it's the instructor ...

[MXGratefulDiver]

Last night I had the most satisfying experience ...

Back up a week or so ... I went to visit an old friend I hadn't seen in a while. His daughter, a young woman in her early 20's, had invited some of his friends over to celebrate her dad's birthday. During the course of the evening, I found out that back in February she'd spent some time in Thailand and gotten her OW certification while she was there. She asked me about taking an AOW class, and I suggested that before she do that she should try diving in Puget Sound ... it's a lot different than Thailand, and she might not like it. I offered to loan her some gear, and take her diving. That happened last night.

She showed up and we talked about a few things. I told her we'd go shallow ... 15 to 20 feet ... and just work on buoyancy control for a little while. After all, diving in a 7 mm farmer john with hood, gloves and 30 lbs of weight is considerably different than diving in a 3 mm shortie and 8 lbs of weight. Besides that, she did all 8 of her Thailand dives off a boat ... shore diving offers it's own differences.

We surface swam out, started our descent, and she had some difficulty clearing her ears. So I signaled to go up just a little bit. To my complete surprise, she managed to go up a couple feet, hold a perfect hover, work at it (took a few seconds) then we started descending again. 4 or 5 feet later, more difficulties, up 2 feet, clear, drop a few more, stop, and repeat the process.

Now, for someone who's only got 8 dives ... all in warm water and shortie ... doing this with all that lead and neoprene is pretty impressive.

By the time we got down to 20 feet ... no touchie the bottom ... no bouncing up and down bouyancy struggles ... OK, a little hand-waving, but we'll work on that ... I figured she was good to go.

We spent the next 48 minutes touring around the cove. Good trim, excellent buoyancy control, and a HUGE smile at the end of the dive. Pretty relaxed, pretty damn impressive.

Yanno ... we cold-water divers hear a lot about how easy it is to dive in the tropics, and how vacation divers don't get trained well, or dive well. So for balance, I just wanna make a statement ...

Somewhere out there in Thailand there's an SSI instructor who did something wonderful for my friend's daughter ... he turned her into a diver. Not just someone who swims around underwater, but someone who was taught enough to know how to think, control, adapt, and enjoy herself in that environment.

Whoever you are ... thanks for doing a great job of it ... I wish you could've seen her smiling last night.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Pearldiver07]

That's Great!!!

There's an excellent instructor out there doing a service for his/her students.

We hear and talk about bad instruction, bad this, and bad that. Thanks again for sharing a story of good consequences.

 

[Blowin' Bubbles]

Wow! That's great to hear! It's comforting to know that among a lot of not so great instructors, she found a good one. Switching from tropical waters to cold north waters is difficult.

 

[goldenbear01]

or could it be that being in bob's presence automatically helped her become a more skillful diver?

 

[TSandM]

That's wonderful, Bob. I'm sure having a rock solid, quiet, horizontal buddy didn't hurt a bit, either. I remember those days . . .

 

[Charlie99]

Or it could be that Bob has friends with a smart daughter.

The instructor makes a big difference. So does the student.

 

[don Francisco]

NW- your tread's title said it all. "it's the instructor". To steal a phrase from the real estate business; The three most important things in learning to dive are the instructor, the instructor, and the instructor (in that order).

We debate agencies, curricula, time allowed, tropics vs. northern waters, and all other factors and are often quick to dismiss resort area training as inadequate, but as this example shows so clearly, a dilligent, caring instructor will turn out good divers.

NW- thanks for posting this reminder. dF

 

[sandmanz32]

its good to hear some positives on scubaboard from time to time. thanks for the post, and i hope your friends daughter grows into an even better diver as life goes on.

 

[D_B]

Thats wonderful to hear, a comfortable, safe, new diver .. having fun!
More so when many threads are about the lack of caring, compentant instuctors
... Makes me thankful that mine was too (although I don't know if he's up to your standards Bob )

Thank you for giving her a good dive and a good buddy :14:

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Wonder how long it'll be before she discovers that online scuba colony?

Back to MOF land for me.

DC