I wish my instructor would have...

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mathauck0814

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Vermont, California, Australia and the Upper Keys
In another thread, we momentarily spun out down the path of things we'd wished our instructor might have known/done/been that was different from our experiences. One example given by a poster was wishing that the his instructor was in better physical condition. It got me thinking about the training that I've received along the way and a few things come to mind.

I learned to dive like most: in warm, clear, tropical waters with a PADI instructor who I was certain knew what he was doing. I stayed with that program for over a decade diving wherever I could and progressing through the various curriculum. Eventually, I got into colder water diving and realized that much of what was available to me locally was deeper and beyond my reach, so I began a course of technical diver training.

It was eye-opening to me to realize that nearly everything I'd been doing for over ten years (and over a thousand dives) was incompatible with my goals. I had to un-learn and re-learn even the most basic skills, like air sharing. It was embarrassing, humbling, and frustrating to be revisiting such rudimentary things. I wish my PADI open water instructor had knowledge of this type of diving, I might have learned appropriately.

For the next five or so years, I spent a great deal of time and energy learning to dive deep on open circuit; completing many "pinnacle" dives and getting a feel for things. Around 2010, the gas which we required to complete our deeper dives became scarce and approached unaffordability. About this same time, I had moved from the Northeast to Southern California where there was a very healthy and active rebreather community. I learned a lot about the machines these folks were using and highlighted the gas efficiency as the primary reason I was interested in acquiring one. There turned out to be a lot of reasons that this was a good idea, but it started with helium. During the course of this training I again had to un-learn and re-learn basic skills like buoyancy control, gas planning, etc. Of course, then it occurred to me that I wish my open circuit technical diving instructors were also rebreather divers, they might have steered me in this direction earlier and I'd not have to be relearning basics.

Which brings me to where I landed: I really wish I had learned from someone who knew how to dive at any level. I don't regret the experience, but it was a winding road to get to a fairly straightforward and logical point. I wish that all instructors were fully certified mixed gas open and closed circuit divers so that they can more seamlessly blend the experiences into each other and create a continuum of learning rather than a "scrap it and start over" approach (I won't get my wish, but there you have it).

As I've started to branch out into other rebreather units, I've found myself wishing that my original instructor were less biased toward a specific machine or more knowledgeable about the breadth of offerings available. Perhaps in a few years I'll be wishing for something different there as well?

What challenges or frustrations led you to "wish" something had happened differently along the way in your diving career thus far?
 
Sounds a bit unrealistic to expect that the person who's going to train you in Open Water class should be competent to not just dive a rebreather, but every different model out there. Should they also be expert wreck and/or cave divers? I mean, what if you eventually wanted to take your diving in that direction?

That person might exist, but it's highly unlikely they're going to be interested in training entry-level divers. And if they did, they'd want to charge you way more than you'd be willing to pay.

Granted there are some benefits to having a higher level of knowledge so as to be able to put the curriculum at a given level into the context of how it will apply to higher-level diving. But the context that comes with experience, with changes in your diving style and equipment to suit your goals, and with making mistakes isn't always something that can be taught ... sometimes you just have to experience it to truly understand why it matters.

An instructor who could guide you from Open Water all the way to rebreather diving ... and then to rebreather on different units ... would, by necessity, have to structure their program in such a way as to remove any information not consistent with their chosen approach. And in the process, you'd lose perspective on the other choices that are available to you. This is, to my concern, the inherent weakness with programs such as GUE that ... while well thought-out ... limit your choices and experiences to those that are strictly consistent with their program.

Not everyone learns best ... or even well ... that way.

As for your question ... I've taken maybe 30 classes over the years, with a half-dozen different agencies and probably a dozen different instructors. I've yet to "wish" something had happened differently along the way ... except perhaps that I could have been better at achieving the objectives of the class in some of them. Every one of those instructors had something valuable to offer me ... even the things I eventually discarded as not compatible with where I wanted my diving to go. Because, frankly, without having shared their knowledge, perspective, and approach, I'd have been less prepared to make the decisions I made along the way.

