I'm a brand new PADI Instructor, about to start work out here in Thailand, and I've been extremely surprised by the huge disparity of quality and adherence to standards in the instructors I've been supporting and shadowing - a lot of the time what I've actually been learning, is what not to do!
@@thirstybonsai1888 I think you need to re read my post and realise what I'm actually saying, before you comment publicly and make yourself look idiotic
It's an industry. I went all the way to Rescue (PADI) without doing a single dive outside of classes. I then started to think about tech diving but, fortunately I stumbled across an instructor that did his job, he told me he wouldn't teach me until he saw me fit for it, underwater. Now, 100 dives later, I'm starting my adv nitrox & deco procedures and realized the mistake I made. Even the adv, if you're not comfortable with your diving, you'll spend money and not gain anything besides a fancy e-card. All the best James.
@@griffini19 Good point. I would also submit that you don't need to jump into the next dive course right away to keep learning. You will be learning on just about every dive you do anyway, so your education will continue regardless if you are just diving or taking a course lesson.
I did the same but I continued diving with my instructors who had become friends and spent a lot of time pushing the importance of buoyancy and other skills so I kept getting better before I decided to move to the keys and get my DM certification
I did my advanced then wreck dive, my instructor has told me go and learn explore before rescue because it stress tests you. Only on 13 times, one fun dive..... been watching lots everything's gone wrong videos, so much to learn and reenforce
Yeah. Not only that but, if you want to improve on your skills set, you must be comfortable with the previous ones. Only than one should climb the ladder.
I feel super lucky I guess. My OW instructor was a GUE fundamentals course grad and a cave diver (not sure if certified by GUE or other). Needless to say, when I finally did my AOW (with another awesome instructor) and Rescue (with the aforementioned cave diver) classes I was extremely well prepared. He wasn't / isn't a tool, but did NOT let little things slip and taught well past the basics. Probably not for everyone, but he knew his audience.
I’m an OW instructor, can teach just about any specialty, also a technical instructor, CCR cave diver, and continually training and learning. I have backed off of teaching the OW classes because of several,of the reasons you listed. The shop I was teaching for was mainly interested in gear sales and selling “advanced” read that more classes. I was criticized by a fellow instructor for NOT teaching my students kneeling on the bottom of the pool. I always try to teach above standards, and also explain the reason why we learn the skills we teach. I’ve had a lot of good instructors, and some not so good instructors over the years. I’ve always tried to incorporate the good traits from other instructors and avoid the bad ones. I know when I want to learn something I want to excel at it not just learn enough so I can get by. Great video!
My open water instructor had myself and two others in class. He let the other two take a break on the 200 meter test in a pool. They basically rested every lap for over a minute. The tread water test he let one student hang on the side of the pool. I think they don’t want to fail anyone for the money $$$. I will say though that he did make us repeat skills many times over until it was second nature.
My instructor skipped the pool and took us to the ocean (in a sheltered bay) for the entire course. We had to tread water and complete the 200m half way through the day when we were pretty exhausted already. I had a hard time completing it but I’m glad he did. I walked away from the course feeling a lot more confident than I would have if I had my hand held the entire time.
Fun fact, in my OW dive #1 my instructor yelled at me for hovering and told me to get on the bottom and on my knees with the other students. Many years later, I am now an instructor and teach Neutral buoyancy from day 1! Thanks for your tips and tricks, I was happy to see that as a new instructor I wasn't doing any of these bad habits! I also teach through SDI and encourage all my students to go look at the standards and to help keep me accountable and let me know if I miss anything!
I am so grateful for my unusual OW experience! It was through a college club and it was SIX WEEKS of 3+ hour sessions split between class and pool and then the 4 open water ocean dives. And an amazing instructor who deserves much of the credit for the things I do right some 20 years later.
I did exactly what you suggested I not do, and in my case it actually worked out. I got my Open Water and then immediately got my Advanced and my Enriched Air. Side note - I'm 40 dives in and still haven't ever actualy used EA. However, it wasn't an agencey selling a course, it was me deciding that I flat-out KNEW this whole diving thing was for me and I wanted the additional training right away. The benefit was that I got another handful of dives in a training enviornment right away. I made plenty of novice mistakes yet had an instructor right there to correct me. To the credit of that instructor, his advice after I got the AOW was to not worry about more certifications, but to go dive and enjoy myself for a while. I don't have any regrets on the path I took. YOur point is more about a shop actively selling the advanced course to new students and I can certainly understand why you'd find that unprofessional.
Exactly the same for me except I already did dive a lot as a child in a pool so it wasn’t that new for me to begin with, just never got certified before
The reason I continue to watch yr channel is the “High Standards” you continuously have shown over the years with diving! Thank you. Never step through your moral standards.
I used to be a motorcycle instructor, and recognize many of these themes. As a relatively new diver (AOW with about 30 post-certification dives), the one thing I want challenge is your objection to OW + AOW close together. With PADI, OW certifies to 60 ft. A lot of my dives have been in around 70 - 80 feet of water, where it was important to stay very close to the bottom with good buoyancy to limit the impact of strong currents. Being constrained by a relatively arbitrary depth limit would have had me hovering at 60 ft and getting separated from the group be being more subject to current, or being excluded from a load of excellent and very attainable dives. I would argue the opposite conclusion: no agency should offer any certification that lacks sufficient content to prepare a student to dive to the normal recreational dive limits in good, warm water, clear viz conditions. To put it another way, OW + AOW should be the baseline. Related to this, telling a relative novice that they are an "Advanced Diver" because they have done some simple eLearning and a handful of easy resort dives is beyond irresponsible. And as divers, more fool us if we believe it! With my AOW and over 30 dives, I am confident diving in good conditions in the Caribbean. Now back home in Nova Scotia, I'm about to join an active ocean diving club, invest in a dry suit etc, and get into regular, year-round cold water diving, including wrecks which are a big thing here. I'm starting with no ego, knowing my Caribbean vacation diving experience counts for almost nothing in this new environment. PADI can sell us whatever cards with whatever titles they want, but we are responsible for recognizing the limits of our own experience, and making good choices to develop our skills.
Hey James, excellent video and great advice as always! One thing I would add is that in practice, much of this is down to shop owners. In some shops, instructors are constantly arguing for sufficient instructional time for students, but shop owners are booking not enough sessions, not enough pool time, etc. Some agencies are no help with this, because they do not set minimal mandatory instructional time, and in any standards violation, it will be the instructor, not the shop owner who is primarily targeted for investigation.
I had no idea at the time of the quality of my instruction that I received while in college. 13 week course, 4 hours a week, repetitive skills, stressed situations in controlled environment. Came out of that course very confident and very well trained.
me 2. I also had the added bonus of the instructor offering/allowing people who were willing to do the extra work, etc to "jump over" the advanced OW, and become SSI Master Diver certified for a very low additional $100 per. Most of us pounced on the opportunity.
I had my first dive experience today - I paid for the online theory class beforehand for the Open Water SSI Cert. It was not a great experience. First, I have been congested so I told the dive instructor and the owner and they told me not to do it. After 3 days, I’m still dealing with sinus issues but the instructor told me to go and try to equalize my ears anyways. So I did, and most times I was able to, some not. He told me can try to do the confinement course then and I said ok. The confinement class is on the beach (I’m in little corn island, Nicaragua) and thankfully my ears were able to equalize but when we finished my head had a lot of pressure and I had a headache. I was also suffering from anxiety because the instructor didn’t tell us what we were going to do - we did all of the safety techniques in the water back to back. When we got out of the water, he said ok we are going to go for the open water dive in a few hours. I didn’t feel ready at all for that, we didn’t even finish our online course nor did he teach us anything at the shop, just how to check the air pressure in the tank. Anyways, I told them I don’t want to continue the course and they wanted $100 for the confined class I did. I don’t care about the money, I just want to feel comfortable and quite frankly I felt like crap after because of my sinuses. I feel like I have no one to talk to about this so thank you for your video, it validates that the instructor I had today wasn’t communicative, didn’t brief us and was pressuring us to do the course to get money even though I’m congested. I’m super bummed this was my first experience, especially in such a beautiful place but I can’t wait to find an instructor that will support me and do the course following these standards.
