After DM I plan to enter the instructor phase, and my GOAL is to be instructor certified by the end of August. Is this a realistic or unrealistic goal?
Moving quickly to begin a Divemaster course, with plenty of diving and motivation, is one thing. Racing headlong to "instructor", on the other hand, is a seahorse of a different color. The question shouldn't be whether it's realistic or unrealistic; the question should be whether it's good or not good. I don't mean to discourage you from wanting to become an Instructor; I mean to *encourage* you to want to become a *good* Instructor.
Okay, so here's the thing: In the NAUI leadership progression, Divemaster is the step above Assistant Instructor (and just below Instructor). When you're assisting a NAUI Instructor with their classes, they can hand off parts of the instruction to you. (CESA is notably one part that a Divemaster is *NOT* allowed to do with students, but just about anything else is fair game if the supervising Instructor considers you qualified and competent in that area [see your book and S&P manual].) As a NAUI Divemaster, you will be able to do (a bit at a time) just about everything an Instructor does except teach the classes independently and sign the cards, so it's not like you have any reason to rush anything (unless you're doing it just to collect the card, which only leads to terrible "instructors").
What you *do* need going toward Instructor is to dive in to being a Divemaster. Assist with all the classes you can, and more importantly, assist as many different Instructors as you can. Watch them and learn what works and what, well, *doesn't*. Notice things that fit your personal style and incorporate them into how you teach the parts you're handed. Time is also very important here. Minds need time to digest information and time to reform to incorporate it, and there really is no way around that. You have to learn quite a bit to become a good Instructor, but you can't get away with just learning -- there's *becoming* involved, and that takes time.
My path went something like this: By the time I finished Divemaster, I had a couple hundred dives all over the place in all sorts of conditions (with and without students around). Then I spent the next year assisting with basically every class my shop ran (with lots of different Instructors) and going on basically every checkout trip they did. (I did skip one trip to go to the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show, of course, as it's unhealthy to be *too* single-minded.)
I spent basically a full year of assisting with other Instructors' classes (and noting quite a few things, positive and negative), and the following spring, I finally began my Instructor course itself. I had been teaching a unit or two each class and doing briefings and demos in the pool and open water, so I had been formed into the basic shape of an Instructor already. The Instructor course was more of finishing work, making sure any concepts I had missed or not yet honed were cleaned up, and evaluating every aspect of my performance.
Frankly, once I was a Divemaster and teaching parts of classes, it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. In my head, I'd understood about being responsible for others' loved ones and all that, but actually *being* in that position was different... and humbling. I knew I wanted to become an Instructor, but I absolutely did *NOT* want to rush anything and try to go too far too quickly. I might even say that I was surprised when I was told I was done -- I knew I had already completed the on-the-folder requirements, but to be told that my Course Director and Instructor Trainers considered me a capable instructor worthy of teaching *their* loved ones was an honor.
One last thing: As a motivated individual, *beware* of your own confidence. As I note to my students, being uncomfortable means that something isn't quite right, but being comfortable *does not* mean that everything is fine. (A diver ignoring their SPG can finish a dive completely content and never realize that they had 50 psi left when they got on the boat, while if they were checking it, they'd certainly be uncomfortable skinning that tooth.)
I don't see any way you could go on to instructor by August and be a good Instructor at that point, and I would certainly hope that you would find it a better path to spend some time learning what it is to be a good Instructor before you take that step. It *should* make you a bit nervous and apprehensive at this point when you think about the responsibilities and all, and if it doesn't give you pause, you're not ready to go there yet.
Keep "become a good Instructor" as your goal, but throw out the timing for now. At this point, the "when" should be however long it takes. Once you have worked with a nice bunch of classes and Instructors, then start working on Instructor in earnest and give yourself a time-goal (which will still be secondary to your primary goal of becoming a good Instructor -- sometimes you have to slide the timeline).
(When I was a newer diver, I had time-goals I wanted to meet for becoming a Divemaster and later Instructor. Then my Divemaster course kept having its start date pushed back by the shop, moving from summer to fall to the following spring before it ever began. Then logistics stretched it out even more (eventually the other two candidates dropped/washed out). The delays ended up meaning I had much more experience by the time I finished Divemaster, and looking back at it, current-me thinks I wouldn't have been nearly as good if then-me's plans went off without the delays. I learned enough through that to not be in any hurry going through Instructor, and I am absolutely certain I am a better Instructor because of it.)
I will get you some questions soon, by the way. I was two Divemasters down this weekend (one sick, one called in to work), so mb and I had our hands more than full with class. I'd post some video, but with just us, I never even got the camera in the water. :biggrin:
Don't just pass the class; try to ace it. Better still, whenever something in the class piques your interest, take some time to follow that thread and learn more. If there aren't (possibly long) digressions and discussions in your Master Scuba Diver course, you're not using it properly. If there's anything that you don't grok (i.e. understand fully, front-to-back, in your sleep, even), your Instructor(s) or people like myself would be glad to go through it and help you make sense of it.
