I hope you know that you don't write about oxygen. The 2 is lowercase
I have done courses with a lot of different instructors, I only never did and will never do a course on a level I already have. So I haven't done shortcuts, but knew what I want. And have learned also the autodidactical way. That is a way that is most times not accepted in diving.
In some courses I really did not learn anything (normoxic trimix), it was exactly the same as ART, but only a few meters deeper.
In other courses I learned stage handling, but no real planning (ART). But in all courses I never learned a real and working lost gas scenario. The 1.5 rule for example.
As I am also an autodidact, I have learned some things myself by searching on internet, using a camera and tripod to film myself, etc. This way can be used for finkicks, sidemount, trim, etc.
Also I have learned myself ratio deco. I now explain it others also. But I also tell the the history and I use ratio deco just as an easy way to know how long a dive will be. Not for the detailed planning. If someone had explained it to me in a course it would be a nice extra. But now I know it and can explain it to others.
But never use it as main dive planning. Just as extra.
I also learned myself the backkick. For my ART course I had an instructor who could swim backwards really well, but did not explain it to me. Then, as autodidact I spent hours and hours solo under water to learn it. And after a 6 weeks or so I could swim as fast as he could backwards
Officially the backkick is not in ART, but if someone had helped me a little bit, I would have make the progress easier and faster. Now it was really that I wanted to learn it.
2 weeks after buying my first ccr I decided that it was time to plan a full trimix course a few months later. I was looking for a course in Malta, but then found an option by doing this during my holiday in Austria. As I already had planned to do some 100m dives in Austria I told him that I only could do the course on the first 2 days and that 1 day in my country was possible. Otherwise I would go to Malta. He agreed and it was paying for a card. We have done 2 dives on trimix to 73 and 76m and as I said I wanted some instruction for my money we did a day before going to Austria. There was no diveplan, just follow your computer and that was my course. For me I was ready for this course. I had trained a lot, readed a lot, knew a lot about diveplanning on ccr, so it was not that I missed it, but if I pay someone, I prefer to hear the story. The days after the course I have been 5 times over 100m till 128m without instructor. This was for me more worthfull than the course.
So even if you have a student that knows already everything needed for a course and knows all the skills already, tell and explain it. That is what I found a pity in this course. I paid literally 756 euro for a plastic card of 50 cents. I had no single theorysession and the dives were also short and nothing special without skills.
Oh yes, sometimes you get as instructor a student that already knows what must be done in a course. But even then, give the course where is paid for. And be sure as instructor that you know more than the student about planning, etc. The answer: I dive on my computer is in my eyes a wrong answer. For me it gave the feeling the instructor really did not know about diveplanning.
My cavecourse was easy for me, but I liked it. There was not done more than needed (16 dives of 35 minutes), but I was prepared for cavediving on my own. The only thing we never did in a course and I did the first dive after the course was diving on really 1/3. The turnpressure was never reached in the course. Also was my first dive after the course a dive to 35m and we had some deco. I was already deco certified, so within my certification rules I could do deco. The deco was no problem that I had never done this with instructor, but I would have liked it if we ever had reached the turnpressure.
I always let students reach a turnpressure in a course.
And tell divers a little bit more if they ask things. For example, stage cave diving is not in a full cave course. But you know that this is done almost directly after a course here. So explain it. Within standards you maybe cannot do it during a dive, but talking about it is not wrong.
If I teach now a trimix course, we talk about: diveplanning with a planner, using wetnotes as diary (I show them my old wetnotes with dives done, and after a dive I write the amount of gas used to know if the planning was right, but I also have for almost every dive already a plan in my wetnotes. This information is lost if you use slates), ratio deco, pragmatic deco. Lost gas scenario's, longer or deeper than planned, in water updates, etc.
I can now dive without problems with all kind of technical divers, from all kind of agencies and know what to expect.
I think a good instructor must have read a lot of books also, books from all kind of agencies. Also the instructor must have done a lot of dives on the level or over the level he is teaching on. As instructor know more than is needed to teach a course. And don't teach if you are afraid to do the teached dives solo. This does not mean that you must dive solo, but you are responsible and must always be able to do such dives solo. I have had instructor who are absolutely not able to do the dives they teached on their own.