Spot on James!! Ive wittnessed instructors who went from being student orientated to "I have to teach as many students and as many courses as possible to make money" the students suffer, the schba shop suffers because of that negative experience but, thank goodness for great dive masters and guides who pick up thos divers and help them get better! Great video!
I think a big problem is that for the students, we don't know what we don't know. I had a great time on my OW course, but when I told the friend (and scuba instructor) afterwards that I was travelling with at the time, she was shocked at some of the stuff. Videos like this go a great way to try and fix that issue.
Hey James, well you made me feel so much better about my instructors. I'm an SSI opens water and Nitrox cert. Rick, Dawn and John. We're our 3 instructors involved on our training. They really made us repeat skills to create some sort of muscle memory, maybe not right after a good job but back after the next skill off the next day. Or weight was very much spot on, I have t been able to go down with less weight. Our training was always based on bouyancy, never on knees. John made us take apart our gears many times every day of training pool and open water. I got certified end of June and have 24 dives by now. And just now i got offered the scale option for next year. But the thing is the first time we weren't diving without trainers we felt secure and confident of what we were doing, there were many talks and examples during the training days. And guidance. I also know you have dove with one of their trainees as he took some training from you. There are some good trainers out there. Thanks for your time.
well said James. As an instructor of many years (and yes it took me a while on some of these points) I have said alot of what you point out about getting to the next level. People are in too much of a hurry theses days to let the knowledge and mussel memory take over for some things like buoyancy control. GREAT JOB KEEP IT UP
James, You did well with this one, as always. I have been teaching SSI for 37+ years and SDI/TDI for 25+ Years, In Colorado USA. (Part-time) We all have been through them. It was not until 2010 +/- that the industry started teaching the diver position. I hate the instructors that still teach the kneeing skills. ( I started this in the early 2000's). The weighting issue has always been a problem and will continue to be a problem. It is also a problem at resorts. A good instructor is always teaching about buoyancy and weight. Speaking of Resorts -- they are doing everything for the diver - setting up gear taking it down. Where is the Responsible Diver Code????? -
A buddy of mine got his OW at a resort in Mexico that took him down to 85’ in a cenotaph for his first cert dive. I warned him not to get certified at a resort. I often feel like a worse diver after a new course because I become keenly aware of how much more I have to grow as a diver, and am well aware that many of the courses are really only able to teach you a foundation given the limited time in water. The navigation course and rescue course are fine examples of courses with skills that need practice especially if you have lousy visibility. I’ve got both of Mark Powell’s books, Jill Heinerth’s, and Gareth Lock’s. I’m actually listening to Under Pressure for the fifth time and going through The Human Diver first module. My LDS is now making that a mandatory portion of the rescue diver course. Definitely worth it. Thanks for more titles and the ones I already read thanks to you. When are you gona write a book?
Thank you for saying these things out loud. I am gaining confidence with every dive I make as a new open water diver. I do feel some pressure to get my advance cert. I will follow through and get advance cert when I get more comfortable in the water. I really like my instructors and the divers that have trained me, BUT, I feel some do pressure to further training prematurely. I really enjoy scuba for many reasons. The people, scenery, the beauty of under water life is an amazing thing to see. I just want to log more dives before I take on more training. Thanks for your content.
My friend, some of the very worst fun divers I have guided are so-called "advanced" divers .. it is really a misnomer and makes people think they are better than they are. You could dive to 19m, name a few fish, do a small square in the water with a compass .. and you're basically an "advanced" diver. If you're not going all the way to Dive Master, or are happy at 18m and less (the best stuff where i dive in Thailand is 10m & less) .. DO NOT be pressured into it. These guys will get likely a commission from you doing the course.
This is a great video James. New diver here, newly certified and I’ve seen a few of these already. My goal is to become a better, safer recreational diver. I’m currently diving in cold, fresh water only.
Diving in Hurghada. Hadn't dived for 3 years due to COVID. The dive boat refused to do a reimmersion brief, had me mount my gear with no oversight and refused yo do a buddy check : safe to say i did not go into the water with them. Many dive shops in the red sea should have a proper audit of their standards...
In the late 90's i was training to get my sports diver course done, i was diving with an area coach from the diving agency (kind of keeping this vague) i belonged to. he had been having issues with his drysuit and had been working on it at home. well we entered the water with him and we did a 20 meter dive and as we were ascending he looses control of his accent and as he gets near the surface he pulls open the neck seal to dump air. well i stupidly surfaced after him without a 1 min deco stop that the tables mandated. well because of my status as a trainee sports diver the story he put out was "i was responsible as i had lost control of my buoyancy during the accent and dragged him to the surface" the instructor reached the surface before me i had hold of him and had dumped most of my air out of my stab jacket and dry suit i was trying to slow his accent, i later found out he had forgot to remove a piece of polystyrene from the cuff dump of his drysuit and after this no one would dive with me and i gave up. iam now 52 i now live in America and have recently dusted off my gear and would like to go diving again.
My PADI open water course was a bit different than most peoples. It was spread out over the course of 16 weeks as an extracurricular class at my university somewhere in the Southwest. It gave us a lot of time to practice trim and buoyancy but there was a huge problem with our instructor. He was very hands off with us. His TA, who was a skilled rescue diver but not an instructor, was the one to teach us how to set up our gear, figure out weighting, and do buddy checks. If it was on the deck instruction, the TA was the one to teach it. The instructor would do classroom instruction and underwater skills only. This instructor also had a habit of partying with those of us who paid for the dive trips where we completed our open water skill checks. On my certification dives, he dropped us off in Laughlin the night before the dives, then drove a few hours to Vegas to party through the night before being back in the morning for our dives. Notoriously, this behavior led to one eventful trip down to Mexico where he and two students ended up in the drunk tank over night before an early morning boat dive. Needless to say my university cut ties with him soon after and his local dive shop went out of business a year or two later
Number 1 haunts me, coming back to diving after a long pause, I had a 2 stars certification and over 100 dives (CMAS not sure if that training still exist), I decided that the right thing to do was to take the Advanced Course to refresh my skils/knowledge. So first pool practice the main instructor forces me to dive with 15 pounds!!!. I have a very negative buoyancy and good skills to control it (wen I got my first star training we didn't had BCDs in Mexico) but it took me two more pool practices to demonstrate to all be instructors that with my aluminum backplate BCC I didn't need any extra weight
Was in carribean in August, stumbled on a couple (OW) at dive boat (turned out they are from same resort), after watching them for a day, next day I asked them if they want some advice or they would like to keep struggle going. Skills i had to explain them : Boat dive - water entry/exit Gear - putting in on , taking off - while in water. Obeying your dive computer. Understand your dive computer. Tighten the yoke without uga-dugas, finger tight only. Launching the DSMB. Washing the gear after the dive. Don't use your hands under water. None of those skills were explained to them during the course. ---- I was planing for 4 dives on vacation, I ended up doing 10, in the end I found out that guy paid for all my dives at the dive center, they were so excited that they met me that day. I guess it's a sign for me to upgrade from DM. My point is this - if you see someone struggle, offer to help them. Maybe they just don't know. Don't just sit and giggle.
great list. i can always spot a newbie by the use of hands. i stay away from them because i know there going to catch my hose. i've found most people don't carry a dsmb never mind know or practice how to launch it. the problem i have is some people like advise some people don't and you say next time mind your own business. . i wish dm's would say more but i guess if it goes south it may affect the bottom line.
@@dtt3426 Definitely, some people accept advice being taken as a weakness. That's why if I offer one, I'm usually approach it personally - so not whole boat aware of that. DSMB always on me, i better have it and don't use it than opposite.
