Your Best Instructor and Why:

[Thalassamania]

Lloyd Austin, he taught me that the impossible was easy with enough practice.
Walt Hendricks Sr., he taught me to always look at the problems that were hiding under the problem you staring fixedly at.
Lee Somers, he taught me that it was OK to always carry a folding Buck Knife.
Jim Stewart, he taught me where I came from.
Every one of my students, from entry level through instructor and cross over candidates, each taught me something that I’d never have thought of without them.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Larry Brown.
If you know him or have had him, you know what I mean. That's all I have to say.

 

[suess13]

It's a Small world, I was also certified by steve matheny in 2000, I heard he passed away and found the obit. but never learned what happened. Wes Skiles also died during a dive off of west palm a few years on a rebreather. If you haven't not watch the river returns documentary it's a must see, Wes Skiles tracks back the St Johns river and it's source.


Jeff

 

[TSandM]

I'm glad this got revived.

Looking back over seven years, and a whole LOT of classes on various topics, from various agencies, I'd have to say that my vote, in the end, would go to Joe Talavera. Joe not only had a fantastic understanding of diving concepts, and fabulous diving skills, and the ability to make learning and training hysterical fun as well as a great learning experience -- he had a keen understanding of the temperaments of the people he taught. His feedback to us at the end of our Rec3 class had almost nothing to do with the execution of any particular skill, and everything to do with what he saw as our personal strengths and weaknesses as they came into play in diving. I miss Joe -- the whole diving world is a bit poorer for having lost him as an instructor.

Second to Joe is Danny Riordan, who was my Cave 1 instructor. NOBODY on the planet is more detail-oriented than Danny, or holds higher standards. But you never lose the feeling that he believes you CAN do it, and he cares a great deal about his students.

 

[rongoodman]

Although I have done most of my cave training with Nando at Protec, and enjoyed every minute of it, the guy who was my initial model for what I wanted to be able to do in the water was Ed Hayes at Scuba Shack in Hartford.

 

[eelnoraa]

My best instructor is between Don, Rob and Susan. I can't pick one because all are so fantastic. I read a lot of Andrew Georgitsis. I really want to take a class from him tho.

 

[Searcaigh]

Good to see a thread like this revived, it started before I joined SB.

One of the best instructors I ever had is Ray Smith. Very strict with Rescue and justifiably so, but fun too, with multiple scenarios to really test the student. Both his DMs at the time were well over 6' tall and built like brick sh!thouses, and I am a mere 5'7". They frequently played drowning victims at the most random of times and made me more aware of how other divers/swimmers behave.

His courses always had an emphasis on fun but with safety as a key concern. He was consistent in the way he taught everyone, and many expats in Jeddah during the early 90s passed through his capable hands.

Unfortunately Ray was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident in which he was a passenger in Jeddah back in 1995, I have lost touch with him after he was transported back to the UK.

A key person who taught me a lot about U/W photography is Kevin Metcalfe, and although an instructor I never took any formal class with him, we are good friends and he was my mentor during my transition from Nikonos V to a housed SLR, probably the most expensive change in my diving career, but his ability to make stuff for housings (e.g. ports) lessened the effect on my finances, as well as processing a lot of my slides at the time.

Another "instructor" that have helped me during the years is Bill Gladstone, Australian marine biologist who lived in Jeddah for a few years. He taught me a lot about fish behaviour, which also helped me with my photography.

And I am still learning, from my experience in diving with other people and reading things online in particular on SB.

 

[Griffo]

My Fundies instructor Nick Schoeffler. If for no other reason than he had the necessary patience to take two novice OW divers and somehow in only a few days teach us how to actually dive. Before that I think we just bobbed around in the water. The only way I can think to equate it is that prior we were like kids in a bumper car ride. Now we drive on the road between the lanes. I hope one day to get good enough to go for my racing license (tech1 pass).

The instructors at Master Divers were all top quality too - very thorough, obviously loved diving, and never treated any of the courses like it was a factory, you could tell they wanted you to learn.

My Nav and Nitrox instructors were very average.

 

[Dr Dog]

I have only really ran into 3 instructors that were in the water with me

1. Beth Reedy, Pirate Island Divers Key Largo. Did my discover, and was amazing at showing me everything she could and making sure I got out of FLA alive, or at least unbent.
2. Jim LaPenta, for taking the time to weight me properly, and then insist we do some basic diver rescue skills
3. Matt Mandziuk, Dans Dive Shop my current instructor, who may have stopped short of holding me down to drink the DIR kool aid, but is the reason I am where i am in my diving skills

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'd have to go with Snowbear's initial response in this thread ... Uncle Pug. He isn't a dive instructor ... he's a coach, mentor, friend and ultimate dive buddy. His patience, humor, knowledge, and friendship helped define who I became as a diver and a dive instructor.

I'd also have to give huge props to Joe Talavera. Joe so impressed me that I once told him he was the dive instructor I aspired to someday become. His reply ... "just be yourself" ... has guided my path ever since.

I owe both of those guys more than I can express in terms of what they taught me about scuba diving that wasn't in any class's curriculum.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)