What things did you look for in your Scuba instructor?

[ckharlan66]

In my infinite ingorance I just went to our only LDS and signed up. In hind sight I got very lucky as now there are several instructors at my LDS that I feel would not have been as good. Don't get me wrong they are good people and divers but thier personalities and view points don't always click with mine. I have since found out that my instructor has been through GUE and is DIR when he is not in class but he really went beyond the standard course and is an avid cave diver. He will discuss his DIR philosophy with you but he is not militant about it and is open to discussion. It was hard to believe that a DIR diver could be a PADI instructor but it makes talking to him interesting due to his ability to discuss things from several different perspectives.

For future courses I will be more careful in my selection if for some reason I don't go through him.

Chad

 

[Lost Yooper]

...and then there are those who really catch a break (Chad) .

 

[BadFish]

 

[ckharlan66]

Lost Yooper,

It makes for some fun when I give him a hard time about it. But do to my discussions with him and some of the open minded folks on this board I no longer have the same opinion of DIR that I got when I first encountered Trey. Now I am open to all ideas even though I don't necessarly adopt them all.

Chad

 

[Jonathan]

A skier fiend suggested a summer holiday of diving - sounded a laugh so I said why not. He couldn't get his act in gear and me and another friend were to do O/W on holiday. I had noticed that a local shop advertised diving holidays in the window and did not realise that they did the whole shooting match. Little did I know when I went in that I was about to be ambushed by the two owners......

I came out rather bemused having been talked into doing my o/w before heading out on holiday. The best decision I ever made with ragards to diving - thanks Ian and Lance!!

Now having read the posts on this board a few years later I realise I may have been a little naive, but then I got really lucky and appreciate it all the more. When I left the UK last year I was a bit concerned about finding anyone that could match them and again more by luck rather than intensive interviewing etc I seemed to have landed on my feet - but then again not speaking much Japanese I was rather limited.

Anyone looking for instructors in South London or the Tokyo area please feel free to send me a message and I'll put you in touch - I am sure like me you will not be disappointed.....

Jonathan