Why new divers looking into instructor and tech diving

[boulderjohn]

There are different paths to proficiency. Is a person who has 800 routine dives better than a person who has 150 dives with most of them under close supervision from a good instructor? Who is to say?

David Shaw set the depth record for diving with a rebreather when he had about 300 total logged dives. (I am going off the top of my head here.) If I recall correctly , his final dive was something like number 336. Sure, he died on that dive, but he was still doing something on that dive that I will never approach. When I had that number of dives, I was a relative beginner to the sport.

If a person follows a good program with good practice and dedication, that person can achieve agreat deal in very little time. If the instructor in charge of that program demands an acceptable level of achievement for certification, then what is the problem?

 

[DaleC]

I liked the OP for asking the question and TS&M for her insightful reply. This is a topic that has interested me for a while and could stand a little push back from a non industry perspective.

From my observed experience, people who dive for a reason do not get so hung up on achieving formal benchmarks or linear pathways unless those things add to their ability to perform the task they are pursuing.

Those who take up diving for diving's sake, tend to need some sort of external goal to keep them interested. The tech/dive professional pathway can be very seductive because it holds out the promise of recognition and validity. Everyone wants to feel they are more than the mundane, a little better than average, one of the "cool kids".

A few of those divers are destined to be good instructors or tech divers but for most the reality does not measure up to the imagery. DM's mainly baby sit new divers and have short crappy dives. Instructors spend most of their time at 30' doing fin pivots, tech divers spend a lot of money in order to spend a lot of time bored out of their skulls doing deco. Am I painting a purposefully negative image of those activities? Perhaps.. or perhaps not. The dive industry certainly goes out of it's way to paint an overly optimistic picture in order to sell equipment and training though.

Wouldn't it be great if prospective tech divers had to pay a high fee to watch a 5 minute clip of an old rusty wreck and then be forced to sit in a cold dark closet for eight hours.

My advice to anyone would be to find something of interest to do UW besides diving itself and pursue that towards excellence. The amount of dive training one needs will follow naturally from that.

 

[ArubaDiverJ]

As a new diver I have asked a similiar question to myself multiple times. I was certified in July and only have 6 dives logged to date. I went to a local dive shop today to ask a few questions and meet the owner. Currently living in New Jersey all of the diving off the coast required AOW cert bc of depth,currents and visibility. I asked whether or not he reccomended I get a few more dives under my belt before taking the AOW to go diving and his response was that the AOW will allow me to gain experience, learn new techniques and become more comfortable. The cert is done at a Lake in Pen. which has a max depth of 100', low visability and lots of sunken goodies. He didn't seem to try to be selling me the class becuase as we discussed equipment he even reccomended I do some research and find the best price and come back so he can beat it. I feel that he is correct as the more I learn and the earlier I learn it the better I can perfect those skills. In no way would I plan my own 100' dive with a buddy after gaining the cert but I feel that it will allow me to dive more often and work on the advanced skills with a DM or instructor.

 

[RonFrank]

I have dove with many a Scubaboard member, hundreds in fact. The ones that have staying power seem to get something out of diving that others do not. I will not try to define it but they are very happy underwater and they do not need to be on a 100' dive or at a exotic location. They all enjoy the diving. Many will end up instructing but they are not the ones who rush into training rather they are very relaxed as they are in it for the long haul. It is always interesting to see who has staying power but a lot of divers who were into it 5 years ago are gone.... Then there are those that stay, and you know that what ever they are doing, they are diving.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Ok let me ask, who are you to judge his skills? You say he would not pass his fundies, would you? I do not understand why someone has to be at a certain level of dives before they can learn skills. I am in a constant state of training in diving, and I will have my NAUI Intro to Tech, Cavern 1, Nitrox, DPV, and possibly cave 1 done by this coming Feb. I am currently doing my AOW, and have logged 20 cold water dives since May. So am I not ready? How will you improve without challenging yourself? It is like playing computer games on easy, sure fun, but you can't handle any escalation.

Not if you plan on actually learning anything.

 

[Kronek]

Not if you plan on actually learning anything.

I agree with you, by the end of October, I will likely have 20+ dives in, but have no intention to further my education until next spring with AOW, Wreck (2000+ wrecks in 100ft of water, yes please!) and maybe Night Diver. Thats crazy getting into cave and tech within a year. :S

 

[EastEndDiver]

Guess its some of the same reasons why some people join special forces instead of "regular army"..

In the U.S. military you have be part of the Regular Army/Service before you can volunteer for Special Force training,you first have to meet the standards/guidelines ,once you are accepted and start training you can be dropped from training anytime and for pretty much any reason it is the instructors call.My point is that scuba DM/Instructor training is nothing like that, a lot of agencies have the "Pay your money get your cert." attitude and push through Dive masters and Instructors who have NO place teaching or supervising people in the water.

 

[jar546]

In the U.S. military you have be part of the Regular Army/Service before you can volunteer for Special Force training,you first have to meet the standards/guidelines ,once you are accepted and start training you can be dropped from training anytime and for pretty much any reason it is the instructors call.My point is that scuba DM/Instructor training is nothing like that, a lot of agencies have the "Pay your money get your cert." attitude and push through Dive masters and Instructors who have NO place teaching or supervising people in the water.

Agencies do not, bad instructors do and all agencies have bad instructors. Agencies set standards, instructors are the ones evaluating and working with DM candidates.

 

[DevonDiver]

Ok let me ask, who are you to judge his skills? You say he would not pass his fundies, would you?

I don't need to be an Olympian sprinter to understand that this guy won't be giving Usain Bolt a run for his money...



Joking aside, the person to judge the skills, ultimately, will be the technical instructor. There is (should be) a robust pre-assessment before any technical diving course - the aim of which is to determine the base skills and mindset of the potential student in respect of their suitability for training.

Done properly, the process of pre-assessment and ethical adherence to the highest standard of performance requirements should ensure that no student progresses into/through technical training without the ability to match the dives they'll be certified to do.

Sadly, as technical diving becomes 'the in thing' and is marketed to the moon by the bigger, non-specialist tech, agencies - it is increasingly likely that future generations of technical instructors won't be 'doing things properly'. I've noticed a new tendency in the industry to promote tech programs to instructors/centers as a means for profitability. Will it be long before every dollar-counting dive store owner and fluff-chinned zero-to-hero instructor is fast-tracking themselves up the tech ladder?

 

[EastEndDiver]

Agencies do not, bad instructors do and all agencies have bad instructors. Agencies set standards, instructors are the ones evaluating and working with DM candidates.

It is the agencies not the instructors that have "watered down" their requirements so much in the last 30 or so years.Altho there definatly are bad instructors out there adding to the problem.