the cold out of their thoughts.
The students start to imitate me and pretty soon two of them are hovering, in a semi horizontal trim, so they can look around at examine the bottom dwellers, and the third is desperately trying to hover. She cant seem to do it as her legs and waist are nailed to the ground. I slip over and pull a couple of kg out of her weight belt and she starts looking better. I slip another 1 kg out and next thing she is doing a relatively good hover, she wouldnt win any awards for it but for dive number 1 its not bad.
After about 10 minutes Mr 100DWI swims over with the wee lass and starts making urgent hand gestures to follow him. So off he swims, kicking the heck out of the bottom and scaring all the fish, and the 4 students start following while I bring up the rear. The 3 students that were with me were moving along okay and at one stage one of them starts to drift off toward the surface so I swim up and grab him and gently pull him down. He gives me the ok signal and flashes the best smile he can with his reg in his mouth and we move along. The wee lass is constantly crashing into the bottom and climbing over rocks so I draw up next to her and tell her stop. I signal the others to stop, including the instructor, and everyone stops. The 100DWI stops and drops to his knees and all the students follow suit. I look into the eyes of the wee lass and she is looking pretty well knackered. I signal for her to just sit there on her knees and take big breaths in and out. Mr 100DWI comes over and starts to make wild hand gestures at me and the wee lass so I signal him that everything is ok and to but out. The wee lass seems to be recovering her breath so I tell her to completely empty her BCD, which she does, then I proceed to pull 4 kg out of her weight belt and deposit the excess weight next to a rock, where I can pick them up later.
So wee lass has regained her breath, signals ok and I signal Ok to Mr 100DWI. He signals the swimming signal and we move off and drop down a little gully that bottoms out at around 9m metres and check out a big school of Blue Moki. As we are hovering there, except for Mr 100DWI, the students all start signaling 100 bar left.
We alert Mr 100DWI and he motions the lets go home signal and we move off.
As we came into the shallower waters of the bay a couple of students forget to dump air from their BCDs, as do a lot of new students, so we do a little swimming up and gently pulling back down of students until we finally surface back where we started.
The students are all raving about the fish life and how cool it was, and how BETTER they felt AFTER I had removed weight from them. Mr 100DWI is looking a touch annoyed so I rouse the students into clambering out of the brisk waters and heading across the road to the shop for a nice warm Hot Chocolate before Dive 2.
BTW-Mods if this is in the wrong forum please feel free to move it.
This is a story about a 100 Dive Wonder Instructor. It happened about 2 years or so ago when I was a DM right before I was to undertake my IDC (Instructor Development Course)
Just for a little background at this stage I had around 400-450 dives under my belt and was also certified as a TDI Deco Procedures diver with around 250 dives under 30 metres and quite a few staged deco dives I cant remember how many but its not really important. I had assisted on quite a few courses previously, with a really great team, when I lived up north enjoyed helping new divers discover the exciting underwater world.
So anyway enough rambling lets get on with the story.
I was doing some DM work with a new shop I had joined to do my IDC and they asked me to help this Instructor out on the OW dives of a course. All keen to get back into the PADI world after a hiatus of around 8 months or so I was feeling rather enthusiastic.
The 100 Dive Wonder Instructor had about 110 dives (although I didnt know this at the time) and seemed pleasant enough from a previous meeting (although he did have a tendency to flap his jaws a little too much-btw this bit has nothing to do with the story but I thought I would throw it in here to give a little entertainment
) and I turned up early to introduce myself, welcome the 4 students and help them gear up.We geared up; buddy checked, walked across the road and waded into the sea in the shallows.
The 100DWI asked me to just keep an eye on the other students while he conducted the weight checks.
There was this one wee little lass about 5 foot high and maybe 60 kg in weight. The wind would have knocked her over she was so small. I had loaded her weight belt with around 8 kg that morning, considering she is wearing a two piece 7mm and the water is around 10degrees Celsius.
Mr 100DWI asked me how much I put in her belt, so I told him; he then proceeds to spout on how that is not enough. So he loads another couple of kg in her belt, then another, then another and then finally at 14kg he gets her to sink.
Perfect he announces with big grin on his face
I pull him to the side and say that she far too over weighted and cant possibly dive like that. I explain that she is probably just nervous and has a fair amount of breath retention and maybe I could take her to the side and work on her breathing and relaxing instead.
