How to find a good instructor?

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gustavo_albuquerque

Registered
Messages
7
Reaction score
5
Location
Brazil
# of dives
50 - 99
Hello,

I'm a vacation diver (3 yrs but only ~30 dives). I have OW, AOW and Nitrox certs (PADI).
Now I want to be a more frequent diver. In the long run, maybe years from now, my goal is cave diving.

I need to improve my buoyancy, trim and propulsion skills. Then I took the PPB course last month and learned nothing, unfortunately. Very frustrating :/
Very very incomplete poor course. ~1h in class talking about weighting plus little more than 1h is open waters diving through hoops and some "Buddha" hover.

Seems that's a common sense here in the forum to "find a good instructor".

But I don't know how.

How can I know this or that instructor is actually good?
How can I find good instructors?

Those three certs that I have, its from three different dive shops, during my travels.
I never had contact with the instructors before the course. The dive shops sold the courses and assigned an instructor from their staff.


More info:
I live in São Paulo / Brazil. The nearest dive site from me is Ilhabela. A famous dive site in Brazil, a very beautiful island. But I have never dived there yet.

Does anyone who knows Ilhabela could recommend a good dive shop and/or a good instructor there?

Many thanks!
 
Sergio R. Schirato is a GUE instructor in Sao Paulo: sergio.schirato@gue.com

His resume is as follows:

Professional
  • Managing director of Daemon Investimentos
  • Researcher at the laboratory of energetics and theoretical physiology of the Biosciences Institute of the University of Sao Paulo
  • More than 20 years of experience in investment banking, F/X, derivatives and quantitative trading
  • Active scuba dive instructor since 1998

Education
  • BS in Business Administration, Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Sao Paulo - Brazil
  • Graduate in Finance, Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais - “IBMEC” (currently Insper)
  • MBA jointly granted by New York University - Leonard Stern School of Business, London School of Economics and Political Sciences and HEC Paris
  • Latu Senso post-graduate in Applied Math
  • PhD, University of Sao Paulo (USP)

Diving Qualifications
  • Scuba diver since 1988
  • More than 3.000 dives
  • GUE Fundamentals Instructor
  • GUE Tech 2
  • GUE Cave 2
  • GUE DPV
  • GUE Rebreather Diver / CCR Cave
  • PADI Open Water Instructor
  • NSS Full Cave Diver
  • DAN BLS and Advanced Oxygen First Aid Instructor

Publications
  • Heart rate variability changes as an indicator of decompression-related physiological stress, UHM 2018, VOL. 45, NO. 2
  • Decompression: Revisiting old assumptions, Quest Magazine, VOL. 20, 2019
  • Association Between Heart Rate Variability and Decompression-Induced Physiological Stress, Front. Physiol., 11:743.
  • Heart Rate Variability: What it is and Why it Matters, InDepth (Heart Rate Variability: What it is and Why it Matters), 8/03/2020

Languages
  • English
  • Portuguese
  • Italian - good understanding
GUE instructors are known for teaching quality trim, buoyancy and propulsion courses and he has the cave diving background to help you reach your goal.
 
Hello,

I'm a vacation diver (3 yrs but only ~30 dives). I have OW, AOW and Nitrox certs (PADI).
Now I want to be a more frequent diver. In the long run, maybe years from now, my goal is cave diving.

I need to improve my buoyancy, trim and propulsion skills. Then I took the PPB course last month and learned nothing, unfortunately. Very frustrating :/
Very very incomplete poor course. ~1h in class talking about weighting plus little more than 1h is open waters diving through hoops and some "Buddha" hover.

Seems that's a common sense here in the forum to "find a good instructor".

But I don't know how.

How can I know this or that instructor is actually good?
How can I find good instructors?

Those three certs that I have, its from three different dive shops, during my travels.
I never had contact with the instructors before the course. The dive shops sold the courses and assigned an instructor from their staff.


More info:
I live in São Paulo / Brazil. The nearest dive site from me is Ilhabela. A famous dive site in Brazil, a very beautiful island. But I have never dived there yet.

Does anyone who knows Ilhabela could recommend a good dive shop and/or a good instructor there?

Many thanks!
In Ilhabela i would recommend Leonardo Taboada, but there are some real good instructors near you send me a PM, and i can help you
 
In São Paulo, you can contact SCAFO ABC. They are in Santo Andre, so that might be a bit far They have some good instructors (Edu, Rafa and Luiz come to mind). Scafoabc - Scafo ABC. Scuba Point is in Lapa. I don't know any of the instructors there, but I do know one of their dive masters and someone else who has trained with them. The latter is now quite an accomplished cave and tech diver. Home - Scuba Point.
 

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