Unacceptable Instructor Behaviors...

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The Chairman

Chairman of the Board
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I just don't log dives
I don't like unduly negative or shaming threads, but I feel we should have a frank discussion about unacceptable behaviors by instructors. As a student, you have rights and expectations, but being new to the sport, you may or may not know where that line is. I think you have a need to know when your instructor is out of line.

To whit, this past ScubaBoard Invasion to Cozumel, @Moose met a couple of friends who were with another group. One of them was so excited that they were going to finish their certification. The next time Dan saw them the student was pretty distraught. Their instructor brought them down to 60 feet and asked them to clear their mask. It didn't go well. After the dive, two different instructors told them that they were the most difficult student they've ever worked with. Wow. I was pretty pissed at her instructors, though I didn't really tell her that. I just said, let me have a try. She was so anxious, that I could see ripples coming off her as she stood shaking in the pool. Wow. It took about an hour, but she's clearing her mask. However, she still has some work to do and has lost faith in her instructor. Hopefully, she and her fiance will make their way down so I can finish her course.

So, what was so bad? A couple of things and I'll list them.
  • What was she doing in OW when she had never completed this skill in confined water?
    • Skills should be mastered in confined water before you proceed
  • Where does a professional get off telling a student they were the "hardest"???
    • Creates unneeded anxieties
    • The instructors are the ones who failed: not the student!
    • It's nothing but an excuse for their laziness!
  • Learning was subverted
    • Instead of preparing her to dive, they set her up for failure.

    No, I'm not talking about esoteric things like "no kneeling" during class. I'm talking about basic professional behavior and ethics. Mind you, I've been a witness to many, many classes in my time from the early seventies to the present and I've seen the good along with the bad. So what else should you expect or not expect? Here's my continued list (which may be edited as we discuss this).

    A Diving Student's Bill of Rights
  • Fun
    • Your instructor should be encouraging
    • Your instructor should be patient
    • You should feel free to call a dive at any time and for any reason
      • With no repercussions
      • Yes, even in training
    • Bullying is not acceptable
    • Mocking is not acceptable
    • Classes can be thorough, challenging and still fun
  • Safety
    • No student should ever be left unattended
    • No "trust me" dives
    • Adherence to standards
    • Appropriate class sizes for the environment
    • No overweighting students
    • All gear should be functional and serviced regularly
  • Learning
    • Instructors should always set the example!
      • Monkey see: monkey do!
    • Skills should be mastered in the pool before OW dives
      • How to do the skill
      • When to do the skill
    • Adherence to standards
    • Trim and neutral buoyancy are not optional!
  • Professionalism
    • Respect from your Instructor
      • No yelling or verbal abuse
        • Teach, don't yell
        • No demeaning remarks
      • Privacy
      • No inappropriate touching or advances
    • Dedication
      • Your instructor should be up-to-date in their skills and training methods
      • If a student, no matter the difficulty, doesn't quit, neither should the instructor
    • Ethics
      • Instructors should keep their promises and commitments
I could add that instructors should be excited and friendly as well as possess excellent diving skills, but that sort of stuff should go without saying.

A Student caveat: You are the most important key to learning how to Scuba Dive. Ultimately, your safety is up to you. If you don't feel comfortable with your instructor, the onus is on you to change that. Talk with them or fire them, just make sure you can trust and learn from them. Sure, it might cost you time and money, but it won't cause you injury or possibly your life. Take this seriously as your health and life depend on your choice of an instructor.

What did I miss? What don't you agree with? Anecdotal stories are more than welcome
 
  • Encouragement
    • Students often have fears of being underwater to overcome. I tell that that it is natural, I was nervous. I had a 6'5" 280 lb firefighter who was nervous. Knowing that they are not the only one helps calm the nerves.
    • As far as difficult students go, everyone goes at a different pace. What turned out to be one of the best divers I produced had a slow start, but his trajectory afterwards was unbelievable. I've never seen anyone improve so fast. He has a GUE fundies tech pass, and I don't (I'm now all sidemount, so if GUE ever adds that configuration for fundies, I'll test for it).
    • It is an instructor's job to first get them comfortable underwater, then go through the skills. Nervous/anxious students underwater is not conducive to learning or having fun. This isn't a race.
  • Fun
    • Students should have some fun activities that challenge them. We already discussed this on the instructor-to-instructor page. The race with keeping a golf ball on a spoon was a big hit.
  • Dedication
    • If a student, no matter the difficulty, doesn't quit, neither should the instructor.
  • Learning (additional)
    • Students should understand without sugar coating why they need to learn each skill.
    • Teaching them properly to not have bad habits. If an instructor (like me) had a lot of bad habits due to improper training, the expectation (maybe this falls under encouragement) is that they should be a better diver than the instructor was at X number of dives. That shouldn't hurt any instructor's ego, but in fact, validate that they are teaching at a higher level.
I think I'm going to provide some form of this to my future students. Thanks for posting.