Nah Nah Nah he says. I always overweight my students; its the best way to get them to stick to the bottom like a rock
I tell him that we dont really want them to stick to the bottom and especially not on Dive 1, which is a simple swim around. But he just turns around and says;
Look buddy, you stick to being a DM and I will stick to being an Instructor
I did feel tempted to have a few strong words with him but, considering I am a DM who is hoping to do my IDC in a month or so with this guys boss, and the fact he is an Instructor I decided to hold my tongue.
He decided we are going to swim out into the middle of this little bay and drop down into around 2-3 metres of water. Again I pull him to the side and say that the standards dictate we have to follow a line or a sloping bottom.
Once again I get the lecture that he is an instructor blah blah blah and I decide, Thats it Im outa here, I want nothing to do with dogs breakfast.
Then thinking again I decide that I cant leave the students alone with this guy. Thats a scary thought for a DM to be thinking about an instructor.
So anyway we swim out the short distance to the middle of the bay and he gives the thumbs down so off we go. I have 2 students and he has 2 (which is a breach of standards again-the instructor it supposed to take all students down personally) not including the wee lass with the 14kg weight belt. One of the students drops like a stone so I have one hand on her and one on the other student but we make it to the bottom ok. I give the students the ok signal and get the ok signal back in return, we have around 6 metres viz which is pretty good and I can see the surface. Nice. I look around and see that Mr 100DWI is not with us, and one of his students is about 5 metres away on her own, kneeling on the bottom. I beckon her over and she swims over and settles down beside us.
Looking around I can see Mr 100DWI and his student on the surface. She is doing massive bicycle kicks trying to keep her head above water while he is holding her also doing big kicks.
There is nothing I can do as I have to look after these 3 other students so while hovering there I start pointing out little Blue cod that are swimming around in fighter formation checking us out to try and get the cold out of their thoughts.
The students start to imitate me and pretty soon two of them are hovering, in a semi horizontal trim, so they can look around at examine the bottom dwellers, and the third is desperately trying to hover. She cant seem to do it as her legs and waist are nailed to the ground. I slip over and pull a couple of kg out of her weight belt and she starts looking better. I slip another 1 kg out and next thing she is doing a relatively good hover, she wouldnt win any awards for it but for dive number 1 its not bad.
After about 10 minutes Mr 100DWI swims over with the wee lass and starts making urgent hand gestures to follow him. So off he swims, kicking the heck out of the bottom and scaring all the fish, and the 4 students start following while I bring up the rear. The 3 students that were with me were moving along okay and at one stage one of them starts to drift off toward the surface so I swim up and grab him and gently pull him down. He gives me the ok signal and flashes the best smile he can with his reg in his mouth and we move along. The wee lass is constantly crashing into the bottom and climbing over rocks so I draw up next to her and tell her stop. I signal the others to stop, including the instructor, and everyone stops. The 100DWI stops and drops to his knees and all the students follow suit. I look into the eyes of the wee lass and she is looking pretty well knackered. I signal for her to just sit there on her knees and take big breaths in and out. Mr 100DWI comes over and starts to make wild hand gestures at me and the wee lass so I signal him that everything is ok and to but out. The wee lass seems to be recovering her breath so I tell her to completely empty her BCD, which she does, then I proceed to pull 4 kg out of her weight belt and deposit the excess weight next to a rock, where I can pick them up later.
So wee lass has regained her breath, signals ok and I signal Ok to Mr 100DWI. He signals the swimming signal and we move off and drop down a little gully that bottoms out at around 9m metres and check out a big school of Blue Moki. As we are hovering there, except for Mr 100DWI, the students all start signaling 100 bar left.
We alert Mr 100DWI and he motions the lets go home signal and we move off.
As we came into the shallower waters of the bay a couple of students forget to dump air from their BCDs, as do a lot of new students, so we do a little swimming up and gently pulling back down of students until we finally surface back where we started.
The students are all raving about the fish life and how cool it was, and how BETTER they felt AFTER I had removed weight from them. Mr 100DWI is looking a touch annoyed so I rouse the students into clambering out of the brisk waters and heading across the road to the shop for a nice warm Hot Chocolate before Dive 2.
