- Messages
- 1,938
- Reaction score
- 168
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
In my (admittedly limited) experience as a DM (for a couple years) and as an AI (for about a year) and having just passed my IDC (but not yet having taught my own course -- and not planning on doing it for about a year or more, still getting experience teaching) the issue isn't the number of logged dives. The issue is experience with students under the water. And the two are not the same thing.
I'd feel safer with someone with only a few hundred "dives" who has taught thousands of people in the pool than a person with thousands of dives who has only taught a handful of students.
Now, that's not to say this course provides this level of exposure -- it can't in that amount of time.
But the equating of viability as an instructor with the number of dives seems to me to be missing the point that what's critical is being able to handle students in the water.
I'd also be far more accepting of an instructor with fewer hours in OW classes who was teaching in 7' vis cold water lakes than with someone with many more hours teaching in crystal clear warm water on a white sand bottom. The former will have faced many more interesting control issues than the latter.
But ultimately it comes down to this: while the number of dives is not a good indicator of the quality of instructor, there is a minimum level of experience someone should have with students before they take on that responsibility themselves. If you're going to get your OWSI on a fast track, and then spend a lengthy amount of time getting experience with actual students in some sort of monitored apprenticeship, then there's no real issue. But if you're going to go from never having taught to teaching on your own in 30 days -- regardless of how many dives you have -- you'll be a danger to your students.
I'd feel safer with someone with only a few hundred "dives" who has taught thousands of people in the pool than a person with thousands of dives who has only taught a handful of students.
Now, that's not to say this course provides this level of exposure -- it can't in that amount of time.
But the equating of viability as an instructor with the number of dives seems to me to be missing the point that what's critical is being able to handle students in the water.
I'd also be far more accepting of an instructor with fewer hours in OW classes who was teaching in 7' vis cold water lakes than with someone with many more hours teaching in crystal clear warm water on a white sand bottom. The former will have faced many more interesting control issues than the latter.
But ultimately it comes down to this: while the number of dives is not a good indicator of the quality of instructor, there is a minimum level of experience someone should have with students before they take on that responsibility themselves. If you're going to get your OWSI on a fast track, and then spend a lengthy amount of time getting experience with actual students in some sort of monitored apprenticeship, then there's no real issue. But if you're going to go from never having taught to teaching on your own in 30 days -- regardless of how many dives you have -- you'll be a danger to your students.