Why did you decide to become an instructor?

[StreetDoctor]

A thread on another board about instructor qualities sparked my interest... For those of you who do teach, when you initially began your instructor training what were your primary motivations for becoming an instructor? How many people started teaching because they envisioned living somewhere tropical and diving everyday or even staying where they were and being able to dive and get paid vs. people that wanted to teach because they noticed a subpar level of instruction in their local scene? Please don't take this thread the wrong way either, there is no right or wrong answer. How many people teach as their primary source of income and do you teach independently or through a shop?

I can only imagine how difficult it would be to teach through a shop locally as DIR isn't even really recognized at the recreational/beginner level around here. I've tossed around the idea of becoming an instructor for a while because I'd like to create better open water divers I just don't know if the desire is even there. As has been said around here before, people don't know what they don't know. I have a fulltime job that provides me a lot of time off so my motivation would be to purely promote team-based diving and offset the cost of teaching although this would put me at risk for upsetting some of the local full-time instructors.

I can understand that full-time instructors teach more classes and therefore will possibly have better refinement and instruction qualities because it's all they do, they should be able to charge more. On the other hand there are people out there who, like purchasing a material item, want the lowest price. All too often it seems these people don't realize the value in good instruction until they have already taken the course from a subpar instructor and then either retake the course with someone more skilled or make up for it with different classes which ends up costing them even more money in the long run. I think the majority of divers have experienced the latter at some point in their diving career.

When speaking to a highly regarded local instructor about referring some friends to an open water class I was even told to tell them to take OW anywhere and then come to them for AOW where the mistakes they learned in OW can be corrected. IMO there is something philosophically wrong with that. People don't know what they don't know, but don't they still deserve good instruction right out of the gate? All opinions are welcome and appreciated.

-Nick

 

[Peter Guy]

Why did I become an instructor? The simple answer is that I wanted to be able to help people become Scuba Divers. I felt my background and training gave me some insights into what a "diver" should be. Some people disagree with me, others agree -- I have no idea whether my (to date) few students have ended up better divers because of me.

 

[FireInMyBones]

I have set my eyes to become a scuba instructor because I have a passion for teaching. I want people to know more than what I learned and how to deal with bad situations before they happen.

I have been teaching Lifeguards for almost four years and Swim lessons for eight. Learning to dive was a great joy for me. I would love to share that with others. The smile and "light bulb going off" look on my students' faces makes it worth it to me.

I hope that I can be a good instructor one day. I have learned a lot from about being an instructor from a friend of mine and those on this board, like [user]Jim Lapenta[/user] and [user]Thalassamania[/user].

 

[Crowley]

I have tried many things in life and enjoyed them, but diving is the only thing I ever became really passionate about. Every time I went on holiday to go diving I would return wondering why I couldn't stay behind and dive some more.

When I made the choice to become an instructor I don't think I understood *exactly* what I was letting myself in for - I don't think it is possible to do so beforehand, and it is most certainly not the idyllic life that many people think it should be. There are some serious downsides to living a very transient life in a tropical location as a full time instructor, but for me, they are far outweighed by the beauty of what I do when it is done well.

All I want to do is dive and in my current job I get to work as both an instructor and dive guide. Watching people learn, seeing the smile on their face and the satisfaction of a job well done is a fantastic feeling, but if I might be selfish for a minute - teaching people to dive well and safely means that when I go for a dive with my students after the course is finished, I don't have to worry so much about their personal safety and instead I can enjoy my time underwater with them as much as they are.

I love it, and my excitement at diving is infectious and more than just teaching, if I can help somebody understand the world in which I work just that little bit better, then they take some reward from that as well. I see people logging dives out here in paradise as "just another boring reef dive" and therefore I make it my mission to show them just exactly what they are missing.

I'm a vacation resort instructor; I love floating about at recreational depths and making silly somersaults whilst enjoying the beauty and the colour of the life we see down there. I don't need tech and DIR and GUE and whatever because neither my job nor my students require it, but I will take what I learn from those things and apply it to what I do.

I gave up almost everything I own to do this, and I lost one of the most beautiful women in the world to diving, because she didn't want to carry on when I did. Sometimes what I do is really. Hard. Work. But I don't regret it for a second.

At the end of their vacation my guests come and tell me what a great time they had and say "Thank you" and I say "No - thank YOU - because without you, I wouldn't be able to dive, and that is all I want to do."

If you don't love it, you shouldn't be in the water.

Happy, safe diving folks,

Crowley

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I never started out to be an instructor. I was going to be a vacation diver. Until I took my first breath from a reg underwater. It was like going home. At that point I decided that diving was going to be more than something to do on vacation. I took OW then AOW and some specialties. I loved it so much that I began to go along on pool sessions just to be in the water and if possible help out.

