Instructor qual's?

[GoBlue!]

Just curious- what are the things you would ask an instructor prior to selecting one to teach a course on alternate gas courses (whether Nitrox, Trimix, etc.)?

Jim

[GoBlue!]

Oops- this was supposed to be a reply in another thread. My apologies. If the moderators can move it to "Trimix - TDI vs. IANTD" started by "the_dumper," great....if not, I guess I'll leave it as a standalone question for a new thread. :)

Jim

[jbd]

its a good stand alone question so I'm choosing to leave it here.

[CincyBengalsFan]

GoBlue! once bubbled...
Just curious- what are the things you would ask an instructor prior to selecting one to teach a course on alternate gas courses (whether Nitrox, Trimix, etc.)?

Jim

Diving experience, Teaching experience, get to know his or her attitude. Make sure they are not into the "agency bashing, etc.".

Maybe find out if they are the gas blender or not...

[flw]

GoBlue! once bubbled...
Just curious- what are the things you would ask an instructor prior to selecting one to teach a course on alternate gas courses (whether Nitrox, Trimix, etc.)?

Jim

Wouldnt' worry too much about nitrox, however for trimix I'd want to know how long he'd been teaching whatever course, how many students, how much diving of that type he'd done himself - both whilst teaching and while diving for pleasure - while doing that their own attitude becomes apparant - if possible speak to ex-students to find out what they thought of the course. It's surprising how inactive many instructors really are when you pin them down
Personally I think that doing a course in conditions similar to those you are going to be diving back home is important, but not essential - I chose to do a lot of my training in Scapa for partly that reason.
What you are looking for is an instructor who has already seen any CF you are likely to make before and pre-empt you before you do something which will put you at risk - you want him to have already made all the mistakes in advance for you, can explain why x is better than y etc etc

[Atticus]

I've worked with two tech instructors. I found that the one that actually goes out and does a lot of tech diving on his own dime had more experience to share, and was more open to discussions about why we do things as opposed to just "do it this way because".

One thing that I found particularly frustrating was the amount of disinformation flying around when I started down this path.

Such gems as "Apeks DS4 regs are not satisfactory for tech diving, and below 100 ft they won't deliver enough gas".

Advice: ask around and find people who are actually doing and understand what it is that you would like to do. Don't get sucked into any particular religion. Learn from those more experienced than yourself, but make your own choices based on what makes sense to you. Always keep an open mind.

Cheers,
Merlin