Why choosing an instructor sucks

[Manatee Diver]

Some instructors you can tell just by the way that they are swimming.

 

[rddvet]

I immediately thought of Dan. I don't know a single person better at yelling and vocalizing underwater on OC. I took cave DPV with him and somehow over the sound of the scooter and chaos of my first time in manatee, I heard his "what the **** are you doing?!" clear as day. He has a gift.

It's funny, Dan's the nicest guy but he intimidates the hell out of me. He's always quiet, composed, and doesn't say much. Something about that turns me into a quiet kid around him. He's an excellent instructor and puts out great students. My buddy says he's not a drill sergeant or mean at all in class. You can just tell when you've done something he doesn't approve.

 

[rddvet]

This may sound very biased, but I would also recommend only taking instructor recommendations(for florida instructors) from people who either live in florida and dive the caves regularly or who are very regular out of town cave divers. The basic fact is everyone thinks they're instructor is great. I've found there are a few instructors who's students are pretty much only people from outside of florida that are diving caves once or twice a year. Those people think they're instructor's the best, but haven't seen enough of other instructors to really know. There are some exceptionally popular instructors who are the darlings of social media ( I call them the Kave Kardashians), but when I actually overhear their classes when I'm diving I'm often appalled. Had I not been a local it would be easy to assume these people are the coolest, best instructors on the planet. Only by being active in the local cave community and keeping my ears open have I been able to really make an appropriate assessment.

 

[rjack321]

This may sound very biased, but I would also recommend only taking instructor recommendations(for florida instructors) from people who either live in florida and dive the caves regularly or who are very regular out of town cave divers. The basic fact is everyone thinks they're instructor is great. I've found there are a few instructors who's students are pretty much only people from outside of florida that are diving caves once or twice a year. Those people think they're instructor's the best, but haven't seen enough of other instructors to really know. There are some exceptionally popular instructors who are the darlings of social media ( I call them the Kave Kardashians), but when I actually overhear their classes when I'm diving I'm often appalled. Had I not been a local it would be easy to assume these people are the coolest, best instructors on the planet. Only by being active in the local cave community and keeping my ears open have I been able to really make an appropriate assessment.

To add to this, you never want to ask an instructor for some past student's names as references. Duh you get names and emails of the instructor's fans. You have to dig around for people who had bad experiences and what those were to assess an instructors flaws and if those flaws are deal killers for you.

Also quite a few instructor's have a perfect sales pitch hitting all the right lingo - but they are paper tigers wearing no clothes behind the façade.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

To add to this, you never want to ask an instructor for some past student's names as references. Duh you get names and emails of the instructor's fans. You have to dig around for people who had bad experiences and what those were to assess an instructors flaws and if those flaws are deal killers for you.

Also quite a few instructor's have a perfect sales pitch hitting all the right lingo - but they are paper tigers wearing no clothes behind the façade.

I prefer to ask people who have gone diving with an instructor's students. There will always be some clashes between some students and instructors.

 

[loosenit2]

This whole thread applies equally as well to recreational instructors as well. It is a well worn axiom on SB that you don't choose an agency, you chose an instructor; however, there are precious few tools to evaluate instructors. This shortfall is part of what the OP was posting about.

Agencies need to either be more strict about who they certify as instructors, as well as requiring periodic re certification or continuing education credits or come up with a system to rate instructors and make those ratings available to the consuming public. Alternatively someone could run a 3rd party evaluation system, like yelp.

I do realize the challenge in asking agencies to do this because of their business models. I truly wish that scuba agencies would behave more like the United States Parachuting Agency who only cares about safety and self regulation, rather than treating certification as a publishing oriented profit making business.

 

[helodriver87]

Kave Kardashians

Two simple words and I knew exactly who you meant. That's too perfect.

 

[rjack321]

I prefer to ask people who have gone diving with an instructor's students. There will always be some clashes between some students and instructors.

Except once past OW/AOW, you don't actually know where they learned their skills or from whom. I've had 4 different cave instructors, C1, C2, CCR cave and a Kiss crossover. My good and bad habits could have come from any of them or someone else entirely.

 

[rjack321]

Two simple words and I knew exactly who you meant. That's too perfect.

Same and I'm stealing that

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Except once past OW/AOW, you don't actually know where they learned their skills or from whom. I've had 4 different cave instructors, C1, C2, CCR cave and a Kiss crossover. My good and bad habits could have come from any of them or someone else entirely.

Fair point.