Nothing personal... but you took a SM Instructor course, to learn what Jeff Loflin teaches new SM students, and how to teach those same skills; without any practical experience under your belt?
No, I didn't say that. In fact, I had to reread what I wrote earlier - I was afraid I had mistated. I was already diving SM based on earlier interactions with Jeff, before taking the course with him. More to the point, I considered my BM doubles experience to be much more relevant (and substantial). Without that, I certainly wouldn't have pursued the instructor course.
I wouldn't take a Cavern class, from a brand new Cave Diver.
You might not. I might not, either (and didn't). But, more than a few people do (from new cave divers who get certified as Cavern Instructors), safely and successfully. But, I am not sure if that is the best analogy.
I would just encourage you to dive sidemount for considerably longer, before teaching it to others.
And, I fully appreciate where you are coming from, and the positive spirit of the comment. But, reasonable people can disgaree. So, let's do. And, this is an internet bulletin board. There is nothing personal about any of it. First of all, sidemount is a gear configuration. SM is neither rocket science nor brain surgery. Drysuit diving actually may be a more difficult learning experience than sidemount. Unlike deep, certainly cave, or CCR where you are diving in a different environment, or with a very different set of gear, SM per se is not defined by a unique environment, notwithstanding its origins in cave exploration. In addition, anyone who has a body of experience with BM doubles has been exposed to much of the core of SM - gas management, redundant buoyancy, trim considerations, emergency procedures, etc. It is more a matter of where you wear your tanks, and the fact that you have independent gas supplies which must be managed during a dive, rather than a single supply from two tanks connected with a manifold. For that matter, anyone who has strapped on two deco bottles has actually been exposed to sidemount. Anyone who routinely dives a larger (30 – 40 cf) slung pony bottle and uses it underwater has been exposed to SM. I am not trying to belittle SM at all, rather just acknowledging the reality of what it is. The instructional core is a) the determination of which of the elements of the configuration and diving style are critical to successful and safe diving, b) defining learning objectives on the basis of that determination, and c) organizing instruction in such a way as to meet those objectives. I would love to say that there is an intrinsic core of unique science, that clearly sets SM apart. But, that would be exaggeration.
Second, what we wanted to know was how Jeff presented the core body of knowledge. Yes, we also wanted to know what he considered the body of knowledge to be, so we could compare it to what I perceived. (And, yes, I wanted some answers to specific gear questions – things as trivial as optimal alignment of the bolt snaps on the tanks, for example, or why he uses bungee cord for the deco bottle attachments, and static line for the mains.) We weren't taking the course to learn sidemount. The practical experience that I considered most relevant was not so much the 10 SM dives I had done before doing the course, but the substantially greater number of BM doubles dives I had done before that. I certainly don't consider myself an 'expert' diver, in SM, or even. There is always something new to learn. But, I worry about the instructor who does.
‘Practical experience’ is an interesting concept. For many years, I was a CPR Instructor-Trainer. And, I was effective. Notably, the primary qualification to become an IT was to complete an IT development course. And, like most CPR Instructors, and Instructor-Trainers, I had (and have) never performed CPR on an actual patient, although I have had people that I trained do so. The argument could be made that I didn’t have the ‘practical experience’ to be an IT. Using that criteria, very few CPR ITs are qualified. But, they are doing the training of Instructors, who are doing the training of ....
Nitrox is example of another aspect of what constitutes necessary ‘practical experience’. When I took the course 10 years ago it was two evenings of academics, and two dives. Now, we teach it in a single 4 hour academic session, and that is more than enough because we realize that the core body of knowledge is fairly straightforward. And, I don't think having 150 nitrox dives necessarily makes me a better instructor than a shop colleague who has 25 (although I do think having experience with a variety of mixes in deeper, deompression diving does help me as an instructor).
I am genuinely curious - What do you consider ‘appropriate sidemount training’? Again, I am interested in the opinions of others. I have my own views, based primarily on my BM experience. I obviously know what is in the Distinctive Specialty. What do you think should be in the training?
Third, as for watering down the market, I am not altogether sure what the market is, that could be diluted. I don’t see a lot of people clamoring for recreational sidemount training. In our area, among the three primary shops, ours does much of the technical dive training, and that has been all in BM to date. And, there is a chasm between that level of training, and the recreational divers who want to gain more experience, but aren't ready to pursue full technical training. There hasn’t been particular interest in SM in our scuba club until the two of us that worked with Jeff in January started 'talking it up'. If anything, we are expanding the market, certainly the ultimate market for technical training, by helping recreational divers consider a feasible, practical, and orderly transition to double tank diving. Most of the SM divers in the area are DIYers, without formal training in SM. After we did a club presentation last month, I had another instructor in the shop, who I have known for a long time, inside scuba and out, tell me he had been sidemounting for a couple of years, on a DIY basis. I had no idea, nor was he aware of what I had been doing. There really isn’t a market there to dilute. Now, do I consider Jeff, for example, to be a more knowledgeable SM instructor than I? Absolutely. Am I siphoning off divers who would otherwise drive 12 hours to do a course with him. Hardly. Am I making it more difficult for Jeff to provide SM training to others? Not at all.
Fourth, and not justifying whether 37 dives is enough ‘practical experience’, we have people teaching scuba who self-certify as an Instructor in a particular specialty solely on the basis of having done 20 dives in that specialty – no specific training as an instructor in the specialty. And, some seem to do a good job (and some probably do a piss poor job). But, that is the nature of instruction. In scuba, as in virtually every other discipline, there is a strong element of ‘see one, do one, teach one’. That is reality. And, I almost hate to say it, but it works. A lot of private pilots receive their flight instruction from young, relatively inexperienced, instructors who have just finshed their CFI (including more than a few 'zero to hero' types). I lot of undergraduate students receive instruction from young, relatively inexperienced (and unskilled, as teachers) graduate students. A lot first year medical residents receive a lot of practical training from a lot of second year residents.
As a general principle, a good teacher - of anything - gets better over time. With added experience – both as a doer and a teacher - they learn new ways of doing things, improve techniques, acquire ‘tricks of the trade’, etc. So, I wouldn’t argue that after 50 SM dives I will probably be better than I am after 37, and after 100 I will probably be better than I will be after 50. But, frankly, the steepest part of the learning curve was the first 5. And, yes, there is always the element of, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’ Now, where I would possibly agree: I don’t think someone could effectively consider teaching SM without a technical / doubles diving background. For me, that is the practical experience that allows me to share sidemount with others.
