Are my certifications still good? I want to become an instructor.

[supergaijin]

Your card doesn't expire but your skills do. Prepare yourself for a decent refresher course meaning get in the water as much as possible with a snorkel and fins. If you have a local diving operator, you may be able to negotiate to sit in on some classroom sessions/confined water sessions.

Consider yourself as an inexperienced diver again- even though your logged dives may be quite high. Consider keeping your depths conservative and therefore giving yourself the maximum dive-time as opposed to joining the 'advanced' group for deep dives.

I mention this because I see a lot of problems with people slapping an AOW card on the table without having recent experience in the water and expecting to be able to be as comfortable/efficient as they were last year, or in years past.

 

[leebutler]

Good advice from Dennis, an option would be to find a dive centre that would be prepared to include the refresher and a lot of dives in your Divemaster program.

It will quickly become clear what you need to work on when you get started, a dive centre with a flexible approach to your training would be ideal, take as much time on this as you are able to and get some dives in, assisting on courses makes for a great refresher and as someone mentioned you will need to update your CPR/1st aid cert.

You may find you original course materials outdated now, get into the dive centres library and go over the entry level materials and sit in on any course presentations that are going on around the dive centre.

Most of have fun

 

[spectrum]

With 50-100 dives over 3 years ending 10 years a go you are getting back into the water as a very rusty novice. Nobody here has any idea what level of proficiency you attained back then. I don't mean training, I mean being good at what you have cards for. Before you even think about learning to be an instructor IMO you need to get some skin in the game and get on top of things with a refresher and some considerable diving. Pro training is more on teaching and managing, not diving so if you aren't a competent diver when you start...................................

 

[Zen Diving Inc.]

I would think long and hard about giving up your day job, to come work in the recreational/tourism industry. It can take quite sometime to find the right gig that puts enough money in your pocket to make it worth your time. Working full time in this industry is not how some imagine it to be. There is a lot more to it then "Diving". Diving in itself does not pay the bills. If you have no experience teaching then you may be in for a bumpy ride Its not a stress free job, peoples lives are in your hands. Im sure you wont find to many full time instructors in Wisconsin... Think about were you can position yourself to find the best job, while you continue your training. You wont find much respect when looking for a job as an instructor with less then 500 dives... You may find yourself working as a DM even though you may hold the credentials of an instructor. Not that I haven't seen instructors with less then 100 dives working a resort location. So I suppose you could get lucky in that aspect, just wouldn't bet on it.

 

[scubadiveilat]

If your still seeing this thread! Welcome back to diving.

The certifications that your achieved are acceptable for their respective level. To further yourself as an Instructor is good to know your goal and work your way up to that level. Instructor is a professional level to enrol in to the program there are standards and procedures to met. If you meet the requirements you can be on your way. Otherwise based on your information: start with the required courses to meet the requirements. If you need help to advance or further information we can communicate through Skype or email.

Have fun diving.....

Shai

P.S. Where are you located?

 

[tye1138]

Instructing is fun, but its harder and harder to find instructor jobs, plus there isn't much money in it.

Once you're an instructor and you've trained OW students, its hard to NOT be an instructor again. Its hard to just grab your gear and go diving without constantly surveying everything and managing people you dive with as if they were students. Its not a bad thing, but it does detract slightly from the experience because you're mind is always thinking about something else then just simply being in the water.

Plus, once you have taught people, you've pretty much gotta carry insurance for a long time because if one of them goes after you for some reason, you've gotta be covered or you'll get into trouble. With the court system today, you never know what kinda idiot stubbed his toe on a boat and is going to sue the instructor who didn't tell them XYZ 5 years ago!

Whatever you do, good luck and adventure waits no matter which ever career-minded course you take.