I have to agree with Garobbo. Like many if not most of you on here, I'm an instructor with 1,000+ dives. However, I still remember, with great dismay, my first 10-15 or sadly a few more dives after getting my OW C-card. Upside down, head in the sand, mask strap breaking, stirring up silt, feeling like there were 10,000 things going on all at the same moment in time, and frustration! I still remember the exact dive and where I was when the epiphany, as it were, happened. I remember how awesome it felt when the buoyancy and the trim all fell into place. I remember coming up thinking; wow...I actually got to see some stuff and enjoy the dive without having to concentrate only on staying trim and off the bottom. All of you "elite" instructors out there think back. How many people over the age of 35 or so have made this comment: I look back at the things I did as a kid, and I'm lucky to be alive."???? Anybody ever said that? The same goes with diving. I look back at how bad I was on my first 10-15 dives and it's a wonder I ever got the hang of it. We dive for a living. These people come down and dive 1 maybe 2 weeks a year. I dive more in a week than 80% of the diving population does in 5 years. Let's get off our high horse for just a moment or two and show some humility.