Bitterness of Scuba Instructors

[Davemohio]

Matt,

A great question.

I have not seen any bitterness towards students at the LDS I was associated with as a DM, Ever.

First off, it is not their style..and secondly the LDS would not put up with it.

Obviously, in Ohio, charter trips were not done and it was training.

As a student and a customerI came across it twice, in 250 + dives.

Once in Freeport as a customer.

And once with an Instructor for a now defunct LDS in Ohio.

I have concluded they were both just plain a$$wipes. In the water or on land. I DO remember both incidents like it was yesterday, though.

 

[Max Speed]

I'm a bitter student...

 

[buddhasummer]

There are such egregious examples of both that they harm the public opinion toward the majority of fine and dedicated members of those professions. It is that way in many other employment areas as well. I am a career educator, and I am painfully aware of how really bad teachers and administrators make the public hate the many hard working and dedicated education professionals.

I am a social worker, one of the good ones I think/hope, and echo your post. I used to work in Child Protection and see many similarities in k ellis's post #83. My job was to investigate serious child abuse. Often the families lawyers would attack us, the perpetrators would attack us, the police would attack us, the teachers, the doctors. We would often be blamed for everything, acting too fast, acting too slow, acting too strongly, "tearing" a family apart etc and through all this the reality of the situation, that a significant person/s in the child's life caused serious harm, was lost. But as NWGrateful dive said this is another discussion for the pub. The effect of being constantly under attack and witnessing such cruelty on a daily basis eventually forced me to move into other areas of social work. Yes there are some people who hide behind their keyboard and post rude, aggressive, sarcastic comments, on the internet it's easy to do. I am probably more careful posting that I am in "real" life, the beauty of posting is that nothing needs an immediate response so have the luxury of time in order to make a more thoughtful, metered response. I don't think the members of this board are any different from any random selection of the general population. There are many many good people on this board and very few bad apples. Sorry for the mini rant. Cheers.

 

[fjpatrum]

I think people who see LEO's in a negative light are probably criminals.

Not to take this too far off-topic but I think you need to get out more. There are a lot of places where cops and all the wannabe cops in the airports, shopping malls and other places abuse what little authority they have and try to impress more authority than they actually have. It's for this reason that many of us, who aren't criminals, view cops in a negative light.

That's not to say all cops are bad; far from it. But as this thread itself indicates, a few bad apples can spoil the bunch.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Strange as my experience with scuba instructors has been the complete opposite. Most scuba instructors have been friendly, easy going and positive people. Dive shop owners, on the other hand are quite different! I've met more cranky dive shop owners than instructors. So its a mixed bag.

 

[FPDocMatt]

Not to take this too far off-topic but I think you need to get out more. There are a lot of places where cops and all the wannabe cops in the airports, shopping malls and other places abuse what little authority they have and try to impress more authority than they actually have. It's for this reason that many of us, who aren't criminals, view cops in a negative light.

Point taken.

 

[soltari675]

The bitterness is not towards new students I don't think. The bitterness at lack of competence is more towards people who claim to be good divers or been divers for years, and bounces along the bottom on the reef or make very dangerous mistakes, like running out of air. Things well taught the first day of OW. I've not seen instructors make a bad or bitter comment towards students asking a question here.

 

[stevensamler]

Over the long haul trying to schedule students , haul heavy gear , listen to every excuse under the sun , represent the lds , and deal with incompetant people " not all " but some i can feel for the instructor. Dive classes are some what inexpensive compared to dive equipment , this is where the lds makes their money the dive instructor may be compensated via commission? All i know is a tip or a nice gesture " bottle of wine/case of suds etc goes a long way.

 

[Kingpatzer]

[deleted]

 

[ve6raj]

[Deleted]