Hats off to Instructors - I don't know how you do it

[paschen]

I never fully understood what instructors go through teaching - making sure everyone comes out alive etc while still making people feel like they have accomplished something. I truly do not know how you do it.
Backstory:
Vis was 1-2m on the weekend and I was happy to tag along on a dive (3 AdvOW students who were "practising" their navigation while the instructor did the last two OW dives for an OW student). Any excuse to get wet!
The dive plan was as follows:
East till hit pipe - go out around pipe, back in then West to second pipe - out to end - here the 3 Adv OW students would go North about another 15m do a square and come back in - while I, the instructor and OW student hung at the end of the pipe playing with buoyancy etc.
Plan the dive and dive the plan - right? Wrong.
The 3 Adv OW students kept finning off super fast all over the place and not staying close to eachother. The instructor was dragging the poor student with us as we tried to catch up to them and make them go nice and slow. We got to the point where they were to do their navigation exercise. I was buddied up on the fly by the instructor with one of the guys.
We lasted as a 4 for all of 2 minutes when my buddy went off flat out in the wrong direction.
I played chasie all over the bottom with him - finning like crazy while pulling myself along to keep him in sight. He was obviously hopelessly lost, but refused to admit he didn't know how to use his compass (even though he had done a navigation dive - no visibility makes you realise you don't know more than good vis I think).
Anyway. I draw a map of the site. I write the direction we need to take to get us back to the Pipe (which goes out 30m and we will hit if we take that direction). I show him on my compass, line him up and he is off again like a bat out of hell. Within moments his consol is dragging behind him, he is off line and shortly after we are again heading in the complete opposite direction with me chasing after him finning and pulling for all I am worth.
Without notice he surfaces (into a main boat traffic channel). I am now over the frustrated emotion and genuinely concerned for his safety. I very carefully surface and find him lining himself up with the pipe entrance - just as I get close enough to talk to him, he goes down without even giving me a glance, let alone telling me he is going down.
He doesn't descend fin first, he goes head down, gets turned around and is off going in the opposite direction again.
I am not very annoyed and also very worried because I want to call this dive and get the hell back to shore especially as I know his air was half of mine when we started the navigation exercise - I was now at 110bar and he would be at the most 50bar due to panicing etc - most of the traffic is pleasure boats (read "no idea how to handle a boat") and we are now WAY out of dive marker range. I chase and chase and chase and chase only to see his fins head upwards - surfacing again into the main channel. Before he could descend again I informed him we were swimming back on the surface - his air was now 35bar and was refusing to listen to me on compass work or to fin slower to reduce air consumption. He then swam off full speed, again leaving me behind. I yelled out at the top of my voice STOP to my buddy. He stopped and yelled back "You having difficulties swimming?" I couldn't have murdered him. I catch up to him and tell him even on the surface we should be sticking together. I suggest we practise using the compass on the surface to get back to shore... He says "I don't like to use my compass." Shoot me now.
We get back to shore and the instructor is visably relieved and trying to put a positive spin on it, but I tell you this - how in the world do you deal with people like that day in and day out? With hindsight, I think the dive should have been called as soon as it was evident that they AdvOW students weren't using their compasses. IMO, he did the right thing by putting me with him as his primary duty of care was to his OW student and theoretically the AdvOW students SHOULD know how to handle themselves underwater.
So hats off to Instructors and Guides who put up with wankers day in and day out.

 

[ItsBruce]

There is a thread around here that started off dealing with a summary I once did about dive buddies. It's called the Dive Buddy Creed. After some comments, I modified it to include that if my buddy damages living coral, the rest of the divers on the dive can divide up his gear. Someone complained that whenever the group divides up someone's gear, he always ends up getting the lead weights instead of anything good. The latest comment was to imagine the knucklehead on the boat who, before he even gets in the water, is covered with adhesive tape identifying who gets what items of his gear when he does not come back alive. ... It sounds like you were diving with that guy!

Seriously, though, some advice for you: While it is important to stay with your buddy, don't endanger yourself by trying to protect a buddy who puts the both of you in great peril. Not only are you endangering yourself, you may be making it hard for the rescuers. First, you you may need to be the one to summon them. And, even if someone else summons help, you don't want the rescuers to have to divide their attention between two divers in trouble.

 

[TSandM]

I've had a couple of dives where I've gone out with brand new divers, and the variety of problems I've encountered and tried to help with have given me a profound respect for diving instructors. I even sort of understand why they teach skills with the students on their knees . . . at least if they are on their knees, they are still UNDER water!

 

[verona]

Paschen said: "So hats off to Instructors and Guides who put up with wankers day in and day out."

I couldn't possibly comment! ROFL!

 

[rottielover]

I agree, Kudos to all instructors, DM's, etc...

I remember durring our OW class, one of the gals in the class actually said (refering to the tables and NDL's) "Oh, well I don't care, I'll just have him [her boyfried] worry about this stuff, I just want to have fun" .... Needless to say every jaw in the room hit the floor. But instead of being judgemental, or harsh or any of the things I would have been, the instructor and DM took extra time after class ended to talk with her, and help her understand what it is she needed to know and why!

Major Kudo's guys

 

[wreckchick]

I'll put the positive spin on this...

If that's what I had to deal with every day, I'd be in a cubicle somewhere and happy about it. The vast majority of divers are honestly good people who are thoughtful, attentive, and basically non-wankers. I had a student this morning who was an absolute natural in the water. She did everything I asked of her and just excelled at it. That's why I teach and dive and guide dives and live the dream

Rachel

 

[boulderjohn]

I was a school teacher for about a quarter century, and I assure you that anyone who has taught can provide a long list of stories of student behaviors that will astonish you. New teachers generally have more trouble than experienced teachers because they are frozen by this astonishment and aren't sure of the most appropriate response. Veterans have a reservoir of experience, so they have a better idea of what works and what doesn't work.

Scuba Instructing is similar, but from my admittedly limited instructing experience, it has an advantage in that a lot of the same problems tend to show up repeatedly. An instructor can build up an arsenal of proper responses pretty quickly.

I have watched many an instructor handle challenging situations in ways that made me applaud silently. I learn from that every time, and I carry those memories with me for when they happen to me.

 

[AndyNZ]

Paschen said: "So hats off to Instructors and Guides who put up with wankers day in and day out."

I couldn't possibly comment! ROFL!

Nor me!!

Some comments from my last O/W course from a pair of lads dubbed (in private!) as "Bill and Ted"...

"Is it ok to kill fish? I don't want to eat them, just shoot them with a speargun"
"Does the boat get attacked by sharks very often?"

One of them pretended to be dead on a dive, by lying face down on the bottom and not moving... they surreptitiously tried to drink and eat underwater when I wasn't watching (my DM saw and gave them a good bollocking).

Yes, we do deal with wankers on a day to day basis... but like biscuit said, most students have a genuine desire to learn, listen to what you say and come up from their dives buzzing. On the same course as Bill and Ted, I had a middle aged lady who'd had a nightmare in the pool and wasn't too sure she wanted to do the open water dives.... she loved it, had an awesome time and now I can't stop her phoning and asking when I'm organising a dive trip!