A complicated one that I see often is instructors being willing to do absolutely everything for a diver. I know it is a customer facing business, but I've seen a divers taking an AOW class who don't know how to connect their regulator to the tank, work their computer, or have any sense of what weighting they need. While I get that many people dive 1-2x a year, if you're taking an advanced course, I feel like gear management should be a bare minimum skill. I wish there was more freedom for instructors to tell guests they aren't ready for a cert or need to brush up on fundamental diving skills.
In my first recreational dive after finishing my open water course I kept searching for the dive instructor during the whole dive at some point I found myself at 25 meters depth and he was just far away looking at me !! Then when we were diving back he insisted to give me his octopus dispite I already have 70 bars and he didn’t hold hands which made me loose his octopus and being searching for my regulator while being in a very short breath that was unnecessary danger !!
there's always this emphasis on "number of logged dives" as a proxy for experience. I learned far more in 10 self-planned and self-led dives than I did from 25 vacation dives where everyone follows the divemaster around the reef.
I had the opposite under weighted. We met on a boat in Key Largo. I'm 6' 4" 260lbs. They had me in a 7mm wet suit and when my tank got to about half I would pop to the surface like a cork once I hit about 15 ft
I couldn’t agree more with what you said. My wife and I are medical professionals and when we did our PADI course we asked questions and we where told your not my average students. So I would ask him what if and press him for some answers. He would still hold back some. Then we would go off and educate more ourself’s in the area and shoot back scenarios which he wasn’t wasn’t amused with. We passed and did our EAN after that and stop with him.
In my pool courses, we rarely practiced skills (eg. out of air or weight removal/replace) out of the water. We saw it done and the were expected to do it under the water without doing it ourselves. I found out from a friend afterward that he disliked that dive shop.
I had great instructors for my open water in 2010 and my advanced open water in 2019. Learning how to dive was the best decision I ever made. I have been on 5 dive trips and over 100 dives. By the way, I went to Roatan last month, best dive trip ever.
I wish I could say zero-to-hero was only happening in country X or resort Y. But this is an industry-wide issue. My AoW instructor was visibly hesitant to train me as a newly certified OW student with zero fun dives, but the dive shop (his employer) happily took my money, so he had no choice. Looking back I realize he was in an impossible situation.
Really interesting video - thank you. I’ve also seen instructors who don’t accompany their charges underwater- just do their own thing - even with Discover Scuba divers in tough conditions. Some instructors are plain bored ; their minds are elsewhere
Bloody scary how close our approaches are. I'm a CMAS South Africa 2 Star Instructor. Everything you've said is spot-on. We're not lucky enough to do live-aboards here, our waves are too big. In my humble opinion - "bare minimum" is not even an option. Especially with the 200m swims, 3min floating, 1min treading water, 30sec breath-hold and 20m underwater snorkel swim. Every now and then a yahoo skipper WILL flip the boat :) I do start my beginner courses with the "kneeling" thing in the shallow end - just because if they sit, the cylinder pulls them over and they have a shitfit. But, before they even don hard gear, I get them into the water with basic snorkel gear and weightbelt and do a buoyancy check. With a full breath, they should float just below the surface. That's it. Those are your weights for the course. The BCD and Cylinder will cancel each other out. If you want to sink, exhale and use your fins. Teaching students should be common sense - because, as beginner diver, you've been though it all already. Remember that, and instruct in a manner to reassure and impart enough knowledge to be useful. A baby diver doesn't need to know about Normoxic V-Planner calculations. It's not about the (agencies-that-shall-not-be-named) zero-to-hero badges on your jacket though, like you mentioned, an Instructor need to be a comforting presence, credible source of info, an ambassador and a sharer of joy. /rant
you are doing your weight check wrong. if they float on the surface with full lungs and without a bcd / tank then they will have very positive buoyancy at the end of a dive.
@@LowKickMT Ah - sorry dude - think I maybe didn't explain it well enough. In an upright position - feet down, wetsuit on, fins on, mask on, chill normal breath, relax = you shouldn't sink lower your hairline - that's how I check my kiddies weights. Cylinder-wise, if you're using aluminium's (which we don't use here), fair enough, you're going to have to add a tiny bit more to get neutral buoyancy on the 5m safety stop. Safe diving :)
Oh man, yup got the combo OW, AOW + Computer Nitrox one after the other, it was "cheap", but had to pay boat tickets soo, so not cheap in reality. I do have 30 dives now not including a couple of recent aborted beach dive due to very poor visibility. Man I would pay for a book on Florida east coast beach dives, hard to find any good reference info, boat charters will bankrupt me.
Great video, but I have a comment about your #7. Where I learned to dive (Puget Sound) there are almost no dives suitable and safe for an unguided OW diver except in the same training ground sites where OW is taught. I went directly into AOW and felt perfectly comfortable and ready for AOW. Despite that, I would have felt completely uncomfortable without a serious guide / instructor for my first few dives after OW. I may have struggled at that time without a qualified, quality professional to get over that hump.
Haha, oh my God, I have those exact words!!! 20lbs. for a 140lbs diver in Key Largo! When I worked for the old Silent World dive center, I would hear that from divers coming from inland areas or from vacations only divers. It was so funny and sad at the same time! And trying to convince them otherwise is nearly impossible!!!
I got my ow cert in June 2022 I was in a 7 mil wetsuit in the pnw sound. My instructor had me in 70lbs of lead. I didn't feel like that was right so I went to another shop and got some help. Now I dive with 32-34 lbs!
32-34# is still a lot of weight. Thickest wetsuit I dive is 5 mil and with an AL80 I have 6#, 8 in saltwater. Even in a drysuit with thick undergarments I think I only house 12#. You might want to get in a pool sometime and see jut how little you can actually dive with.
Hi James, Thank you for your hard work and content. I enjoy you video's very much and they have given me new perspective on more then one occasion. As I'am a faily new divemaster there is tons of learning to do. The things standing out for me is the upselling, and the certification of students with the minimum of skills. The last part in my opinion is due to the lack of spending time with students to complete the course. This is a pace of the diveshop, and this is not always the pace for students. It's a thing I've discussed frequently but still see it happening a lot. Not only at the shop I work for. Your video tells me my cause is just, and I will keep up the conversation for change! Thanks again for the video!
No complaints with my dive instructors. They were both really good, and I even got to see one of them spend some time with a student who was getting a little panicky underwater. Made me feel comfortable diving with him. Anyways, my complaint is with a dive guide I had. First open water dive after getting my Open Water certification. I told the guide the weight I used diving (in fresh water), and after looking me over quickly head to toe, he gave me a little less weight. Could I descend? Nope. His initial solution was to try to push me down! When that didn't work, he added weight and I could now join the other divers. Lesson learned for me: don't dismiss something that I think is important. Ask questions.
This is absolutely one of your best advice videos. I took your suggestions on three courses and am completing Tec’s course tight now and have signed up for Gareth Lock‘s email blogs and will be taking his course next. New instructor here… following 5 years and 480 dives and I STILL wonder if I am doing everything I can and also continue to search for better ways to teach. I too read dive books one of which is “Diver Down” and that book alone just frustrates me with the level of lazy attitudes that ultimately kill. But thank you so much for your dedication to the hobby. I think you are in the Miami area? I just moved to Port Charlotte three days before Ian hit and am going to be riding out this one…. Idalia I think it is.
