reasons for being an instructor...

[island girl]

a couple of cents worth of thought....


Hi....
I have been working as a diving instructor since July this year. Since I have been diving, and during the last four months particularly, the same question keeps popping to mind.

Why are scuba instructor doing what they are doing?

Various answers come to mind, some of them are pretty obvious ones for some instructors that I have met! A change of career, and escape from “normal” city life, or because they love teaching and working in a varied environment. Also they may have an avid love of marine life and this job brings them as close as you can get.

Whatever the reason is, I have seen a interesting variety of dive professionals. There is the “put-the-scuba-unit-on-over-your-head” kind of macho instructor, who also will naturally stand on the boat railing and do a head first water entry. How impressive. (not).

There is also the “posey-sunglasses-look-at-me-I’m-blonde-and-skinny” type instructor, with the “if I can do it, they can do it” attitude.

There are also your role models, although i must admit that I have met just few, i could count them on one hand, in fact.

So what’s my point? Part of this article is dedicated to my previous questioning – why are you doing this?

Are you in it for the possible “easy shag and have a load of female/male divers looking at you in complete adoration when you ‘brave the water and jump in with just a snorkel to check the current?’” (snore). Or is it because you really want to teach scuba, for your love of diving?

Or.... (and here comes more questions) – are you in it for yourself, your own diving pleasure and your own precious logbook or dive count? (I find that scuba instructors are just DYING to tell you how many certifications they have and especially how many dives.....)

This brings me to the next part of this article... perhaps we should take a look at ourselves and ask if we are really taking care of divers closely while teaching or guiding a dive.

How many of us have left a diver with 50 bar on the surface (or safety stop) and gone down again with his/her (ex)buddy, who wants an extra 10 or 15 minutes dive time to finish his tank? And is that extra 15 minutes going to be partly responsible for anything that happens to the diver at the surface?

Yes, this article is full of questions... but in view of recent diving accidents in the last couple of months here in the Maldives perhaps we have to ask ourselves if we are becoming to blasé... a diver with a headache, tingling etc may not always be diagnosed as dehydrated (I have heard this comment so many times from instructors). Unless an instructor has a formal medical training (and I don’t mean “first aid”), how can he possibly make a firm diagnosis?? I often have heard from experienced instructor “aah... it’s just psychological”... “aah.. she is just dehydrated”...., or “aah... he is just a sh**y diver so panics for nothing”. Blasé again? Or is this the “real divers don’t panic and will dive rain or shine” attitude?

My question to instructors is “were you born diving”? Did you have a reg in your mouth upon delivery? No. When you started diving, were you a natural? Did you ever panic or get scared? Did you ever feel uneasy about a dive? What was the divemaster’s reaction? Did he/she bump you off with a sarcastic comment? Did he/she pay attention to your fears? Or were you told “if I can do it you can do it”? How did you feel?

“Experienced divers” are two words i hear a lot around here... but those levels of experience may vary extremely. A diver with 60 dives may not have the experience of a diver with 40 dives.. all depending on where and in what conditions he has been diving before. We cannot just assume that a diver with plenty of dives has a good capacity.

Recently there was a serious accident in Male Atoll. I prefer not to mention island names. I heard a couple of accounts of the accident. Obviously the true version will only be ever known by the instructor involved and the poor ill-fated soul who passed away.

Certain words come to my mind though, when I think of that god-forsaken day. Selfishness, irresponsibility, customer service, safety, and the REASON why there is an instructor on board, on every dive.

Why is the instructor there... for his pleasure, or for the well-being of the guests? Why is the instructor an instructor at all?

What is your reason?

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Greetings Island Girl!

Nice, thought provoking post. I am slowly working on getting my NAUI instructor rating. I have been helping with the SCUBA classes at the local university for 8 years. Once you have your OW certification the instructor invites you to keep coming to the pool sessions. The first year is usually serving as pool deck jockey. Her theory is you can learn a whole lot by attending a class a second time. You are no longer being graded and you get to watch from the surface, see how different people learn the skills we teach. If we've got extra gear you may even get to get in the water and shadow an instructor, DM or AI. That is to build your own skills not to have hands on contact with the students. As you progress through your own training (AOW, etc.) you are allowed to be a part of instructor demonstrations of skills. By the time you go for your AI or DM you've seen many students go through the course, seen how we deal with problems students are having and, if you don't get to dive often have kept your skills fresh.