Maybe I'm weird like that ... but I got more value out of a path that meandered ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I also have had a meandering path as Bob mentions above and the only thing I regret is not starting earlier in life.
 
Sounds a bit unrealistic to expect that the person who's going to train you in Open Water class should be competent to not just dive a rebreather, but every different model out there. Should they also be expert wreck and/or cave divers? I mean, what if you eventually wanted to take your diving in that direction?

That person might exist, but it's highly unlikely they're going to be interested in training entry-level divers. And if they did, they'd want to charge you way more than you'd be willing to pay.

No doubt. Unrealistic, but a wish nonetheless (like wanting high octane beer with no calories) :)
 
In another thread, we momentarily spun out down the path of things we'd wished our instructor might have known/done/been that was different from our experiences. One example given by a poster was wishing that the his instructor was in better physical condition. It got me thinking about the training that I've received along the way and a few things come to mind.

I learned to dive like most: in warm, clear, tropical waters with a PADI instructor who I was certain knew what he was doing. I stayed with that program for over a decade diving wherever I could and progressing through the various curriculum. Eventually, I got into colder water diving and realized that much of what was available to me locally was deeper and beyond my reach, so I began a course of technical diver training.

It was eye-opening to me to realize that nearly everything I'd been doing for over ten years (and over a thousand dives) was incompatible with my goals. I had to un-learn and re-learn even the most basic skills, like air sharing. It was embarrassing, humbling, and frustrating to be revisiting such rudimentary things. I wish my PADI open water instructor had knowledge of this type of diving, I might have learned appropriately.

For the next five or so years, I spent a great deal of time and energy learning to dive deep on open circuit; completing many "pinnacle" dives and getting a feel for things. Around 2010, the gas which we required to complete our deeper dives became scarce and approached unaffordability. About this same time, I had moved from the Northeast to Southern California where there was a very healthy and active rebreather community. I learned a lot about the machines these folks were using and highlighted the gas efficiency as the primary reason I was interested in acquiring one. There turned out to be a lot of reasons that this was a good idea, but it started with helium. During the course of this training I again had to un-learn and re-learn basic skills like buoyancy control, gas planning, etc. Of course, then it occurred to me that I wish my open circuit technical diving instructors were also rebreather divers, they might have steered me in this direction earlier and I'd not have to be relearning basics.

Which brings me to where I landed: I really wish I had learned from someone who knew how to dive at any level. I don't regret the experience, but it was a winding road to get to a fairly straightforward and logical point. I wish that all instructors were fully certified mixed gas open and closed circuit divers so that they can more seamlessly blend the experiences into each other and create a continuum of learning rather than a "scrap it and start over" approach (I won't get my wish, but there you have it).

As I've started to branch out into other rebreather units, I've found myself wishing that my original instructor were less biased toward a specific machine or more knowledgeable about the breadth of offerings available. Perhaps in a few years I'll be wishing for something different there as well?

What challenges or frustrations led you to "wish" something had happened differently along the way in your diving career thus far?
Could you please elaborate on the tech training that you took? Which classes, why were your old skills incompatible.
 
I also have had a meandering path as Bob mentions above and the only thing I regret is not starting earlier in life.

Then it's fair to assume your instructors left nothing to be desired? That's impressive!

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2014 at 09:30 AM ----------

Could you please elaborate on the tech training that you took? Which classes, why were your old skills incompatible.


In order:

1. TDI Intro to Tech
2. IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix
3. PSAI Cavern+Cave 1 & PADI Tec 50
4. PSAI Advanced Nitrox/Normoxic Trimix
5. TDI Advanced Trimix
6. TDI Advanced Wreck
7. TDI CCR MOD1, 2, 3

From the PADI curriculum into just the first tech course was a complete equipment replacement, along with procedural replacements (donating the long hose from the mouth vs. the octo on your side, as a basic example). Had my PADI instructor been better educated, I might not have had to learn that adjustment.

We're getting away from my intention for the thread though. Happy to answer any questions about my own training journey. People seem to winch about their training or the attention given them by their instructor, I was curious if folks could distill out the things that they thought could have been better.
 