I’m looking into getting my open water certification but am starting with swim lessons first since I can’t swim. My local dive shop also does swim courses (although the names of the businesses are different) One dive instructor told me I don’t need to know how to swim in order to scuba (although the other did breakdown the needing to know how to swim the x amount of distance and float for x amount of time- I’m tiny and can’t properly float) Instructor number 2 told me they are looking into bundling open water and advance open water into one training session also when I was asking questions about deep diving and when they recommended going into the Tec classes at that point (mind you I don’t know what gases are taught at which course at this point) he pretty much implied that the other gases don’t do anything but might make people more comfortable and that he doesn’t know whether or not he’s ever felt nitrogen narcosis BUT told me a story of how his buddy asked him about his air and he forgot why he was looking at his watch…. So yeah I’m limited on where I can get my training done sooo I’m trying to do as much preemptive research before I’m ready for classes because it is shocking how little safety precautions is in the general scuba culture- those who I have found on UA-cam seem to be the underliners-
I got a PADI open water cert. I was flying out of the country two days after the cert was meant to be over so I was trying to get this cert as quick as I could.... and the dive school helped me out. We did every skill once, I didn't do the swim test (had been working as a lifeguard for two years before this) and I messed up the mask take off because my mask was on too tight and I ended up really struggling to get it off my head and felt panicked. But eventually I was able to take off the mask... and that was it, took it off once and the instructor was comfortable passing me. I don't know if it was because I was a lifeguard and really comfortable under the water aside from the mask business. But he was really happy with me and it felt like we really rushed through the course.
Also all this took place in the ocean, we knelt on the bottom for our skills at first but I kept getting pushed over by the current a few times and ended up just staying in the neutral buoyant position.
I was victim of sin 7 . My instructor at the resort I learned with , told me I had to do my AOW course if I wanted to go on the dive the day after I certified. Knowing nothing I obliged and 4 days and 4 dives after starting the sport I was at 30m in the Caribbean Sea with no real clue .
I had a bad open water instructor and probably his worst sin-aside from rushing us through the course and not making sure we were comfortable with our skills-was failing to get us excited about scuba diving. After we completed our last open water dive, me and the other students just looked at each other and shrugged. Like, “okay, this is cool, I guess.” I think we were all a little bored, and very uncertain about whether or not we were truly ready to dive. My instructor just seemed“over it” and didn’t bring any joy or enthusiasm (not to mention effort).
I needed 35 pounds of lead to stay at the bottom on my OW course. I weighed 330 pounds and had a 7mm neoprene wetsuit with boots on me so I displaced a lot of water which made me very boyant.
I'm doing my PADI OW in China right now. I had a bit of an argument with my instructor because he requires only 2 ow dives on a single day, instead of the specified 4 on 2 days (specified in the PADI online theory class). He just pretended to be lost in translation... so I guess he broke the communication rule as well. I already paid, so I will have to live with it...
I have a different opinion on the advanced courses topic. Did my SSI OWD in Germany, where we are diving in cold and dark lakes with shitty vision. I started the SSI AOWD with specialities Navigation, Dry Suit and Night Diving & Limited Visibility right after finishing my OWD. In my opinion this is absolutely required knowledge to safely dive in our local area. You can get away without those if you have a much more experienced buddy/guide, but then you are fully reliant on his skills. But generally I agree that one should not push too far without collecting some experience. The deep speciality for example usually is pushed to the far end of the course where the student already has 25+ dives.
I once had a PADI instructor that told me I wouldn't need a dive computer (or anything that shows how deep i am) because I would stay on her level, and she would have a computer even when we would go down 18 meter and I was just a fresh OWD Diver (did the OWD somewhere else with really good instructors luckly)... I declined and demaned a computer or I wouldn't do the dives with her. She then gave me one. Was the reason i bought one for myself before the next dive vacation, to not have this discussion again. Oh additionally, I did the Perfect boucancy course with her and it was basically just 2 regular dives where she hang a pound of led in the end of the dive to one of my sides and said i should now try to balance... Learnd in my later AOWD course that PPB can be way better then that. Also she had OWD Students herself come with to their first real dives - and they didn't have a computer as well...and we more then 18 meter deep (he was 2 meter below me and I was basically at 18,5 to 19) but how would he know?
I recently talked to a presumed dive instructor, and they said they've never dived in Bonaire because all the vehicles there are manual transmission which they can't drive. :D
Last point happened to me. They suggested me that I could attend to the advance open water right after I got my ow certification. I said no. I don't feel like I could be and advance scuba diver yet.
I find it interesting that you mention backing OW with AOW as a problem. Personally, I lean towards them being a single course. Most of the skills taught in AOW are basic dive skills. In particular, as you say, lots of shops teach minimum standards and trim/buoyancy are almost always simplified to a criminal degree. What are your thoughts on doing it this way? For further classes, I agree. 25+ dives between courses to hone skills.
I Made My advanced Open water course basically 5 dices after my Open water cert. I really should have waited and made more dives befor donde ng the advanced cert
Great videos! This and the rescue diver video are some of the best. Just got my advanced open water, going for my rescue next. Thanks James, informative and entertaining...although you dont talk "American". Just kidding!
I'm glad my instructor has non of these :) I am really happy with him too. That's why we stick to that instructor for every class we take (we only did owd and aowd but atleast I'm planning to do rescue and nitrox when I have the money to do it (but I'm gonna take a dry suit class with the guy who sells me a dry suit, but that is included into the price for the dry suit and he seems to be a good guy too))
@S C could you try to say the first sentence different? I'm not a native speaker and therefore couldn't really understand what you were saying. Actually most of the instructors I've met in Germany seemed really good to me. But another instructor like James might see flaws I can't see. They can't all be good :D (me and my father were pretty easy students tho. We didn't had many questions and got all the skills right away (we snorkled before we went to scuba diving))
I am a BSAC diver and before my first lesson my instructor told me. I have no weight in my BCD but you have 4KG, we have to over weight you so you don't float. That is terrible. When I asked another instructor why I have to be over weighted they said it was too much work to teach a student to be neutrally buoyant when you are trying to teach them skills. Buoyancy and trim should be mandatory training in your first few pool sessions.
i think a good instructor can spot students having trouble swimming and ask for a swimming test, i brought my friend for open water course just last weekend and the instructor saw something amiss when he had trouble swimming and asked him to do a swimming test, true enough he couldn't swim, the instructor then gave him time to complete his swimming lessons, and resume his OW training later
I did. The instructor actually read the requirements incorrectly (doubling them) and nearly "killed me". 😅 Fortunately 1/3 through she re-read it and realized she had doubled it and let us know.
Great video James! I would love to hear your opinion as well as those of fellow instructors on the teaching skills neutrally buoyant vs kneeling. Particularly in poor vis, drysuit condition. I taught almost exclusively neutrally buoyant open water classes on Utila and Fiji. But now that i am teaching back in Canada we teach our open water students in drysuits from the get go. That paired with sometimes 3-5 feet of vis in the summer months and I feel like kneeling suddenly has its place. (Along with a lot of assisting DMs). Anyone have any other teaching tricks to combat the low vis and added student difficulties with drysuits?
I'm 100% with you on everything you mentioned except for the AOW course being taken too soon. IMHO i see the AOW as cash for depth, there's nothing added to the course, it's just 5 "adventure" dives. I think let's get all of the courses out of the way and start diving RESPONSIBLY Please correct me if I'm wrong
I had an instructor who clearly overweighted all of us students and also did not seem to appreciate fin buoyancy when recommending fin selection. One of the other students was recommended to switch from a semi-neutral buoyant fin to Jet fins and proceeded to spend the rest of the class "walking" through the water.
@@shuntao3475 I totally agree, assuming that the total setup is adjusted. The total setup was not considered. Since ScubaPro Jets are noticeably negatively buoyant (unlike the standard RK3s), the end result of the switch resulted in a diver completely out of trim.
I saw students doing advance and deep courses without the ability to make a safety stop successfully, just stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes without going to the surface.
"Little bubbles there's no troubles" I've had to change my current OW student's rental regs 4 times now due to TINY leaks. Trying not to pass a bad habit onto the student, but it's very tempting to just ignore little bubbles and get on
There was a guy in my rescue diver class recently proud of his 90’s jacket bcd and regs he’d never had serviced. EVERY fitting had bubbles coming out of it. I asked the instructor is he was our sacrificial victim.
