Questions on becoming a Dive Instructor (Plan sanity check)

[FreqFlier]

my advice to anyone in your position is to keep diving for a few years and do at least a couple hundred dives before buying an instructor ticket.
BTW: Being a scuba instructor is hardly a 'high stakes activity'.

+1

@MacDuyver - tiny bit of an issue - you don't know what you don't know yet.

 

[FreqFlier]

Do they have to be recreational specialties?
Currently I have Wreck and Deep, and am about to do Drift and Night. I expect NITROX isn't counted as a specialty since it's a non-diving certification, but I am NAUI Nitrox certified. I am interested in Cavern and there's a TDI instructor in my area who is highly recommended and loves teaching it. Will Cavern count towards the recreational certs?

Do I need a Navigation cert, or is that just an experience thing? Navigation is my backup plan for if Cavern isn't going to work for recreational. I havent ever put it in my list of certs I want because I hav nearly 20 years experience with a compass on land and in the water so I never pursued the cert.

Should I do a Boat cert? I've been avoiding that one since I've done 40 something dives off of boats and am not exactly sold on the course's usefulness. That said, I've been looking at this through a Diver lens and not an instructor lens.

You want to go teach people - but you don't really know or understand WHAT you are going to teach. That's because (as most of the wise peeps said earlier) you are not ready yet. Keep diving, the more the merrier, Pacific, Maldives, Caribbean, PNW, caves, Great lakes, quarries, ice, Red Sea currents etc. Drysuit, 7-3mm, rash guard. Then at some point in time you will understand what scuba diving really means and whether you are physically and emotionally ready to become an instructor. At this moment you sound like a title hoarder.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm not an instructor and never had a desire to be. I had (and still have) a desire to become a better, indeed really good diver. If you follow the typical SB advice (from mostly really good divers) to get a lot more dives under your belt, take tech-minded courses as a sort of self-imposed prerequisite to the IDC, etc., you will become a really good diver, and you will get to know the ins and outs of the dive instruction industry. And you may no longer want to join the instructor ranks.

There are numerous exceptions (some here on SB), but I would say that for the most part the instructors out there became instructors before they became good divers--if they ever did. After becoming instructors, some (many?) seemingly lose interest in becoming better divers and/or dogmatically follow their agencies' models of mediocre diving. To say it another way, you could take the long route and become a great diver and then probably not want to become an instructor, or you could take the short route and become an instructor and then probably never become a great diver. If you really are passionate about both diving skill/knowledge and teaching, you could, one might hope, become another exception. Best of luck in your quest.

 

[MacDuyver]

I'm not an instructor and never had a desire to be. I had (and still have) a desire to become a better, indeed really good diver. If you follow the typical SB advice (from mostly really good divers) to get a lot more dives under your belt, take tech-minded courses as a sort of self-imposed prerequisite to the IDC, etc., you will become a really good diver, and you will get to know the ins and outs of the dive instruction industry. And you may no longer want to join the instructor ranks.

There are numerous exceptions (some here on SB), but I would say that for the most part the instructors out there became instructors before they became good divers--if they ever did. After becoming instructors, some (many?) seemingly lose interest in becoming better divers and/or dogmatically follow their agencies' models of mediocre diving. To say it another way, you could take the long route and become a great diver and then probably not want to become an instructor, or you could take the short route and become an instructor and then probably never become a great diver. If you really are passionate about both diving skill/knowledge and teaching, you could, one might hope, become another exception. Best of luck in your quest.

Thanks much,
I'm going to adjust my timeline to be more flexible on this one.

I think I'm going to take some time with the TDI master, hit DM and lead some dives, and go from there. Based on the shop, the TDI instructors at it have more of my kinda of personality, and I'm going to look into their DM course before I decide on which one I do. I've got some time. Knowing me and my history, I don't see me backing down from this one or losing interest, but I've got to get some significant bottom time in cold water in a drysuit instead of a 7mm. Whether I wear one or not, i need to know the ins and outs of them before I would trust myself teaching someone whos wearing one.

 

[MacDuyver]

so next question:
I knew going into this thread that 50-70 dives and none as a DM is nowhere near enough experience.

Pinning down a number is tricky. What are key experience points y'all would recommend at each level of progression?

 

[VikingDives]

Thanks much,
I'm going to adjust my timeline to be more flexible on this one.

I think I'm going to take some time with the TDI master, hit DM and lead some dives, and go from there. Based on the shop, the TDI instructors at it have more of my kinda of personality, and I'm going to look into their DM course before I decide on which one I do. I've got some time. Knowing me and my history, I don't see me backing down from this one or losing interest, but I've got to get some significant bottom time in cold water in a drysuit instead of a 7mm. Whether I wear one or not, i need to know the ins and outs of them before I would trust myself teaching someone whos wearing one.

I think this is a smart move... FWIW, the SDI DM course is academically superior to the PADI course. The dive physics and physiology portions are better/more in-depth than what I received in my PADI IDC.

