How to get rid of fear?

[Musicgirl]

Very good advice. I am in the process of quitting my full-time teaching job to work full-time as a dive instructor. I am hoping my years of teaching will help me become a great instructor. But it is because I love teaching and seeing my students achieve success. Not just because I want to dive. (Though I hope i can do some leading/guiding too...cuz that would be cool).

However, I think that someone who has a passion (for diving) has the potential to become a great teacher, even with only 20 dives. Wanting to share that passion with others is very important to inspire and model for students. The experience will come...we all had to have at least 100 dives to become an instructor, and so will he. If he's doing those dives with wanting to be an instructor in mind, then that awareness will make his dives even more educational than the average fun diver.

 

[KevinNM]

I doubt there are any jobs where you'll always love what you do. Closest I could think of would be NBA player, but you still have to do weird travelling and all the practices. Better pay than scuba instructor by a little.

No, every job has the day when it sucks to be you. Pro sports, well, they are not paying you to sit out games. Sick, injured, couldn't sleep, partied too much - it doesn't matter, you are being paid a LOT of money to play at the top of your game. And if you can't, well, there are 100 people who would love to take your place tomorrow. And have a few bad games in a row? Your competition for your place on the team gets younger, stronger and faster every day as you get older and more beat up.

 

[Alessandro Calello]

However, I think that someone who has a passion (for diving) has the potential to become a great teacher, even with only 20 dives. Wanting to share that passion with others is very important to inspire and model for students. The experience will come...we all had to have at least 100 dives to become an instructor, and so will he. If he's doing those dives with wanting to be an instructor in mind, then that awareness will make his dives even more educational than the average fun diver.

I completely agree with you, if you have passion for something, real passion then it's very easy to teach and share it with others and this is the exact reason why I want to be an instructor, to share the passion that I have for diving with others, to show how amazing it is and to make other people feel the way I do under water...

I used to play rugby when I was younger and I was also the coach of our younger team and I remember I loved it and my players loved the way I was explaining it, the same with Archery, I'm an instructor and I made so many people fall in love with this discipline because I loved it and I infected so many people in start doing it.

I know myself and I know that when I really love something I'm very good teacher, plus I've been working around the world for ten years now, as Hotel & Resorts Entertainer, my job is about doing Public Relations all day long, perform on stage, doing sport activities, I speak many languages and I know exactly what it means to work many hours, in rainy days, not being able to stay home if sick etc etc, so being an instructor really doesn't scared me at all, it scares me to not being experienced enough to provide to the people the best diving experience possible, I just want to learn good and be a good instructor, help other people to enjoy diving the way I do and I will do even more in the future and why not change people lives, see them going away from the diving centre happy of the experience they had.

@Musicgirl Thank you so much for your words, helps me a lot and give me a lot of confidence to start this new journey that hopefully will change my life forever, thanks for your support, already now I'm making my course with a different mentality, set on becoming an Instructor and not just a recreational diver and my Instructor he's doing the same, teaching me in a way to prepare me for an Instructor role.

Anyway said all this I would like to tell to all of you, to all the people that gave me advices and support that I made it!

The other day I went for a dive with my Instructor and we focused on my problem with the mask and we took baby steps but I made it, I still didn't removed it completely but I was after few attempts filling it and empty it without problems and afterwards I felt much more relaxed in case it would had happened again...

I guess my problem was and is that I don't have so much experience, so with more experience it will just get better... in Italy we used to say "practice makes you perfect"

 

[Bennno]

Guys, being an instructors is not a real job. It's hobby job! It also requires almost no skill to become an instructor.
I've worked as full-time dive instructor for a few years in Spain, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey as well as part time in Germany. It's job you can do in your 20s for a while BUT it's not a real job with any kind of future... you have to buy new gear, pay for health insurance, flights, you might need glasses (or teeth) when you get older, money for retirement, you might want a family and a car at some point and there is lots of other stuff you are not considering.
Why do you guys think it's so easy to get a job as am instructor? It's because nobody does it for long and the staff turn over is crazy!
I know a lot of 'older' instructors and unless they have another source of income, they don't have a good life!

And another thing. Having passion for diving at 20 oder 500 fun dives is one thing... after a 1000 dives at the same crappy OWD training site, there won't be much passion left.

 

[TMHeimer]

If you're getting paid (how much as an instructor or DM is another beaten to death subject), it's a job. Nobody's gunna pay you to have fun all the time. That's retirement.

 

[Neilwood]

If you're getting paid (how much as an instructor or DM is another beaten to death subject), it's a job. Nobody's gunna pay you to have fun all the time. That's retirement.

Agreed. Some jobs might be better than others but no job ever AFAIK comes with a guarantee of fun or enjoyment. Passion is what you make it- it is up to the individual and the organisation to find their motivation (if you are in a certificate factory with low standards it might be difficult to stay motivated). If if you are working somewhere where your viewpoints matter and you get on well with and can have fun with the other staff it can make up for doing the sale stuff day in day out

 

[Steve_C]

My non-instructor two bits of advice. Clearing a mask and taking off and replacing a mask are two different activities not to be confused. To clear a mask you just crack the bottom seal a bit and let in some water. Swish. Then look up and press with your hand the top edge of your mask. Exhale through your nose and water will exit the bottom. Mask never leaves your face. Mask is never full. Sometimes I will do this several times a dive if needed.

Practice this with increasing amounts of water let in for "the clear", until you can have a mask full of water and clear it.
Now try the other skill of taking off your mask and putting it back on. You have air. plenty of time. When mask in on your face then do the clear you are good at. This can all be done in a pool but should be practiced while on scuba to duplicate the task.

 

[TMHeimer]

Teaching varies in "easiness" depending on the situation. One on one naturally is usually easiest. Then comes small groups--such as 4-10 divers on an OW course. I am not an instructor, but taught a lot of Band lessons to such size groups. Then there are large groups--like school classrooms or 100 piece Bands (I've also done). A lot of it depends on one's ability to "captivate" an audience and deal with those who we may label "troublemakers" (call it what you wish).

Alessandro, you seem to have the correct attitude toward teaching. Your Public Relations experience is obviously a big plus. A lot of the "rapport" skills come natural to some and can also be attained by simply doing it and correcting your shortcomings. Some will never get it and quit. Either way, most teachers will say teaching is not easy. I would say most teachers would agree that it takes a LOT of skill to become an instructor of anything. Maybe at times not so much skill to get OWSI instructor certification. Consider that course compared to a 4 year degree to teach school.

With scuba, skydiving, mountain climbing, etc. a student can face serious injury or death. Doesn't mean you should be less dedicated if you teach Math, but it is always on your mind.

 

[Scubamat]

You might be 80' down when someone Jackie Chan kicks you in the face with their fins. Be ready for that.

I was about 30' down when a fellow student did this to me on my first OW dive didn't lose the mask but got extra practice clearing a totally flood mask.

I struggled with mask clearing also but my issue was more technic not tipping my head back far enough to clear efficiently. Where I struggled stress wise was on decent once I was settled I was ok but always used a lot air on that part of the dive what I found help was to just concentrate on breathing first and the skill second as this will calm you down.

 

[DevonDiver]

As much as you love teaching, you can't teach what you don't know.

You need to have a commensurate amount of expertise and skill.

Some agencies set the bar exceedingly low in that respect.

What results is the 'blind leading the blind'.... enthusiastic instructors who can't do anything more than regurgitate the contents of the student manual, or spurious garbage they've heard on the grapevine... and can't demonstrate or role-model diving skills worth a damn.