Just get certified in cold water dive area, not warm like Florida or etc. Usually warm water divers are less skilled because you don't have to worry much about your gear, buoyancy etc.
Very good topic. As an asst instructor I have seen good and bad students, and felt the squeeze of the time limits we have to train people. I have had passionate debates with other dive pros on the training we give. The shop I used to teach at ran 3 hour classes (usually 6pm to 9pm). This time was usually split about 50-50 classroom to pool. I favor far more time in the pool and think that at least some of the stuff in the book isn't terribly useful to the average diver. I get that there is a need for being personable- I am guilty of delivering a military style briefing more than filling time with stories and anecdotes. However, I've watched students eyes glaze over after 45 minutes of class teaching (especially those after work hours) and you are essentially wasting time you could be in the water. I believe that you learn more from doing than sitting in a class, and actually being in the water engages students more anyway. I am not convinced knowing all the medical terms we teach is that useful to day one divers. As a teacher/guide/dive leader you need a deeper knowledge but spending hours on medical terminology for new recreational divers that will likely never need it just cuts into training time even more. After speaking with many instructors I've determined that the only time they ever use all that medical terminology is teaching it in OW. Never using it in any actual scenario. That is time I'd rather spend in the pool doing basic rescue techniques than in a class room shoving 20 letter medical words down students' throats. The former is a far better use of limited training time. I believe the best instructors do the most teaching with a regulator in their mouth, not talking in front of a white board.
can you explain why you should not do the advanced course right after the open water course? i was on fun dives before taking OWD and my motivation to get certified was to be able to be responsible for my own safety since i did not like to be dragged around and exposed to risks and not know about alll the safety measurements. i felt great doing the advanced course right after OWD, the skills were easy. i would have felt limited with just OW on fun dives. most fun dive instructors/agencies are horrible. i am deeply concerned that i will not be able to learn anything on fun dives if i am not capable of being my own boss. on a fun dive, no one will correct my trim position or breathing technique. i am on my own. so i took the chance to learn as much as i could and do the AOW quickly. i did really well and now i feel confident enough to go on fun dives and be responsible for my own safety and to continue learning on my own, to improve my trim, SAC and bouyancy control on my own. i learned to dive with minimal weight (3-4 kg of lead). i learned to co trol my bouyancy with my lungs instead of my bcd. i feel really confident in my abilities now and i think i wouldn‘t have reached that level with fun dives after OW. and my instructor said: „it‘s easier to work on mistakes now and not let them become habits by diving without an instructor to correct you“ what‘s your opinion on my experience? would be really great to hear your thoughts! ❤
Mine wasn’t over it was under. I was in a seven mill wetsuit. When I got to about half a tank when we got to about 4 meters I would pop up like a crock. They never gave a swim test. I’m a good swimmer, but still should of been tested
Have to admit I didn't do many skills over during the training but even now if I hit a pool I do them to keep them sharp. Didn't get pressure to move to the next level out of OW but sadly the shop did have an extra fee to rent the mask, snorkel and fins but they used that as a way to try to upsell gear. Personally I don't see a major need to drop 300 on a mask, fin and snorkel when it's so low tech I can make something that will work in a pinch with a few shop tools and duct tape, lol. Also saw some people going out and dropping a couple thousand on gear which just made me shake my head, I eventually started getting gear but took my time so that I knew what I got was what worked well for me not just what the shop said was the best. After my AOW course the shop I dealt with (different one this time) was pushing the rescue diver course and there was no way in the world I was ready to do it. My wife passed away 02/2019 and she was a major reason why I started diving because I was truly lost and wandering. I had always wanted to dive but never truly expected to be able to but while I was in the water I truly felt calm and able to handle things. The pool part of the rescue course was no big deal but the CPR part was........ difficult for me to deal with. I found my wife not breathing and started CPR while calling EMS for help. It didn't do any good but feeling her breastbone break under my hands nearly broke me as well. I had been diving for over a year when I rescue certified. I have to agree the zero to hero places need to be shut down. At the very least there should be a couple months and 20 to 30 dives to 50 feet for 30 minutes between each course till you have finished rescue IMHO. It would give people a chance to let their skills soak in and really be put to work. I have seen so many people just OW certified with so many bad habits it's scary sometimes. One couple both had backplates and wings and both of them had no sense of trim and were basically at about a 45 degree angle while swimming along in a lake kicking up crud from the bottom the whole time. They were both AOW certified but were unable to trim while swimming. Anyway will be down in your area (Fort Lauderdale) for Thanksgiving. On Black Friday I hop a ship to have a little downtime, going to try and get a couple dives in on Thanksgiving day and already have one setup while on the ship in St Kitts and hopefully get another one in Sint Maarten.
Tempted to add, No. 8 - in two parts: a) Paying more attention to the more attractive students in the class, up to and including hitting on them as soon as they've qualified and they are no longer 'your student', b) failing to correctly handle a situation where a couple are learning to dive, and one half of the couple is clearly i) not really that into it and nervous, but being pushed into it by their partner, or ii) having everything done for them (e.g. gear set-up) by their partner, and thus not really learning how to dive.
I unfortunately had a bad experience with a scuba diving instructor that actually Caused me to quit getting my open water certification just under a year ago Up here in New Jersey. I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus and say that person's name but For our first pool session He brought us to one of his friend's private swimming pool in a backyard in New Jersey when it was 50ﾟ outside and the pool Was green from allergy Was green from allergy And made all of the students jump in the pool to do their swim test without a wetsuit It was so cold that when I hit the water it literally knocked the breath out of me.
I am a certified diver have been since 1986 my son is currently going through OW1 right now and the on your knees hand signals have been used several times also the weighting issue has been approached by the more the better I don’t want to be rude or intrude on the instructor I am just in the water observing I am also prior military and the brief before entry is ok but there is no debrief after words in your professional opinion how show I address this or should I just wait till my son is completed and fix the issues one on one with him thanks again your content is extremely helpful
I graduated from my diving classes. One time doing a skill, move on. No repetition at all. They insulted the students. Had my C card thrown at me when I went to go get it. Have never stepped in that shop again.
I'm a brand new PADI Instructor, about to start work out here in Thailand, and I've been extremely surprised by the huge disparity of quality and adherence to standards in the instructors I've been supporting and shadowing - a lot of the time what I've actually been learning, is what not to do!
@@thirstybonsai1888 I think you need to re read my post and realise what I'm actually saying, before you comment publicly and make yourself look idiotic
It's an industry.
I went all the way to Rescue (PADI) without doing a single dive outside of classes.
I then started to think about tech diving but, fortunately I stumbled across an instructor that did his job, he told me he wouldn't teach me until he saw me fit for it, underwater.
Now, 100 dives later, I'm starting my adv nitrox & deco procedures and realized the mistake I made. Even the adv, if you're not comfortable with your diving, you'll spend money and not gain anything besides a fancy e-card.
All the best James.
You are smart. But a hindered OW dives is not many. Diva more and improve your skills.
@@griffini19 Good point. I would also submit that you don't need to jump into the next dive course right away to keep learning. You will be learning on just about every dive you do anyway, so your education will continue regardless if you are just diving or taking a course lesson.
I did the same but I continued diving with my instructors who had become friends and spent a lot of time pushing the importance of buoyancy and other skills so I kept getting better before I decided to move to the keys and get my DM certification
I did my advanced then wreck dive, my instructor has told me go and learn explore before rescue because it stress tests you. Only on 13 times, one fun dive..... been watching lots everything's gone wrong videos, so much to learn and reenforce
Yeah. Not only that but, if you want to improve on your skills set, you must be comfortable with the previous ones. Only than one should climb the ladder.
