Griffo
Contributor
Particularly if you do not intend to go professional, why spend a significant sum of money to then have a large portion of your time commited to one shop, 'working' for them and visiting the same bunch of dive sites day after day. If you do not want to become a dive pro, and you do want to do some courses, look at technical training, at the end you will have a qualification that will be of use to you, as it can greatly increase the scope of diving that you can do, rather than one which you will never need or use.
I do totally understand where you are coming from, and appreciate the advice.
I do however subscribe to the theory that teaching is the best way to learn. Having to have all the answers for a large number of different students, and having to answer questions around the theory posed by someone else with a different angle, often means that you yourself get a better understanding that you originally had.
I also believe that, consciously or unconsciously, people instructing future teachers, hold them to a higher standard than they do for most students. It's that higher level of capability that i'm looking for. I don't want to be taught advanced bouyancy just well enough to pass the course for example, i want to become the bouyancy master myself.
And doing this while diving for a couple of months in Thailand seems like a good way to do it. I'd always then spend anouther couple of months exploring other areas.