Hey SB,
This is my first post! Tell me if I'm doing anything wrong
I hope I'm in the right forum!
I need to raise a little question/have a little rant about what I believe to be one of the the biggest problems facing not only the Dive Industry, but also Dive Centres and their trainees/candidates/instructors etc.
Ego.
Boy this makes me mad. And as sure as Hades is hot, there are some people who just don't have the modesty, humility, and most importantly the training and knowledge required to be an approachable and professional Dive Leader. In the course of the last five years I have met and heard about so many people who are nothing but complete jerks to their students, their co-workers, and pretty much everyone else around them. How does this foster a good image of not only us as professionals, but the dive industry as a whole?
I never tell people what I do half the time because they wink at me and nod knowingly, thinking "Riiight... Dive Instructor". That's the ethos that has come to exist in diving I tell them I'm in tourism.
Why don't people realise that at the end of the day, as complex and intricate as the sport of diving is, it remains exactly that - A SPORT. Some may argue that it is a career or lifestyle. That may well be for them, but the words to the song are still the same, no matter how you sing it. The same people don't grasp that being a diver or an instructor or whatever you are isn't a high rung in the social ladder or a testament to your bravery... It's just another job, it's something you enjoy doing.
But it's not only the dive pro's who succumb to the idiocy of an overinflated ego. Newly certified (<50 dives) divers are SHOCKING for it. I had an American chap come on board a boat once like he owned the place. Fat, loud, and obviously rich due to the thousands of dollars worth of gear he brought on, we had him spotted before he reached the turn of the U-berth. Swung his 35-dive logbook around, annoyed the other customers, yelled at staff for a low air fill of ONLY 210 bar ("Can't your crew do any better than that?") and then proceeded to tell us he may be bent after a 25 minute dive to twelve metres and missed his safety stop because he used all his air. I wish I had caught it all on camera to show my future students.
A final point - having an absolute tosser for a teacher can ruin the chances of you doing anything past your Open Water course. They talk loudly about their extensive experience and number of dives and grow large amounts of facial hair and are generally disliked. One instructor i know actually walked into a classroom full of students for an Open Water course, took off his sunglasses, sat on the desk and said, "For the next four days, you can call me God." I had to sit down with his boss over several beers and have a laugh over that one - it tops my list of ego-trash.
When I used to teach courses for Cairns Dive Centre (the biggest SSI certifying agency in the Southern Hemisphere), we spent hours on my boss' front deck deliberating over what makes a Dive Leader/"Good" Diver worth their weight in cornflakes. Maybe you guys can let me know what you have come up with in your experience... and this applies to everyone - professionals, weekend warriors, and brand new divers alike. Can't wait to hear your ideas
Thanking you!
-- Nemo
This is my first post! Tell me if I'm doing anything wrong
I hope I'm in the right forum!I need to raise a little question/have a little rant about what I believe to be one of the the biggest problems facing not only the Dive Industry, but also Dive Centres and their trainees/candidates/instructors etc.
Ego.
Boy this makes me mad. And as sure as Hades is hot, there are some people who just don't have the modesty, humility, and most importantly the training and knowledge required to be an approachable and professional Dive Leader. In the course of the last five years I have met and heard about so many people who are nothing but complete jerks to their students, their co-workers, and pretty much everyone else around them. How does this foster a good image of not only us as professionals, but the dive industry as a whole?
I never tell people what I do half the time because they wink at me and nod knowingly, thinking "Riiight... Dive Instructor". That's the ethos that has come to exist in diving
I tell them I'm in tourism.Why don't people realise that at the end of the day, as complex and intricate as the sport of diving is, it remains exactly that - A SPORT. Some may argue that it is a career or lifestyle. That may well be for them, but the words to the song are still the same, no matter how you sing it. The same people don't grasp that being a diver or an instructor or whatever you are isn't a high rung in the social ladder or a testament to your bravery... It's just another job, it's something you enjoy doing.
But it's not only the dive pro's who succumb to the idiocy of an overinflated ego. Newly certified (<50 dives) divers are SHOCKING for it. I had an American chap come on board a boat once like he owned the place. Fat, loud, and obviously rich due to the thousands of dollars worth of gear he brought on, we had him spotted before he reached the turn of the U-berth. Swung his 35-dive logbook around, annoyed the other customers, yelled at staff for a low air fill of ONLY 210 bar ("Can't your crew do any better than that?") and then proceeded to tell us he may be bent after a 25 minute dive to twelve metres and missed his safety stop because he used all his air. I wish I had caught it all on camera to show my future students.
A final point - having an absolute tosser for a teacher can ruin the chances of you doing anything past your Open Water course. They talk loudly about their extensive experience and number of dives and grow large amounts of facial hair and are generally disliked. One instructor i know actually walked into a classroom full of students for an Open Water course, took off his sunglasses, sat on the desk and said, "For the next four days, you can call me God." I had to sit down with his boss over several beers and have a laugh over that one - it tops my list of ego-trash.
When I used to teach courses for Cairns Dive Centre (the biggest SSI certifying agency in the Southern Hemisphere), we spent hours on my boss' front deck deliberating over what makes a Dive Leader/"Good" Diver worth their weight in cornflakes. Maybe you guys can let me know what you have come up with in your experience... and this applies to everyone - professionals, weekend warriors, and brand new divers alike. Can't wait to hear your ideas
Thanking you!
-- Nemo
My son was only 14 at the time with about 120 dives, when he takes pictures, he only takes pictures of something that might be special or he does not have one of yet. This means maybe 10 to 15 pictures per dive, if that many. His pictures are quite nice. Anyway, to make a long story short, my son just laughed it off, but when we were diving, my son was sure to point out to me how the guy was all over the reef. The DM had to warn the guy to quit laying on the coral to get his pictures. When we were back on the boat the guy was complaining about the fire coral he hit on the dive. 