I feel super lucky I guess. My OW instructor was a GUE fundamentals course grad and a cave diver (not sure if certified by GUE or other). Needless to say, when I finally did my AOW (with another awesome instructor) and Rescue (with the aforementioned cave diver) classes I was extremely well prepared. He wasn't / isn't a tool, but did NOT let little things slip and taught well past the basics. Probably not for everyone, but he knew his audience.
I’m an OW instructor, can teach just about any specialty, also a technical instructor, CCR cave diver, and continually training and learning. I have backed off of teaching the OW classes because of several,of the reasons you listed. The shop I was teaching for was mainly interested in gear sales and selling “advanced” read that more classes. I was criticized by a fellow instructor for NOT teaching my students kneeling on the bottom of the pool. I always try to teach above standards, and also explain the reason why we learn the skills we teach. I’ve had a lot of good instructors, and some not so good instructors over the years. I’ve always tried to incorporate the good traits from other instructors and avoid the bad ones. I know when I want to learn something I want to excel at it not just learn enough so I can get by. Great video!
So glad to see "Under Pressure" at the top of your reading list. This should be a mandatory read for any diver at the AOW level and upward
Simon Pridmore's 'Scuba Confidential' is excellent as well.
My open water instructor had myself and two others in class. He let the other two take a break on the 200 meter test in a pool. They basically rested every lap for over a minute. The tread water test he let one student hang on the side of the pool. I think they don’t want to fail anyone for the money $$$. I will say though that he did make us repeat skills many times over until it was second nature.
I did not even asked to swim at all.
My instructor skipped the pool and took us to the ocean (in a sheltered bay) for the entire course. We had to tread water and complete the 200m half way through the day when we were pretty exhausted already. I had a hard time completing it but I’m glad he did. I walked away from the course feeling a lot more confident than I would have if I had my hand held the entire time.
Fun fact, in my OW dive #1 my instructor yelled at me for hovering and told me to get on the bottom and on my knees with the other students. Many years later, I am now an instructor and teach Neutral buoyancy from day 1! Thanks for your tips and tricks, I was happy to see that as a new instructor I wasn't doing any of these bad habits! I also teach through SDI and encourage all my students to go look at the standards and to help keep me accountable and let me know if I miss anything!
he yelled at you underwater? impressive
@@LowKickMT Full-face mask flex?
@@LowKickMT Probably in a pool
I am so grateful for my unusual OW experience! It was through a college club and it was SIX WEEKS of 3+ hour sessions split between class and pool and then the 4 open water ocean dives.
And an amazing instructor who deserves much of the credit for the things I do right some 20 years later.
I did exactly what you suggested I not do, and in my case it actually worked out. I got my Open Water and then immediately got my Advanced and my Enriched Air. Side note - I'm 40 dives in and still haven't ever actualy used EA. However, it wasn't an agencey selling a course, it was me deciding that I flat-out KNEW this whole diving thing was for me and I wanted the additional training right away. The benefit was that I got another handful of dives in a training enviornment right away. I made plenty of novice mistakes yet had an instructor right there to correct me. To the credit of that instructor, his advice after I got the AOW was to not worry about more certifications, but to go dive and enjoy myself for a while. I don't have any regrets on the path I took.
YOur point is more about a shop actively selling the advanced course to new students and I can certainly understand why you'd find that unprofessional.
Exactly the same for me except I already did dive a lot as a child in a pool so it wasn’t that new for me to begin with, just never got certified before
The reason I continue to watch yr channel is the “High Standards” you continuously have shown over the years with diving! Thank you. Never step through your moral standards.
Thanks for your support! Dive safe.
I used to be a motorcycle instructor, and recognize many of these themes.
As a relatively new diver (AOW with about 30 post-certification dives), the one thing I want challenge is your objection to OW + AOW close together. With PADI, OW certifies to 60 ft. A lot of my dives have been in around 70 - 80 feet of water, where it was important to stay very close to the bottom with good buoyancy to limit the impact of strong currents. Being constrained by a relatively arbitrary depth limit would have had me hovering at 60 ft and getting separated from the group be being more subject to current, or being excluded from a load of excellent and very attainable dives.
I would argue the opposite conclusion: no agency should offer any certification that lacks sufficient content to prepare a student to dive to the normal recreational dive limits in good, warm water, clear viz conditions. To put it another way, OW + AOW should be the baseline.
Related to this, telling a relative novice that they are an "Advanced Diver" because they have done some simple eLearning and a handful of easy resort dives is beyond irresponsible. And as divers, more fool us if we believe it!
With my AOW and over 30 dives, I am confident diving in good conditions in the Caribbean. Now back home in Nova Scotia, I'm about to join an active ocean diving club, invest in a dry suit etc, and get into regular, year-round cold water diving, including wrecks which are a big thing here. I'm starting with no ego, knowing my Caribbean vacation diving experience counts for almost nothing in this new environment.
PADI can sell us whatever cards with whatever titles they want, but we are responsible for recognizing the limits of our own experience, and making good choices to develop our skills.
I learned basic navigation and night diving while doing OW. Our instructors even covered basic aid. AOW is a way to get more money out of you.
Hey James, excellent video and great advice as always! One thing I would add is that in practice, much of this is down to shop owners. In some shops, instructors are constantly arguing for sufficient instructional time for students, but shop owners are booking not enough sessions, not enough pool time, etc. Some agencies are no help with this, because they do not set minimal mandatory instructional time, and in any standards violation, it will be the instructor, not the shop owner who is primarily targeted for investigation.
I had no idea at the time of the quality of my instruction that I received while in college. 13 week course, 4 hours a week, repetitive skills, stressed situations in controlled environment. Came out of that course very confident and very well trained.
me 2. I also had the added bonus of the instructor offering/allowing people who were willing to do the extra work, etc to "jump over" the advanced OW, and become SSI Master Diver certified for a very low additional $100 per. Most of us pounced on the opportunity.
I had my first dive experience today - I paid for the online theory class beforehand for the Open Water SSI Cert. It was not a great experience. First, I have been congested so I told the dive instructor and the owner and they told me not to do it. After 3 days, I’m still dealing with sinus issues but the instructor told me to go and try to equalize my ears anyways. So I did, and most times I was able to, some not. He told me can try to do the confinement course then and I said ok. The confinement class is on the beach (I’m in little corn island, Nicaragua) and thankfully my ears were able to equalize but when we finished my head had a lot of pressure and I had a headache. I was also suffering from anxiety because the instructor didn’t tell us what we were going to do - we did all of the safety techniques in the water back to back. When we got out of the water, he said ok we are going to go for the open water dive in a few hours. I didn’t feel ready at all for that, we didn’t even finish our online course nor did he teach us anything at the shop, just how to check the air pressure in the tank. Anyways, I told them I don’t want to continue the course and they wanted $100 for the confined class I did. I don’t care about the money, I just want to feel comfortable and quite frankly I felt like crap after because of my sinuses. I feel like I have no one to talk to about this so thank you for your video, it validates that the instructor I had today wasn’t communicative, didn’t brief us and was pressuring us to do the course to get money even though I’m congested. I’m super bummed this was my first experience, especially in such a beautiful place but I can’t wait to find an instructor that will support me and do the course following these standards.
Spot on James!! Ive wittnessed instructors who went from being student orientated to "I have to teach as many students and as many courses as possible to make money" the students suffer, the schba shop suffers because of that negative experience but, thank goodness for great dive masters and guides who pick up thos divers and help them get better!
Great video!
I think a big problem is that for the students, we don't know what we don't know. I had a great time on my OW course, but when I told the friend (and scuba instructor) afterwards that I was travelling with at the time, she was shocked at some of the stuff. Videos like this go a great way to try and fix that issue.