I was one of the divers who had A LOT of problems in the pool. I tell the students now, "You can't come up with anything that I haven't already freaked out over." My instructor didn't even think she would be able to certify me. She told me after my first weekend of check-out dives that she wasn't happy with my comfort level in the water and would not issue a c-card until we had done some more dives. She insisted I be a competent, comfortable diver before she would even certify me so we went diving again the next month. While I hadn't overcome my fears I was determined to succeed at this new sport and managed to quell my fears and actually have a good time!

I had over 50 dives in before I even felt comfortable with calling myself a diver rather than a beginning student. I then went for my rescue diver and AOW certification. I was helping out every quarter in the pool and was becoming confident of my ability to do the skills. By the time I got my master diver, AI, and finally DM I was comfortable sharing what experiences I'd had with students.

After 8 1/2 years I finally feel confident enough in what I know to teach it to others. I love the students who seem to have the most problems, they come so far in the class! I don't do this for the money, I volunteer with the program. Instructors only make about $500 per quarter for 40 hours of class time (and the prep time that goes with it) so they really aren't in it for the money.

The reason I want to teach? My fantasy is to help students, especially the ones who have the most phobias to overcome, go on and become SCUBA instructors. Those students have so much empathy for others who are having problems because they have "been there" and that same empathy is what I hope to bring to SCUBA instruction.

Ber

 

[hphobbie@aol.com]

WOW, long and thought provoking ... in 22 years ofi instructing, as a PT instructor (although 8 were at a university as faculty), my reasons have changed

At first it was because I needed to do it to keep my coaching job. Then I REALLY got into the diving, and I honestly LOVE to teach. Now as a short fat bald guy, I don't get much adoration and flirting happening anymore I basically do it for a few reasons:

1. I love to teach and love diving;
2. I train my future buddies and team teaching partners;
3. it gives me a night out once a week;
4. I enjoy the response to divers as they take their first breath in the pool and after the first dive in OW;
5. I get an inexpensive trip a year;
6. diving pays for itself so I can enjoy it as well.

The first three reasons are the main ones. After class we almost always decompress at a local establishment. Makes it fun.

Here in the Midwest while some can dive all year, we do not with O/W students. We usually do not start OW training until mid-May, and end in early Oct as the water temp is in the 60's then. This means 1-2 trips a year to the Panhandle for OW training that is scheduled around school holidays so my kids can go as well if they wish.

I will not get rich, nor make a full time living teaching diving here. So I do it for fun and my passion for diving.

 

[Natasha]

Preston,
Although I have not met you yet, I know your good reputation. You're one of the best instructors out there. Thank you for all your work and dedication to students of SCUBA throughout the years.
Warm Regards to you. And Happy Thanksgiving to your family.
:sunny:

 

[Butch103]

hphobbie@aol.com........................that was my reason for thinking about becoming an instructor...................well back the drawing board.........."Mental note to self"......."remove diving instructor from notes on how to pick up chicks when you are over 40 and your weight and IQ are moving in opposite directions".....

 

[Ron Brandt]

Hi ! Some thing I allways wanted to do. I have been diving for over 20 years but instructing for only a few.

I had a VERY HARD TIME learning to dive .I knew that some how once I mastered it I would make a good instructor.I put off the idea for many years. Money , job , no job no money , money , no time etc.. One day I woke up from a dream , literally. From that Sunday on I set out to do what I had planned.

I am not making any money teaching diving. I also have a day job.I will be looking at retirement in about 8 years. I am NOT FAT in excellent condition and ya , I like the girls and they like me .

Teaching is a thrill.A wonderful feeling of taking some one from their first breath underwater to the signing of the pic envelope.