 

[VikingDives]

so next question:
I knew going into this thread that 50-70 dives and none as a DM is nowhere near enough experience.

Pinning down a number is tricky. What are key experience points y'all would recommend at each level of progression?

I don't think that 50-70 dives is a terrible place to start DM training; just don't be in a rush to get to instructor.

DMCs and DMs, because of who they are working with, get a lot of valuable experience. How many panicked divers has the average rescue diver dealt with? Probably none, maybe one. How many will the average DM encounter over 6 months? It depends on the instructor and how training is conducted, but it's not none. This is the level where you'll develop your skills and learn techniques that you'll use when you become an instructor.

The argument when it comes to professional training goes, "____dives isn't enough, you need more experience." But the best way to gain professional experience is to get in there and do it. . .

Are you going to be a great instructor when you take your first class into open water? Nope. Chances are going to be addled, stressed, and make mistakes.

If we were sitting in a bar and you asked me what I thought you should do, I'd say, "First, take a good cavern class." (Good, IMO is a cavern class where you learn in doubles/sidemount from an instructor who doesn't charge per course, but rather per day). Once you've done that, do the SDI DM course. Being a DM is hard work (schlepping tanks etc.) but you spend a lot of individual time with students. Work with as many instructors as you can during your DMC/DM time. They'll all teach you something (including things you don't want to do when you become an instructor).

When you get the bug to move on, take the AI course and spend some time teaching OW with an instructor. Any SDI OWSDI can teach the AI course and then you can teach classes under supervision. Do that until you're comfortable with teaching under supervision, then work with an IT to move on to becoming an instructor. Even if you decide to become a PADI instructor, you'll be miles ahead of the average candidate.

One last bit of advice: military folks are really easy to teach. They can handle a little stress and still execute the skills. As a group, I'd say they are my easiest students. Find some civilians to work with

 

[berndo]

Knowing me and my history, I don't see me backing down from this one or losing interest, but I've got to get some significant bottom time in cold water in a drysuit instead of a 7mm.

Thing is that people don't realise what it means to be an instructor. Training dives get old pretty fast and you'll end up loosing money (or breaking even) while doing boring dives when you could do fun dives instead. It's really a hobby for people who wanna teach (for free) rather than go diving.

Just saying, whatever your instructor trainer or course director told you about 'career' oppertunities was likely a lie or at least embellished by quite a bit. It's not technically a ponzi scheme as @wetb4igetinthewater said but it's not far from it either.

I'm not saying this to **** on your plan... it's to give you a realistic picture of what the industry looks like. Essentially they're looking for suckers that pay to work, that's the business model.

 

[MacDuyver]

I think this is a smart move... FWIW, the SDI DM course is academically superior to the PADI course. The dive physics and physiology portions are better/more in-depth than what I received in my PADI IDC.

That sounds MUCH more like the level of instruction I'm looking for.

I don't think that 50-70 dives is a terrible place to start DM training; just don't be in a rush to get to instructor.

DMCs and DMs, because of who they are working with, get a lot of valuable experience. How many panicked divers has the average rescue diver dealt with? Probably none, maybe one. How many will the average DM encounter over 6 months? It depends on the instructor and how training is conducted, but it's not none. This is the level where you'll develop your skills and learn techniques that you'll use when you become an instructor.

The argument when it comes to professional training goes, "____dives isn't enough, you need more experience." But the best way to gain professional experience is to get in there and do it. . .

Are you going to be a great instructor when you take your first class into open water? Nope. Chances are going to be addled, stressed, and make mistakes.

If we were sitting in a bar and you asked me what I thought you should do, I'd say, "First, take a good cavern class." (Good, IMO is a cavern class where you learn in doubles/sidemount from an instructor who doesn't charge per course, but rather per day). Once you've done that, do the SDI DM course. Being a DM is hard work (schlepping tanks etc.) but you spend a lot of individual time with students. Work with as many instructors as you can during your DMC/DM time. They'll all teach you something (including things you don't want to do when you become an instructor).

When you get the bug to move on, take the AI course and spend some time teaching OW with an instructor. Any SDI OWSDI can teach the AI course and then you can teach classes under supervision. Do that until you're comfortable with teaching under supervision, then work with an IT to move on to becoming an instructor. Even if you decide to become a PADI instructor, you'll be miles ahead of the average candidate.

One last bit of advice: military folks are really easy to teach. They can handle a little stress and still execute the skills. As a group, I'd say they are my easiest students. Find some civilians to work with

I wasn't clear on that. I'm hitting the point where I'm comfortable with my skills enough to commit to DM. I'm more inclined to press that one aggressively since afterwards, I can DM with the local instructors, which is where I see the most bang for the buck in terms of experience benefit.

Thanks for the bump steer!

 

[JMarc]

so next question:
I knew going into this thread that 50-70 dives and none as a DM is nowhere near enough experience.

Pinning down a number is tricky. What are key experience points y'all would recommend at each level of progression?

I'll repeat a point already made. You can have 1000 dives, if it is 1000 times the same dive, that's not enough experience.