Hey James, well you made me feel so much better about my instructors. I'm an SSI opens water and Nitrox cert. Rick, Dawn and John. We're our 3 instructors involved on our training. They really made us repeat skills to create some sort of muscle memory, maybe not right after a good job but back after the next skill off the next day. Or weight was very much spot on, I have t been able to go down with less weight. Our training was always based on bouyancy, never on knees. John made us take apart our gears many times every day of training pool and open water. I got certified end of June and have 24 dives by now. And just now i got offered the scale option for next year. But the thing is the first time we weren't diving without trainers we felt secure and confident of what we were doing, there were many talks and examples during the training days. And guidance. I also know you have dove with one of their trainees as he took some training from you. There are some good trainers out there. Thanks for your time.
well said James. As an instructor of many years (and yes it took me a while on some of these points) I have said alot of what you point out about getting to the next level. People are in too much of a hurry theses days to let the knowledge and mussel memory take over for some things like buoyancy control. GREAT JOB KEEP IT UP
James, You did well with this one, as always. I have been teaching SSI for 37+ years and SDI/TDI for 25+ Years, In Colorado USA. (Part-time)
We all have been through them. It was not until 2010 +/- that the industry started teaching the diver position. I hate the instructors that still teach the kneeing skills. ( I started this in the early 2000's). The weighting issue has always been a problem and will continue to be a problem. It is also a problem at resorts. A good instructor is always teaching about buoyancy and weight. Speaking of Resorts -- they are doing everything for the diver - setting up gear taking it down. Where is the Responsible Diver Code????? -
A buddy of mine got his OW at a resort in Mexico that took him down to 85’ in a cenotaph for his first cert dive. I warned him not to get certified at a resort. I often feel like a worse diver after a new course because I become keenly aware of how much more I have to grow as a diver, and am well aware that many of the courses are really only able to teach you a foundation given the limited time in water. The navigation course and rescue course are fine examples of courses with skills that need practice especially if you have lousy visibility. I’ve got both of Mark Powell’s books, Jill Heinerth’s, and Gareth Lock’s. I’m actually listening to Under Pressure for the fifth time and going through The Human Diver first module. My LDS is now making that a mandatory portion of the rescue diver course. Definitely worth it. Thanks for more titles and the ones I already read thanks to you. When are you gona write a book?
Thank you for saying these things out loud. I am gaining confidence with every dive I make as a new open water diver. I do feel some pressure to get my advance cert. I will follow through and get advance cert when I get more comfortable in the water. I really like my instructors and the divers that have trained me, BUT, I feel some do pressure to further training prematurely. I really enjoy scuba for many reasons. The people, scenery, the beauty of under water life is an amazing thing to see. I just want to log more dives before I take on more training. Thanks for your content.
My friend, some of the very worst fun divers I have guided are so-called "advanced" divers .. it is really a misnomer and makes people think they are better than they are. You could dive to 19m, name a few fish, do a small square in the water with a compass .. and you're basically an "advanced" diver. If you're not going all the way to Dive Master, or are happy at 18m and less (the best stuff where i dive in Thailand is 10m & less) .. DO NOT be pressured into it. These guys will get likely a commission from you doing the course.
01:37 - 1 - Over-weighting/Teaching Negative Buoyancy
03:11 - 2 - Poor Communication/Not Responding to Emails
04:20 - 3 - Standards Violations/Teaching The Minimum
08:00 - 4 - Weak Briefings/Debriefings
10:07 - 5 - Weak Dive Skills And/Or Knowledge
12:12 - 6 - Weird Pricing Policy
13:34 - 7 - Over-Selling
This is a great video James. New diver here, newly certified and I’ve seen a few of these already. My goal is to become a better, safer recreational diver. I’m currently diving in cold, fresh water only.
Thanks for your support! Dive safe.
I am a brand new SDI instructor and can only say thank you for the video!
Diving in Hurghada. Hadn't dived for 3 years due to COVID. The dive boat refused to do a reimmersion brief, had me mount my gear with no oversight and refused yo do a buddy check : safe to say i did not go into the water with them.
Many dive shops in the red sea should have a proper audit of their standards...
In the late 90's i was training to get my sports diver course done, i was diving with an area coach from the diving agency (kind of keeping this vague) i belonged to. he had been having issues with his drysuit and had been working on it at home. well we entered the water with him and we did a 20 meter dive and as we were ascending he looses control of his accent and as he gets near the surface he pulls open the neck seal to dump air. well i stupidly surfaced after him without a 1 min deco stop that the tables mandated. well because of my status as a trainee sports diver the story he put out was "i was responsible as i had lost control of my buoyancy during the accent and dragged him to the surface" the instructor reached the surface before me i had hold of him and had dumped most of my air out of my stab jacket and dry suit i was trying to slow his accent, i later found out he had forgot to remove a piece of polystyrene from the cuff dump of his drysuit and after this no one would dive with me and i gave up. iam now 52 i now live in America and have recently dusted off my gear and would like to go diving again.
My PADI open water course was a bit different than most peoples. It was spread out over the course of 16 weeks as an extracurricular class at my university somewhere in the Southwest. It gave us a lot of time to practice trim and buoyancy but there was a huge problem with our instructor. He was very hands off with us. His TA, who was a skilled rescue diver but not an instructor, was the one to teach us how to set up our gear, figure out weighting, and do buddy checks. If it was on the deck instruction, the TA was the one to teach it. The instructor would do classroom instruction and underwater skills only.
This instructor also had a habit of partying with those of us who paid for the dive trips where we completed our open water skill checks. On my certification dives, he dropped us off in Laughlin the night before the dives, then drove a few hours to Vegas to party through the night before being back in the morning for our dives. Notoriously, this behavior led to one eventful trip down to Mexico where he and two students ended up in the drunk tank over night before an early morning boat dive. Needless to say my university cut ties with him soon after and his local dive shop went out of business a year or two later
Had a 'discount' instructor who never showed up for the 2nd pool lesson. Entire group of students lost their money. Go with a reputable shop!
Number 1 haunts me, coming back to diving after a long pause, I had a 2 stars certification and over 100 dives (CMAS not sure if that training still exist), I decided that the right thing to do was to take the Advanced Course to refresh my skils/knowledge. So first pool practice the main instructor forces me to dive with 15 pounds!!!. I have a very negative buoyancy and good skills to control it (wen I got my first star training we didn't had BCDs in Mexico) but it took me two more pool practices to demonstrate to all be instructors that with my aluminum backplate BCC I didn't need any extra weight
CMAS still exist, atleast it's affiliation (CMAS-POSSI Indonesia). I just done a three-star course
Was in carribean in August, stumbled on a couple (OW) at dive boat (turned out they are from same resort), after watching them for a day, next day I asked them if they want some advice or they would like to keep struggle going.
Skills i had to explain them :
Boat dive - water entry/exit
Gear - putting in on , taking off - while in water.
Obeying your dive computer.
Understand your dive computer.
Tighten the yoke without uga-dugas, finger tight only.
Launching the DSMB.
Washing the gear after the dive.
Don't use your hands under water.
None of those skills were explained to them during the course.
----
I was planing for 4 dives on vacation, I ended up doing 10, in the end I found out that guy paid for all my dives at the dive center, they were so excited that they met me that day.
I guess it's a sign for me to upgrade from DM.
My point is this - if you see someone struggle, offer to help them. Maybe they just don't know. Don't just sit and giggle.
great list.
i can always spot a newbie by the use of hands.
i stay away from them because i know there going to catch my hose.
i've found most people don't carry a dsmb never mind know or practice how to launch it.
the problem i have is some people like advise some people don't and you say
next time mind your own business. .
i wish dm's would say more but i guess if it goes south it may affect the bottom line.
This is how diving should be
@@dtt3426 Definitely, some people accept advice being taken as a weakness. That's why if I offer one, I'm usually approach it personally - so not whole boat aware of that.
DSMB always on me, i better have it and don't use it than opposite.
A complicated one that I see often is instructors being willing to do absolutely everything for a diver. I know it is a customer facing business, but I've seen a divers taking an AOW class who don't know how to connect their regulator to the tank, work their computer, or have any sense of what weighting they need. While I get that many people dive 1-2x a year, if you're taking an advanced course, I feel like gear management should be a bare minimum skill. I wish there was more freedom for instructors to tell guests they aren't ready for a cert or need to brush up on fundamental diving skills.