Question on the event though. Were they doing a referral? I.e., did the referring instructor check them off for skills that had not actually performed? The instructor doing the OW dives definitely rushed and sounds like violated standards exceeding 40 feet.
 
I like it!
If a student, no matter the difficulty, doesn't quit, neither should the instructor.
Indeed. Indeed x1000.
Teaching them properly to not have bad habits.
That's why I said instructors should always set the example. This is one reason (of a few) that I hate CESAs so much. Students want to dive like their instructors, so when they see us do all these bounce dives with seeming impunity, they feel that they can dive that way as well. Monkey see: monkey do.
 
@The Chairman

Thanks for this topic. I just sended you a private message about an awful experience I got with a dive center for a DM internship program and I think (hope) it can be interesting.

Thanks for the thread.
 
I’ve also been in many class situations helping many different instructors work and have seen good and bad.
Great instructors need to be a lot more than just half way decent divers who think they are gods gift to the diving world.
They need to have great people skills (they need to actually like people), be empathetic, have a huge amount of patience, be friendly, and be willing to spend as much time as it takes for someone to get it, and be happy about it. As soon as you see instructors belittle, lose patience, yell, or do some other stupid thing it actually tells you more about their weaknesses, not the student’s.
I’ve seen so many who were ego driven A-holes who were just doing it because it was the “next step” in their ego building routine. The “big” man looking out the corner of his eyes hoping that the underlings look up to him in awe. Actually a few women too. Very distructive and completely useless.
Unfortunately, in diving there isn’t a great deal of filtering going on before instructors actually hit the street. So there will be a percentage of instructors who have something to prove, an out of control ego, or are on some other trip.
 
I hate CESAs so much. Students want to dive like their instructors, so when they see us do all these bounce dives with seeming impunity, they feel that they can dive that way as well. Monkey see: monkey do.
Yeah, I don’t miss them. It took me a while to realize that the way I was taught in my IDC and the way I demoed in my IE (where I scored a 5) was completely inaccurate and useless. Take in 3 deep breaths and in the third one go?!?! An OOA diver will not have even one full breath. Doing (C)ESAa in the pool where you can turn off the air and then turn it back on so if they have to take a breath they can, while imperfect, is a safe and more realistic (my opinion) way of teaching that skill. But as usual, I digress
 
So on a checkout dive(#1) a student who swam out to the buoy is winded. But all students are strongly encouraged to descend the line quickly. About 10 feet down student signals the need to surface.

Instructor and student meet at the surface. Student couldn't breathe. (what else is new. a common complaint). Instructor tells student that the divemaster is going to accompany them to shore.

Student gives it another try after a 5 minute rest. Descends and hangs on to the horizontal line and successfully completes all tasks.

So that was an example of "not encouraging" a student for a common complaint. And if said student was the type that discourages easily, might have caused them to hang up their fins.

Oh, yeah one more thing. Full disclosure. That was me. LOL
 
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They need to have great people skills (they need to actually like people), be empathetic, have a huge amount of patience, be friendly, and be willing to spend as much time as it takes for someone to get it, and be happy about it. As soon as you see instructors belittle, lose patience, yell, or do some other stupid thing it actually tells you more about their weaknesses, not the student’s.

This is really important - My wife and I (ratio 1 instructor: 2 students) made our OWD together and she was a bit more nervous than me- specially about the mask removal.
Instructor took a lot of time to make her confortable underwater - she started whenever she felt okay and performed the mask removal without issues and kinda fast. And knowing my wife temper if this instructor shown the wrong attitude to handle her it would be kinda worse for him ... lol We finished with some beers and he won few customers (mostly familly, friends) I send to him, our AOWD, our EAN courses and around 50 dives made with his diving club. I can directly call him in his private cell phone if I want to plan a dive anytime on the week it's kinda cool.

I think what is bad in diving industry is time = money, or more people on the boat = money, or more selling cards = money, short time = more money
And I think that a lot of social / psychological skills are missing on most instructors.
 
Students shall have adequate time to practice.

Many years ago I lifeguarding at a pool while an open water course was taking place. The instructor demonstrated a snorkelling head first surface dive 6 times. “This time pay attention to how I have my mys straight and fins pointed back as I start my descent”. The stuntdents got to try it once. Pretty much exactly the opposite of the ratio it should be for learning any skilll.
 
Yes but as soon as you have money involve or maybe dive centers who push hard their instructors to do the job at low cost time what can you do ?
I do prefer independant instructor honestly with the amount of time he took to care 2 students the whole day I will never thanks him enough.
Now I only go in dive centers cause I have no boat and no compressor - I have my regs to service soon and I will start to gather infos to DIY
and half od my dives are already shore diving without to have guide / dm / instructor dealing with my own kit -- now of course for liability he have to check blabla

But in some cases (and this is from what I heard) you perform the skill once, check the list, and Voilà.
 
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