Raising the Bar - certification verses training

[MtnPlayVA]

Excellent post and you have a very wise father

You will make a great instructor because you have the right attitude and really truly care.

 

[Dive_Geek]

"Raising the bar" is what the agencies I've trained with over the last three years are all about. It's daunting when you find out where the bar can be . . . But man, does it make diving more fun when you try to get there.

After almost a year of lurking and reading here, I have come to enjoy, as most people your contributions to this board.

I am myself not a DIR diver. I know quite a few and have a lot of respect for them. I do try to take some fundamental dive principals taught by GUE and other agencies such as non-silting kick, exceptional buoyancy and buddy skills and apply them to my dive resume.

I do not believe however that one needs to be DIR to "raise the bar", this is an individual choice to seek to become the best and most knowledgeable diver one can be, regardless of what training envelope he is under.

 

[Dive_Geek]

You posted that folks/society would be better off "if people were more concerned with getting actual training and learning rather than just getting certified." Maybe this is partly true, but what exactly is "actual training and learning"? If it's taking class after class I'm not sure I agree. I believe experience counts, and large amounts of formal training is NOT required to gain experience and learn.

I fully agree and did not intend to make my post sound like formal training is the only way to learn. Quite the contrary. In my own diving pursuits I have learned far more through actually diving with good buddies and mentors than I have learned in the classroom.

I was speaking more to the attitude of learning. There is a difference between a diver who seeks to learn for his own personal growth and knowledge and one who is essentially a card seeker. The former would seek out dive information from multiple sources, such as forums like this one, other dive books available, actual diving, mentors and more. They have the raise the bar attitude that I was suggesting as they have an inherent desire within themselves to improve on existing skills and develop new ones. This can be done formally in a classroom or informally by any means possible.

Card seekers who are more concerned with the card than learning the principals behind the cards are the divers who I put in the minimalist category. Most of the time they can be likened to the people who buy expensive houses or calls merely in an effort to show off. I have heard on several occasions people brag about the number of dives they have, or the level of training they have, or the shiny new Master Diver card they carry.

For many diving tends to bring out an elitists attitude. A way to brag or show off or try to prove they are better divers than another. Often these people are not as good as they claim to be and even if they are, to what point does it serve to flaunt it or continually point it out? Diving is a sport where an honest, realistic self appraisal of your own limits and abilities can be the difference between life and death.

 

[chs8084]

I agree with the initial post- I am OW and AOW certified but still consider myself a relative newbie and continue to seek opportunities for both more training but also local practice so that I can progress in my skills. I love being underwater but I know that I still have work to do.

 

[Dive_Geek]

I applaud you attitude of quality.

However, I'd submit that there is a fine line between waiting until qualified & ready to advance, and, waiting until comfortable & stale.

The best skill progression occurs when you're challenged. Don't wait too long.


All the best, James

Thank you, that is very useful to keep in mind and part of the point of my whole post. Raising the bar entails precisely that, to keep striving to improve. I enjoy a challenge and certainly won't shy away from one. I do however also want to be honest in regards to my own skills and limits. Pushing and challenging yourself is one thing, pushing yourself beyond your limits to the point of recklessness is another. Every diver needs to have the ability to delineate where that line is for them.

 

[Dive_Geek]

What an excellent first post! Quality posts are needed on this board to be heard above all the noise. I hope you will do more posting than lurking from now on. Since you've set the bar highly with this post, keep it up, and keep setting the standard for providing information higher as your participation and experience grows. Thanks. Really awesome comparison!

Want to be an instructor?

Thanks, I have really enjoyed reading this board over the past year since I stumbled across it. The reason I have never posted before yesterday was there was always a feeling of there are so many others out here with so much more experience than I who would be a better choice to offer advice.

Diving with its multiple levels of course training options also tends to lead to diver categorization. You have your tech divers, rec divers, DIR divers, AOW, ect ect. Such divisions often form cliques much like a high school with the categorization of jocks, geeks and the like. I have always been the type that despite the fact I am confident in my diving abilities and know that I have invested a lot of time in becoming what I believe is a good diver, can still acknowledge that there are others who are well beyond me and that in the grand scheme of things I am still a student of diving myself and will be so until the day I die.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Dive Geek ... fantastic first post and attitude. From what you've written I'll agree with your instructor ... you are ready. Being a good instructor is as much about understanding your limitations as it is about understanding your strengths and knowledge ... because it helps you put what you are trying to teach into a context that your students will relate to.

One of the advantages of being a NAUI instructor is that you are allowed ... even encouraged ... to raise the bar. Put the practical knowledge you've gained from diving into what you teach. Encourage your students to go above the minimums, and explain to them ... as you have to us ... why it's important.

Diving needs more instructors who do that.

When I became a DM, my course director advised me to seek out good instructors, and work with as many of them as possible to pick up "tricks" for teaching. That turned out to be excellent advice. When I became an instructor, I had all those tools in my toolbox. About the time I completed my instructor's training, I also took a GUE Fundamentals class. It wasn't because I wanted to become a particular type of diver, necessarily ... it was because I wanted to learn what they could teach me about "raising the bar". And it proved to be a good investment, because it not only helped me discover some limitations I hadn't been aware of, but it helped me learn ... firsthand ... an approach to teaching that I hadn't previously been exposed to. Both of those things made me a better instructor.

Just some thoughts. I think with your attitude you'll make a really good instructor. Just try to avoid letting it become a "routine" ... no matter what you learn or how much you know, always keep trying to raise that bar. It'll not only make you a better instructor and diver, it'll help keep diving exciting and fresh ... which becomes increasingly important as you begin spending more and more of your bottom time working with newer divers.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[DCBC]

I am similar. With my assistant instructing, as well as it will be when I take the jump to full instruction, is simply a part time engagement. I have my primary full time job, and just teach evenings and weekends. I make a bit of money but my primary reason for doing so is for the love of diving and teaching.

At any rate most of the money I do make just goes right back into gear purchases anyway.

Great attitude. When you make the jump I'm sure you will ensure that your students are trained properly. Good luck!

 

[Dr Neil]

Making the jump to the instructor level requires more than just a minimum number of dives. The key is can the "instructor" teach... and teaching goes well beyond the recitation of material and drilling student fro a cue card prompt.
Not only must someone at the instructor level have the knowledge and skill set, they must be a "student of the game" as well.
A good teacher can observe and correct a student's areas of weakness. The teaching side of an instructor separates the average instructor from a great instructor.
For a comparison, the overall number of athletes in any given sport who make the move to coaching are relatively few. Yes, they can play the game, but teaching someone to play the game is a whole different set of skills.

 

[GrandpaScuba]

... As this particular student had been in other classes (advanced and rescue) that we had offered we knew him quite well. Both of us were of the opinion that this student was not ready for the course...

You say he wasn't ready. But it seems he took the prerequisite courses from your store. It seems to me you should be questioning why someone your store certified as having these skills, didn't have them?