Questions on becoming a Dive Instructor (Plan sanity check)

[berndo]

With diving, it is one of my life's passions, and I want to instruct to share our incredible sport, but bring a sense of exacting standards to it. I'm tired of reading threads on reddit where people talk about their ****** dive instructors and I want to do better for the sport. I'm getting out of the army and want to keep up with high stakes activities in a meaningful manner.

Part of the reason people complain about ****** instructors it that many instructor are beginners that rushed through classes and got an instructor ticket early. Many people are super excited early on and quit diving a couple of years later.
I don't know how you can say that diving is your life's passion after 40 dives... but eitherway, my advice to anyone in your position is to keep diving for a few years and do at least a couple hundered dives before buying an instructor ticket.
BTW: Being a scuba instructor is hardly a 'high stakes activity'.

 

[MacDuyver]

I'd argue that diving is very much a high stakes activity hombre.

Humans do not survive underwater. Period. If you **** it up, you will die. Period. That makes it high stakes.
We do LOTS to lower the risk to a safe level, but the overall stakes are still there.

There are so many things that can go wrong on a dive that you ought to be tuned in on. As an instructor, you're responsible for the lives of your students. When someone runs out of air or ascends too quickly because they are panicky and scared, guess who gets to deal with that? The dive instructor.

I've got 50ish logged. I have about 4 years of dives I didn't log, which don't count for numbers, but that doesn't negate the experience of taking the plunge. Again, shame on me for not keeping track, but they still happened. I didn't ask for your opinions on my feelings towards the pursuits in my life, so cut the attitude.

 

[berndo]

As an instructor, you're responsible for the lives of your students.

Well, than I guess being a bus drivers is super super high stakes in your view.

Again, shame on me for not keeping track, but they still happened. I didn't ask for your opinions on my feelings towards the pursuits in my life, so cut the attitude.

I reckon you're not actually looking for advice but rather for confirmation... also very common for a beginner that wants to be a 'pro' asap.

 

[formernuke]

No where close to ready. I've experienced zero to hero stuff, get at least another 100 dives in before even thinking dm. If your planning on teaching cold water get at least 100 in with a drysuit first.

 

[formernuke]

Lastly, if the TDI instructor is decent, go take ITT and Cavern before you do DM. That way you can spend your pool sessions working on improving your skills and making your instructor look bad as (s)he kneels on the bottom.

They yelled at me for doing that during my IDC, they wanted us our knees period. They actually marked me down for demonstrating while neutral in trim.

 

[VikingDives]

LOL! But also, thanks. I REALLY want to take courses with him. He's a great dude and is very precise with diving in general. Regardless of the path I take, I want to spend as much time as I can learning form him.

If it's Taku Ohara, he's an instructor trainer. If you aren't married to the PADI idea, you might want to try talking to him about SDI.

SDI's divemaster course is FAR better than PADI's and the physics and physiology is better than anything I got in my IDC.

 

[tursiops]

They yelled at me for doing that during my IDC, they wanted us our knees period. They actually marked me down for demonstrating while neutral in trim.

When was that?

 

[formernuke]

When was that?

2 years ago

 

[tursiops]

2 years ago

So on the leading edge of moving toward neutral. Curious what the percentage of IDCs still teaching knees is.

 

[formernuke]

So on the leading edge of moving toward neutral. Curious what the percentage of IDCs still teaching knees is.

Every PADI shop I know of still teaches knees based on talking to new divers