Why You Shouldn't Trust Your Instructor
- Thread starter oya
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
That was a good read. But, I can't say that I completely agree with your initial premise - that every instructor takes their students on Trust Me dives.
I feel like any truly good instructor, whether they are teaching the initial OW class or Adv Trimix, will adequately prepare the student so that every single thing the student does is something that are fully prepared for and comfortable with and it's a situation of the person taking a step to expand their own horizons - a step they are prepared for. Like a diver who who has never been deeper than 70 feet, but, on their own, when they are ready, they go to 80'. They are expanding their horizons - their limits, if you will - but not via a means that requires trusting anyone but themselves.
A new OW student should be ready, prepared and confident of their own ability to try sticking their face underwater and inhaling through a reg. Every step after that should be a case of doing what they know how to do and are prepared to do. They're just doing it for the first time. But, like going to 80' for the first time, they aren't trusting anyone else.
I'm not sure I made very clear what I'm trying to say.
We all get training and then we go on to learn and expand the boundaries of our experience on our own. That is not Trust Me diving. It seems to me that a good instructor would bring their students along in exactly the same way. Where every skill they have to perform and every action they take, even though it's the first time they might be doing it, it's a case of the student being ready and they are proceeding to expand the boundaries of their experience by trusting only themselves. The instructor is just there to observe - not for the student to put their trust in.
Back to your initial premise - I think a LOT of instructors do work the way you described. It's certainly faster. I.e. it takes less time to get someone to the bottom of a pool and breathing off a reg if you just say "here, stick this in your mouth and press this button and you'll go to the bottom. Trust me, you'll be fine." Working them up to that slowly, so that when it's time to go to the bottom of the deep end, they know what to do and are confident and going to the bottom of the deep end is nothing new or anxiety-filled - it's just a little deeper than what they did before. That would take a lot longer, for most students, I suspect. But, I believe (hope? have faith?) that there are instructors who do train that way. Though they may be few and far between.
I feel like any truly good instructor, whether they are teaching the initial OW class or Adv Trimix, will adequately prepare the student so that every single thing the student does is something that are fully prepared for and comfortable with and it's a situation of the person taking a step to expand their own horizons - a step they are prepared for. Like a diver who who has never been deeper than 70 feet, but, on their own, when they are ready, they go to 80'. They are expanding their horizons - their limits, if you will - but not via a means that requires trusting anyone but themselves.
A new OW student should be ready, prepared and confident of their own ability to try sticking their face underwater and inhaling through a reg. Every step after that should be a case of doing what they know how to do and are prepared to do. They're just doing it for the first time. But, like going to 80' for the first time, they aren't trusting anyone else.
I'm not sure I made very clear what I'm trying to say.
We all get training and then we go on to learn and expand the boundaries of our experience on our own. That is not Trust Me diving. It seems to me that a good instructor would bring their students along in exactly the same way. Where every skill they have to perform and every action they take, even though it's the first time they might be doing it, it's a case of the student being ready and they are proceeding to expand the boundaries of their experience by trusting only themselves. The instructor is just there to observe - not for the student to put their trust in.
Back to your initial premise - I think a LOT of instructors do work the way you described. It's certainly faster. I.e. it takes less time to get someone to the bottom of a pool and breathing off a reg if you just say "here, stick this in your mouth and press this button and you'll go to the bottom. Trust me, you'll be fine." Working them up to that slowly, so that when it's time to go to the bottom of the deep end, they know what to do and are confident and going to the bottom of the deep end is nothing new or anxiety-filled - it's just a little deeper than what they did before. That would take a lot longer, for most students, I suspect. But, I believe (hope? have faith?) that there are instructors who do train that way. Though they may be few and far between.
sea_otter
Contributor
I have had mediocre instructors who I have had to tell "I am not ready to do X". To their credit, they have provided me with more training and practice in a safe environment.
I also have a very good instructor who has told me "You are not ready to do X". I have a huge amount of trust in placed in this individual as someone who helps me to define where my personal boundaries and limits should be drawn and how much conservatism to add to my dives to account for the "me" factor.
I would not trust either to take me somewhere beyond my ability. Their job is to help build that ability so that I'm capable of getting there myself.
I also have a very good instructor who has told me "You are not ready to do X". I have a huge amount of trust in placed in this individual as someone who helps me to define where my personal boundaries and limits should be drawn and how much conservatism to add to my dives to account for the "me" factor.
