How much experience does your instructor have?

[bigken462]

Zero to hero usually equals to nothing more than card collectors. Give me an old salt, who has seen about every type of common problem, and has experienced and mitigated real emergencies, not just read about them while sitting on the crapper.

I'm 10 years into my diving, and only now would even consider taking a DM or instructor course. You have been given some great advise above. Mine maybe not so good, but I would simply enjoy a few years of active diving - not seasonal vacation splashes etc, and as your experience grows, so will the foundation needed to (as far as diving goes) properly, and safely take on the responsibility of someone else's life.

Take it with a grain of salt. This comes from the same person (me) who spent two weeks of receiving a hailstorm of e-mails cause I thought after 10 years of diving, I was ready to attach a stage to my rig. Sometimes we just don't have the game going we thought we did. Go dive and have fun. Heck if your in Alabama come dive with me so we can both have fun. Lol

Kenny

 

[Thalassamania]

It depends on the person. In most cases I'd expect that it takes about 500 dives, or so, to season an instructor to the point that they've seen most of what they need to, have dealt with most of what they have to, and have stuck it out long enough to have become who they are going to be. But that's not always the case. I can think of one individual who learned to dive one semester (20 dives) dove most weekends over the summer (20 dives), took the Assistant Team leader progam in the fall (10 dives), helped teach in the spring (20 dives), dove over the summer and fall (40 dives) and then lead a team in the spring course. With only about 110 dives under his weight belt he was about as good as I've ever seen.

 

[dwhthediver]

I am finishing my rescue diver this weekend and will be signing up for dive master next week, I have about 60 dives in clear ocean water to a max depth of 110ft. I will be taking the IANTD/TDI adv nitrox/deep diver course immediately after DM.

How much experience and what type of experience would you all feel I should have before taking my instructor cert? I do not feel qualified to teach yet even if I took all the courses required. am looking for the old salt threashold factor. what factors besides what they teach you in class make you a respected proper instructor?

First let me say congratulations on starting divemaster, now let me say, unfortunately, logged dives are the only yardstick that the certifying agencies have to gauge experience, but it is not an accurate yardstick. You need to ask yourself are you ready? Do you feel able to be not only a teacher, but a mentor. Do you have not only the ability, but the confidence, to make divers out of students, not just people that have cards, but divers. I went right from divemaster into assistant instructor, but I waited a year after becoming an AI to help with classes, learn from instructors that I respected, and get the feeling that I was ready to take the next step. The fact that you are asking, and worry about being ready indicates to me that when you know the time is right, and you do become an instructor, you will be a good one, because you care enough to ask questions, and want to make sure you are ready, not just collect a card. I will tell you this, when you get your DM card, help with as many classes as you can, watch and learn from the instructors you work with, and remember what they do well, and what they don't, figure out a better way to do it. Diving like life, is a journey, not a destination.

 

[rjack321]

For every example like this, there is an equal and opposite example. I know someone who was a school teacher, specifically with troubled, difficult students, who became a dive instructor with almost the minimal number of dives to qualify. A safe, skilled, and considerate individual who is an excellent SCUBA instructor IMO.

See I don't think the relationship is even close to 1:1. I think the majority of instructors are baboons. I know my OW, AOW, nitrox and rescue instructors were.

The OP has almost no diving experience. Yes he could probably teach a student to swim around underwater right now, but that won't be making "divers" just more baboons.

 

[TSandM]

See, I wouldn't call my early instructors baboons. They were simply people who had never seen someone with really beautiful in-water skills, and they hadn't been exposed to the amount of information that is out there about diving. They were trained by people like them, and they had a certain image of what good technique was and what was possible. I would have been one of them, had I not gotten lucky.

 

[shoredivr]

See, I wouldn't call my early instructors baboons. They were simply people who had never seen someone with really beautiful in-water skills, and they hadn't been exposed to the amount of information that is out there about diving. They were trained by people like them, and they had a certain image of what good technique was and what was possible. I would have been one of them, had I not gotten lucky.

Once again, a classy post.

When I grow up, I want to post like TS and M.

 

[Rhone Man]

Once again, a classy post.

When I grow up, I want to post like TS and M.

I hope that I never actually grow up, but I know where you are coming from.

 

[Thalassamania]

... They were trained by people like them, and they had a certain image of what good technique was and what was possible....

That's really key. Most divers become who their instructors are and in doing so reinforce their Instructors' world view. Given the rather insular nature of the LDS system, face it ... there's not a whole lot of interchange, you often wind up with some rather delusional systems of thinking that are not open to discussion and query. We were lucky at the university because we also ran the branch ITC, and other branch programs, so there was a regular influx of outside people. I made sure that this happened after I took a group of my junior staff to one of the major dive shows. One of our assistant team leaders came up to me after a few hours of looking around and asked, in all seriousness, "I don't understand this ... how do these people pass their annual diving physical?" Right then and there I realized that we had to get out more and that I needed to bring more "outsiders" in.

 

[Peter Guy]

SailNaked -- I hope you take much of the advice that has been provided -- and here is some more from my personal experiences.

I started my DM program after I'd had about 100 dives -- well I didn't really start the program but I paid my money and actually started it about 6 months, and another 70 dives later. I then "took it easy" and took a year to complete the program -- and another 180 dives. By the time I was finished, I believe I had had enough "experiences" to be a competent assistant to an instructor (which was what I wanted to do).

A year, and another 150 dives or so, I'm getting ready to do my IDC/IE and I believe I'll be a good OWSI.

But what were my other experiences while doing this?

A. I learned about cave diving (and am now Full Cave trained).

B. I learned a lot about Deco Theory through workshops, reading and doing some tech training (and am now "certified" to use Helium within "recreational depths").

C. I got a boat and have learned a lot about diving off a private boat (something that is important where I live, Puget Sound area).

D. I've dived a lot -- and in many different places and different conditions -- warm water tropics, caves, off charter boats in California, Washington and British Columbia -- and lots of shore dives.

In other words, I've been able to do a lot of diving with many different experiences. I think I can safely say that, at some point, they will ALL help me -- and I know that as an instructor I will need them all -- and then some!

So, SailN, here's a question for you:

You have come to the LDS and want to take a class and you are provided with two possible instructors -- me, with the dive history listed above, or someone who has less than 200 dives, all of them at five local dive sites. Which one would YOU want teaching you?

 

[Blackwood]

See, I wouldn't call my early instructors baboons. They were simply people who had never seen someone with really beautiful in-water skills, and they hadn't been exposed to the amount of information that is out there about diving. They were trained by people like them, and they had a certain image of what good technique was and what was possible. I would have been one of them, had I not gotten lucky.

That's just a nice way of saying "monkey see, monkey do."



So what's a baboon?