Need a boost a faith for the wife and diving

[drrich2]

A number of people have described what I've heard termed a 'dual relationship' - these are often problematic. Examples are the old warning not to hire relatives as employees, and an ethical concern when Physicians treat family members. No matter how you may try to be her teacher, buddy or friend, you are your husband. And there are couple dynamics that will be in play. There will be interpersonal relationship baggage in the background regardless of how unaware of it you guys may be.

She may be more antsy at the prospect of disappointing you than an instructor. Less confident in your ability to help her be safe & learn, yet unable to tell you so. Her learning style may be different from how you think & do things - I tried to tutor my wife a bit with some college courses she was taking, and we think differently, which can be a problem. Put an independent 'reader' with someone who likes lectures with a blackboard and you've got trouble.

I've been following this thread & I'd like to hear how your class & first few post-cert. dives go. We can speculate, but I'd like to know how it turns out.

Richard.

 

[Steve_C]

I'm going to toss one more thing into the mix. I have a buddy who is an instructor in a couple different agencies and would dive anywhere in any conditions as long as it was not (too) dangerous.

His wife liked to dive but was an 80-80-80 diver. 80 ft of viz. 80 degree water. Not more than 80 ft deep. They dove together on vacations in warm sunny places. Otherwise he dove with other folks.

I like it all. But there are lots of divers, men and women, who don't like rough boat rides, low viz, cold water, etc etc.

If it fits within the budget, once she is certified, and has done a couple practice dives afterwards at Rawlings, go down to the Keys and let her do a few dives that are what most divers visualize diving as being. Shallow water. Pretty fish. Warm seas.

Better to have a WWWW (Warm water wuss wife) to dive with on vacations then one who does not dive at all.

Folks drink champagne on their honeymoons. Why not do some champagne diving at the start of her dive career and then after she is getting hooked on diving see how she likes the Va Beach/NC diving.

Just a thought