Around the time I started DM I also found this board and learned that there were other methods and agencies. I also began to notice the divers around me and what I saw was not always pretty. The wakeup call for me was when I literally fell asleep at 25 feet while hanging off a platform as a DM. I was bored out of my skull. And had only beeen doing teaching dives. I nearly quit altogether. That day I fortunately ran into the guy who would become my tech instructor. He was also a YMCA Instructor Trainer. I began tech diving and also assisting a new PADI instructor who had a GUE background and taught above and beyond what was required.

At the same time I began to help out with Y programs and discovered something that for me as an instructor was as important as what was in the method. It also had a philosophy that agreed with my ideas of what an instructor should be on a moral, ethical, and philosophical basis. That the student comes first and that skills and a comprehensive education was more important than the shop or agency or me for that matter. And when the Y closed the program and SEI was formed it was a no brainer for me to crossover. The philosophy is the same, the education comes first. As an independent I can also tailor my course to my students and that has come in handy when I run into a situation where I need to switch skills around or add new ones to insure my students comfort and safety. I became an instructor to turn out divers I'd want to dive with and most importantly trust with my life or the life of someone I cared about. I don't want to train underwater tourists.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I was/am addicted to underwater photography. Even after my OW certification I preferred solo freediving, because my favorite subjects seemed to tolerate a freediver better. My decision to become an instructor was made because I wanted to work underwater with my camera in my hand. All guides in Hawaii are instructors, so if you want to guide you need to become an instructor.

Along the way I realized I had a gift for teaching. I succeeded in becoming a camera guide, and fell in love with teaching diving; win, win!

 

[SeaArch1]

For me it was my passion for archaeology especially marine archaeology. While doing some of my earlier research work it occurred to me that most of the people that enter the field get a OW cert and show up to go do research dives on wreck areas. OW certification is great if your just going to be doing vacation dives or just diving with buddies. However research diving involves alot of task loading while underwater such as setting up grids, measuring, documenting artifact location, etc. I found that while the researchers were good divers in general when you start having them task load they lacked the necessary skills to control their buoyancy and breathing, and complete research tasks at the same time.

I decided that as an Instructor and an Archaeologist i could help researchers in the field develop the skills needed to become not only all around better divers but also learn task load management while diving. I have found since starting this that almost all of the researchers I have worked with have become very proficient in maintaining buoyancy and breathing while completing marine research work. The best part is when they start seeing how much better they have become because they are no longer bumping into the bottom when they are trying to document or measure something now they can effortlessly hover above their research area and do their work which increases efficiency exponentially.

Also I became an Instructor because in the end I JUST LOVE TO DIVE.

 

[wrybosome]

the student comes first and that skills and a comprehensive education was more important than the shop or agency or me for that .

Not BS, I can attest to that with Jim. I only have 3 scuba courses, but have attended many professional training courses. The SEI AOW was really focussed on me.

 

[tstormdiver]

I haven't been diving for nearly as long as some others here (only a little over 4yrs), but once I start something it becomes a burning passion. I did the same thing with the Martial Arts for 17yrs. About the same time I discovered the world of diving, I was burning out in the Martial Arts. Years or practicing for hours almost 6 days a week, had finally worn on me.
When I began diving I knew I wanted to become a Dive Master, as I thoroughly enjoyed assisting teaching in the Martial Arts. So after OW & AOW I started taking specialty courses & diving as often as possible, even during the winter, when I could find a buddy. I was averaging 100 dives/ yr. Not bad for being in a temperate area, very much land locked. I plotted my path to Dive Master & was following allong very nicely. I would have done the Dive Master course through my original instructor, but the start of the class she was going to do, was postponed 5- 6 imes in 6 mos. Tired of waiting for this class to start, I was at a local dive club function when another instructor had mentioned that he was starting a Dive Master course in a month. After talking to him, I decided to go with him. Not only for the Dive Master training, but also because I had a budding interest in technical diving & he was also a technical instructor. My original instructor was strictly recreational. I went through the Dive Control Specialist course & really got a lot out of it. Not that I am putting my original instructor down, by any means, but I saw that my new instructor demanded much more quality,... I really admire that. After passing the Dive Con course, I began assisting an instructor couple. They actually got quite spoiled to having me assisting with all their classes. One thing I saw atthe shop though was that the instructors there wouldn't take the small classes (1-3 students). They wanted only full classes. At that point I decided that I'd be willing to take those types classes, even though I have to drive an hour to the dive shop. I talked to my instructor who is also an IT/IC & got into the next available instructor class. Am I glad I did. Becoming an instructor has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I love it! Even when it is crazy & the class is not going as I would have hoped it would. It is such a thrill to see my students grow to become divers & even more thrilling to see some that have themselves become passionate about diving.

 

[Dr Wu]

I figured it was a good way to make a lot of money.

That and the chicks. Chicks dig instructors.

Money and chicks.