So.... Dive season in Northern Europe is about to start, so I thought I would post about my goals for this year
goals:
Gotta have goals. As an instructor, a traveler, and a diver I need to make choices. This year my goals have to involve local diving for various reasons.
- goal #1: to make 10 dives with my daughter. I will (after 4 years of training her) certify her in March or April this year. I think she may have had the most comprehensive OW course in history.... but frankly... what can I do? If she died during a dive I would have to commit suicide because there would be no way on Earth I could face her mother.
I wanted to take my daughter to Egypt after that and do 20 dives with her this year but due to circumstances in Egypt, I think I will adjust and make 10 in Holland. My dream is to take her down on a North Sea wreck and show here first hand what I've been raving about since she was old enough to listen.... but she'll need more training.
- goal #2: train a few people. At the shop where I work I can get a butt-load of certs but I'm the kind of instructor who would rather train someone for a season and get 1 cert than to to churn them through the system and get 10. This year, my goal is to remain in the game and certify a few students who can take pride in having my name on their card.
- goal #3: to get a few "private" students this year. The issue is that I like AOW but I HATE giving it through a shop (and I refuse to do so). I taught it once on a weekend for weekend basis and certified, at the end of the day, a *truly* advanced student. He knew what he was getting into. He knew that he was going to have to dig deep and commit to a summer of "getting stick" and needing to practice skills for the same card that other students got in 3 days with zero skills. He told me, "I want to be an advanced diver, and I don't give a rats ass about an "advanced" card". I put him through his paces and after a season of training him I certified him for AOW but an AOW like you've never seen before. I did tell him at every step of the way that he had "met PADI standards" and that I could certify him. He kept telling me, "PADI be damned, I want skills"... and I pushed him. When I certified him it was a proud day for him and for me. He got AOW and several specialty cards. it convinced me that teaching AOW through a shop was not for me.
- goal #4: finish my Trimix course. Most of you didn't read this. In December one of my Trimix dives got derailed. I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say that it gave me enough of a "hang over" that I "parked" the course until the spring. There is more to say than that. For the last X (maybe 10) years I've been doing "free swimming" deco with my regular buddy. We can both control buoyancy to about a 30cm bandwidth in mid water without reference while swimming and navigating. I assumed (incorrectly) that other advanced divers could do the same.
- goal #5. make 75-85 dives this year. Normally this is what I do and have done for the last 30 years. part of that is usually the trip to Egypt. This year I may not be able to go on a dive trip..... but I intend to make the same number of dives.
R..
goals:
Gotta have goals. As an instructor, a traveler, and a diver I need to make choices. This year my goals have to involve local diving for various reasons.
- goal #1: to make 10 dives with my daughter. I will (after 4 years of training her) certify her in March or April this year. I think she may have had the most comprehensive OW course in history.... but frankly... what can I do? If she died during a dive I would have to commit suicide because there would be no way on Earth I could face her mother.
I wanted to take my daughter to Egypt after that and do 20 dives with her this year but due to circumstances in Egypt, I think I will adjust and make 10 in Holland. My dream is to take her down on a North Sea wreck and show here first hand what I've been raving about since she was old enough to listen.... but she'll need more training.
- goal #2: train a few people. At the shop where I work I can get a butt-load of certs but I'm the kind of instructor who would rather train someone for a season and get 1 cert than to to churn them through the system and get 10. This year, my goal is to remain in the game and certify a few students who can take pride in having my name on their card.
- goal #3: to get a few "private" students this year. The issue is that I like AOW but I HATE giving it through a shop (and I refuse to do so). I taught it once on a weekend for weekend basis and certified, at the end of the day, a *truly* advanced student. He knew what he was getting into. He knew that he was going to have to dig deep and commit to a summer of "getting stick" and needing to practice skills for the same card that other students got in 3 days with zero skills. He told me, "I want to be an advanced diver, and I don't give a rats ass about an "advanced" card". I put him through his paces and after a season of training him I certified him for AOW but an AOW like you've never seen before. I did tell him at every step of the way that he had "met PADI standards" and that I could certify him. He kept telling me, "PADI be damned, I want skills"... and I pushed him. When I certified him it was a proud day for him and for me. He got AOW and several specialty cards. it convinced me that teaching AOW through a shop was not for me.
- goal #4: finish my Trimix course. Most of you didn't read this. In December one of my Trimix dives got derailed. I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say that it gave me enough of a "hang over" that I "parked" the course until the spring. There is more to say than that. For the last X (maybe 10) years I've been doing "free swimming" deco with my regular buddy. We can both control buoyancy to about a 30cm bandwidth in mid water without reference while swimming and navigating. I assumed (incorrectly) that other advanced divers could do the same.
- goal #5. make 75-85 dives this year. Normally this is what I do and have done for the last 30 years. part of that is usually the trip to Egypt. This year I may not be able to go on a dive trip..... but I intend to make the same number of dives.
R..