My friends and myself believe it is my true calling.I have put up with a lot of crap doing this in a very small market. I have put up with bull**** aragont (sp ??) divers who do not teach and don't do any real diving. I truely love this sport and teaching it is the icing on the cake.

Ron

 

[Liquid]

Why have I become an instructor?

quite by accident, I think.
I had a friend that worked as an instructor. One day, when I was out of job he called me to ask how I'm doing, so I asked him if the center he worked for needed workers. The folowing day he called me and said they did. The folowing day I was 500KM from home working first as a dive-master and later as an instructor.

I had great time there, for about a year. Where I worked it's a place that you work about 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week all year long. After a year I felt that I more or less had it, I didnt like the pase of the work, and the pay sucked. Now I am a student and instruct on my own time for fun, owing nothing to nobody. It is far better, and I enjoy instructing more when I can do it with no one yelling at me that I have to finish the dive in 10 minuets becouse they need someone to take a guided dive.



I really dont like the "bragging" kind of instructor. In the place I worked for there was a guy that bragged all the time, and toled everyone who wanted to hear (or not) about his heroic dives. Even to our senior instructor, that instructed for about 30 years and done almost everything there is in diving. Francly, he was also a bad instructor (I belive he took wrong decisions during dives).

I like to think about everything I do. My aproach is that there is no perfect diver and no perfect instructor. Every dive I take I try to improve myself, I like learning from others, even my own students, and it dosen't matter how many dives I already have (which francly, I dont really know).

It's hard to say if I was "born" diving. I was born to a family sailors, with a long history of seafaring. I used to skin-dive from a very young age. I took my o/w course at 17. It was a lousy course, done by the worst instructor I have ever seen. My first dives where lousy ones, becouse I was ill-tought, but slowly, on my own acount I built my own diving skills to a good level. When I started working as a dive-master I had about 200 dives, but I can not even begine to compare my diving level before I became a profesional to the one I achieved while working as a profesional. 2 completly different worlds.

As for the question with the student with 50bar- In such a case there are several options. what I'd usualy do is go back to shore, either by surface swiming (and taking advantage of it to exercise diver towings, me of course being towed ) or by diving very shalowly with the out of air student and his buddy swimming above me, where I can alwais watch them. Another option, to continue the dive, I will ususaly not use in such a case, but more in a case that one diver can not dive (due to ear problems for example) and I have to complet with the others. In this case I will surface and watch the student swimming towards the shore, making sure he arived safely. another option here is to take the student's weight-belt (if it's a particularly problematic student), which makes it quite impossible to drown in such a case.

An important thing for an instructor is to alwais asses the situation. Risk versus benefit. Alwais keep in mind that something will go wrong, and be ready for it.

That's about it

 

[yachtopus]

When my husband and I were in our Open Water class. He said wouldn't it be cool to be an instructor? My first thought was No Way! These people have been to school for thousands of years and I could never do it. Our instructor was so good. I still call her my SCUBA Mom. She made it easy to learn but I was in aww at her skill in conveying the information.

As we continued to take classes and go on dive trips. We realized that this was a hobby we could not afford much longer. We desided to take the plunge and become inst. hoping it could be a possible way to finance our diving.

We worked in the Caribbean and the Bahamas for about 6 years at differant dive resorts. We never made much money but we were together and doing what we love. We've taught many divers and still keep in touch with a few. We have friends that used to say they wanted to be like us. Now they are, we taught them DM and now they are inst. in one of the resorts we worked at. Also the place we met them. It is some how very rewarding to know that I can help someone else to acheive a goal on this industry.

Five years ago we dicided we no longer wanted to work for someone else, but we could not afford to buy a resort. So we bought a morgage on a very nice trimaran and started our own business. LOTS OF WORK but we get to meet lots of divers and teach lots of new ones. We even include the resort course and referrals in the charter fee. We just love to dive and love to take people with us. We are always taking courses ourselves in tec and reef ecology. It is an obsession for us. As for as scoring, that is not a factor, we have been married for 11 years and started diving together.

We know some pretty cocky inst. but they don't seem to last long. But the majority of the people in this industry in the Virgin Islands are truly good people and excellent instructors.