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I wish the instructors who originally trained me had been better trained themselves -- not so much that they had been backplate/long hose divers, or rebreather divers, but that they had understood horizontal trim and non-silting propulsion. I also wish they had been more motivated and more knowledgeable in how to deal with a student with very little talent. I came out of my original OW/AOW classes with many very bad diving faults. Just a handful of dives with NW Grateful Diver fixed some of the worst ones -- it wasn't that I couldn't do what I needed to, it's that I didn't know what would fix the issues.

I AM a great fan of GUE's "Begin as you mean to go on" approach to diving. Start out with equipment that will take you anywhere (up to rebreather) and you don't have to relearn anything. Solid basic skills translate -- even Bob will have to admit that, whether it was back-mounted doubles or sidemount, good trim and stability in the water, and good situational awareness, are central to any good diving.
 
The problem is that most instructors are "aware" of "other procedures and equipment" but either reluctant to talk about them because of their own lack of knowledge, to insist that those "other procedures and equipment" are unnecessary for beginners. For example, most instructors, at least in my city, still thinks bp/wings + long hose are for tech divers only, and teaching proper buoyancy and trim in the beginning is too much task loading, unsafe and "sucks the fun out of diving". Most beginner divers will also listen to them because after all, they represents "the way the world learns to dive".

Of course there are others, like myself, who have wished my instructor would have told me about bp/w + long hose right from the beginning and let ME make my own equipment choice rather than make that choice for me. Of course if they do that, they would have missed that opportunity to sell me another set of gear, wouldn't they?
 
In another thread, we momentarily spun out down the path of things we'd wished our instructor might have known/done/been that was different from our experiences. One example given by a poster was wishing that the his instructor was in better physical condition. It got me thinking about the training that I've received along the way and a few things come to mind.

I learned to dive like most: in warm, clear, tropical waters with a PADI instructor who I was certain knew what he was doing. I stayed with that program for over a decade diving wherever I could and progressing through the various curriculum. Eventually, I got into colder water diving and realized that much of what was available to me locally was deeper and beyond my reach, so I began a course of technical diver training.

I really can't complain about any of my classes. Everything was appropriate for it's time.

My OW class didn't mention anything having to do with tech diving, and that was just fine. We were taught how to not run out of gas, kick up the bottom or exceed the NDL; how to safely get in and out of the water, and all the other stuff a good OW class should cover.

I feel I was much safer having the opportunity to nail a small set of skills and have a clearly defined set of "Open Water safe diving" parameters than to have a whole bunch of poorly trained skills and a lot of questions about how I should be diving.

Later, when I moved into deco diving and doubles, I had to buy some more equipment, but it wasn't a big deal, since most of it was "extra", not "replacements". the training covered more stuff and also clearly defined the dive parameters. The old skills were not discarded, but some were tuned.

Later when I gave away my doubles and switched to side-mount, it was again, just "more stuff" and a few adjustments.

I don't think any of the early training or equipment was wasted or inappropriate for it's time or my current kind of diving.

Out of everything, the only thing I wished that my very first instructor had more clearly stated was that even if someone claims to be able to "keep me safe", it's impossible and it's also completely my responsibility.

That part was a little strange. I had been trained to dive safely own my own, but didn't realize it at the time. I also didn't realize that professionals couldn't actually be counted on for help. While I was completely capable of safely ending my own dive, I never knew why it was important or that some people didn't do it that way.

A lot of what I was taught was sort of like in the military. If you did what you were supposed to, you would probably be OK, but it wasn't always obvious why you should do it that way.



flots.
 
How many divers progress beyond AOW? 10%? Maybe? OW training is training for the masses, an intro to diving. It gets you safe with the basics. I remember very little of my OW class from 1985.

When I got back into diving I had no clue I'd end up a DM or AI or that I'd be diving a rebreather. I got a jacket BC and basic gear from Leisure Pro. Almost all of that gear is gone now. I've got a great local instructor and an awesome RB instructor.

If anything, I wish training was less online and more face to face for OW.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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