I would not trust either to take me somewhere beyond my ability. Their job is to help build that ability so that I'm capable of getting there myself.
DevonDiver
N/A
I agree.
On a training course, there's an order and progression to diving. The student is first taught the requisite knowledge. Then the requesite skills and procedures are taught on dry land, confined water etc.
Only once the requisite skills and knowledge are mastered does the student have to apply those skills on appropriate dives.
It's not a 'trust me' dive if the diver already possesses the requisite skills and knowledge to complete a given dive safely and without reliance on another diver.
Such dives should only be about the student demonstrating application of the skills and knowledge they've acquired.
On a course 'checkout dive' the instructor should be there only to assess performance and ensure safety if the student makes a mistake. For the dive to be successful, the instructor shouldn't have to intervene or otherwise support the diver concerned. The instructor should essentially just be an observer.
Last edited:
The blog was written by someone who is most likely not an instructor. The assumption that every training dive is a trust me dive and that a good course will take students well beyond their comfort zone are so far from the reality of a decent course as to be blatently incorrect.
R..
R..
OP
The author is an instructor for four different agencies, has worked with thousands of students, and acts in a mentor role to dozens of divers every week.
While I agree with points here about the appropriate training progression it still needs to be remembered that the primary input that a student gets about whether they are ready to accomplish some dive or some task is because their instructor has told them they are ready.
They don't really know, they barely even know what they're trying to be ready FOR. They might feel ready? But that, too, will be based on the feedback and the behaviour of their instructor. So, if you actually think your students are feeling 100% confident in their skills when you give them a dive briefing that should challenge them then you have forgotten what it is like to be a student.
Both the title to the thread and the title of the post are a bit flip, chosen because I thought they were funny. But there is a grain of truth. I certainly don't mean them as blanket statements. Without a relationship of trust no instructor/student relationship can work. But I hope that people think more and are more critical of who deserves their trust, rather than just believe that all dive pros are infallible.
Because we aren't. If there is any dive pro out there who has never ever taken someone out on a dive that person wasn't up for and later regretted it I would like to meet that pro. So I can call them a liar to their face or confirm that they've never actually worked in the field.
Last edited:
while I think this bit was a fun read, I do disagree with it.
Instructors that do "trust me" dives will not work for the shop i'm with for very long.
Standards and Procedures say open water dives don't exceed 60 feet. When "trust me" takes students to 80 feet that instructor will get fired.
We adhere to stupidly high standards for our instructional and professional staff. We make it a point to tell students that you pay us for a class (open water or advanced trimix or divemaster....doesn't matter). But you EARN a certification. Paying does not mean passing. I tell students all the time "you are not ready for x". I've lost customers who go elsewhere but we produce better divers, DMs and instructors.
and our instructors know that if they are not 100%, they should not be teaching in-water that day. Our instructor cadre backs each other up. Again, our internal standards are strict.
now I have to go crack the whip for this week's dive slaves
Instructors that do "trust me" dives will not work for the shop i'm with for very long.
Standards and Procedures say open water dives don't exceed 60 feet. When "trust me" takes students to 80 feet that instructor will get fired.
We adhere to stupidly high standards for our instructional and professional staff. We make it a point to tell students that you pay us for a class (open water or advanced trimix or divemaster....doesn't matter). But you EARN a certification. Paying does not mean passing. I tell students all the time "you are not ready for x". I've lost customers who go elsewhere but we produce better divers, DMs and instructors.
and our instructors know that if they are not 100%, they should not be teaching in-water that day. Our instructor cadre backs each other up. Again, our internal standards are strict.
now I have to go crack the whip for this week's dive slaves
DevonDiver
N/A
OP
And THAT is actually more the core thesis I was driving at.
Listen to the little angel on your shoulder. Even when it's saying something different that the instructor.
I have mixed feelings on the read, agreeing with some points and able to relate, and not so sure about the others. Looking back on my dive education, I've been lucky to have consistently great instructors, although I've seen some others who have been abysmal, and even DMed or tagged along with some of them. I've been on some stupendously bad guided dives, and one trip in particular led me to decide that if I'm going to survive, as well as my wife as my dive buddy, I really needed to become more capable, which led me down the DM path. In hindsight, it was definitely the right decision and has tremendously enhanced my diving enjoyment
Similar threads