The more of these videos I watch the more glad I am for my instructor being as good as he was
This is by far one of your best espisodes ever to new divers and it pinpoints so many tvings. Cheers👌🦕
In my first recreational dive after finishing my open water course I kept searching for the dive instructor during the whole dive at some point I found myself at 25 meters depth and he was just far away looking at me !! Then when we were diving back he insisted to give me his octopus dispite I already have 70 bars and he didn’t hold hands which made me loose his octopus and being searching for my regulator while being in a very short breath that was unnecessary danger !!
there's always this emphasis on "number of logged dives" as a proxy for experience. I learned far more in 10 self-planned and self-led dives than I did from 25 vacation dives where everyone follows the divemaster around the reef.
I had the opposite under weighted. We met on a boat in Key Largo. I'm 6' 4" 260lbs. They had me in a 7mm wet suit and when my tank got to about half I would pop to the surface like a cork once I hit about 15 ft
I couldn’t agree more with what you said. My wife and I are medical professionals and when we did our PADI course we asked questions and we where told your not my average students. So I would ask him what if and press him for some answers. He would still hold back some. Then we would go off and educate more ourself’s in the area and shoot back scenarios which he wasn’t wasn’t amused with. We passed and did our EAN after that and stop with him.
Thank you, James! Been an instrucror 25+ years I cannot agree more you list.
Thanks for watching! Dive safe.
In my pool courses, we rarely practiced skills (eg. out of air or weight removal/replace) out of the water. We saw it done and the were expected to do it under the water without doing it ourselves. I found out from a friend afterward that he disliked that dive shop.
I had great instructors for my open water in 2010 and my advanced open water in 2019. Learning how to dive was the best decision I ever made. I have been on 5 dive trips and over 100 dives. By the way, I went to Roatan last month, best dive trip ever.
In our Dive-Center, it is possible to take a Drysuit class while OWD, which is great since the lake is fkin cold
Great topic, common problems every diver might be having with their instructors!
I wish I could say zero-to-hero was only happening in country X or resort Y. But this is an industry-wide issue. My AoW instructor was visibly hesitant to train me as a newly certified OW student with zero fun dives, but the dive shop (his employer) happily took my money, so he had no choice. Looking back I realize he was in an impossible situation.
Thanks for the video, James. I once received a refferal student from Canada that didn't know how to swim.
Thanks for sharing! Dive safe.
Really interesting video - thank you. I’ve also seen instructors who don’t accompany their charges underwater- just do their own thing - even with Discover Scuba divers in tough conditions. Some instructors are plain bored ; their minds are elsewhere
Ha ha. I never did a swim test for the open water. Great example James. Yes, it was a padi course. I can easily swim 200m by the way.
Bloody scary how close our approaches are. I'm a CMAS South Africa 2 Star Instructor. Everything you've said is spot-on. We're not lucky enough to do live-aboards here, our waves are too big. In my humble opinion - "bare minimum" is not even an option. Especially with the 200m swims, 3min floating, 1min treading water, 30sec breath-hold and 20m underwater snorkel swim. Every now and then a yahoo skipper WILL flip the boat :)
I do start my beginner courses with the "kneeling" thing in the shallow end - just because if they sit, the cylinder pulls them over and they have a shitfit. But, before they even don hard gear, I get them into the water with basic snorkel gear and weightbelt and do a buoyancy check. With a full breath, they should float just below the surface. That's it. Those are your weights for the course. The BCD and Cylinder will cancel each other out. If you want to sink, exhale and use your fins.
Teaching students should be common sense - because, as beginner diver, you've been though it all already. Remember that, and instruct in a manner to reassure and impart enough knowledge to be useful. A baby diver doesn't need to know about Normoxic V-Planner calculations.
It's not about the (agencies-that-shall-not-be-named) zero-to-hero badges on your jacket though, like you mentioned, an Instructor need to be a comforting presence, credible source of info, an ambassador and a sharer of joy.
/rant
Hey Bob. Where do you dive out of? I’m an OW diver always looking for good agencies
you are doing your weight check wrong. if they float on the surface with full lungs and without a bcd / tank then they will have very positive buoyancy at the end of a dive.
@@LowKickMT Ah - sorry dude - think I maybe didn't explain it well enough. In an upright position - feet down, wetsuit on, fins on, mask on, chill normal breath, relax = you shouldn't sink lower your hairline - that's how I check my kiddies weights. Cylinder-wise, if you're using aluminium's (which we don't use here), fair enough, you're going to have to add a tiny bit more to get neutral buoyancy on the 5m safety stop.
Safe diving :)
@@RothCommunications Based in Johannesburg, where you at?
@@robrudman8037 Also Jozi...send me your shop contacts please
Oh man, yup got the combo OW, AOW + Computer Nitrox one after the other, it was "cheap", but had to pay boat tickets soo, so not cheap in reality. I do have 30 dives now not including a couple of recent aborted beach dive due to very poor visibility. Man I would pay for a book on Florida east coast beach dives, hard to find any good reference info, boat charters will bankrupt me.
Great video, but I have a comment about your #7. Where I learned to dive (Puget Sound) there are almost no dives suitable and safe for an unguided OW diver except in the same training ground sites where OW is taught. I went directly into AOW and felt perfectly comfortable and ready for AOW. Despite that, I would have felt completely uncomfortable without a serious guide / instructor for my first few dives after OW. I may have struggled at that time without a qualified, quality professional to get over that hump.
Haha, oh my God, I have those exact words!!! 20lbs. for a 140lbs diver in Key Largo! When I worked for the old Silent World dive center, I would hear that from divers coming from inland areas or from vacations only divers. It was so funny and sad at the same time! And trying to convince them otherwise is nearly impossible!!!
I got my ow cert in June 2022 I was in a 7 mil wetsuit in the pnw sound. My instructor had me in 70lbs of lead. I didn't feel like that was right so I went to another shop and got some help. Now I dive with 32-34 lbs!
32-34# is still a lot of weight. Thickest wetsuit I dive is 5 mil and with an AL80 I have 6#, 8 in saltwater. Even in a drysuit with thick undergarments I think I only house 12#. You might want to get in a pool sometime and see jut how little you can actually dive with.
Very good subject. My first instructor was one of these, he was 4 out of the seven.
What an amazing video, we've been talking about this a lot lately.
This is why you're the Pride of Australia
👌🏻🤿👌🏻 . Keep them coming
Thanks for watching! Dive safe.
Hi James,
Thank you for your hard work and content.
I enjoy you video's very much and they have given me new perspective on more then one occasion.
As I'am a faily new divemaster there is tons of learning to do.
The things standing out for me is the upselling, and the certification of students with the minimum of skills.
The last part in my opinion is due to the lack of spending time with students to complete the course. This is a pace of the diveshop, and this is not always the pace for students.
It's a thing I've discussed frequently but still see it happening a lot. Not only at the shop I work for.
Your video tells me my cause is just, and I will keep up the conversation for change!
Thanks again for the video!
Thanks for watching! Dive safe.
No complaints with my dive instructors. They were both really good, and I even got to see one of them spend some time with a student who was getting a little panicky underwater. Made me feel comfortable diving with him. Anyways, my complaint is with a dive guide I had. First open water dive after getting my Open Water certification. I told the guide the weight I used diving (in fresh water), and after looking me over quickly head to toe, he gave me a little less weight. Could I descend? Nope. His initial solution was to try to push me down! When that didn't work, he added weight and I could now join the other divers. Lesson learned for me: don't dismiss something that I think is important. Ask questions.
This is absolutely one of your best advice videos. I took your suggestions on three courses and am completing Tec’s course tight now and have signed up for Gareth Lock‘s email blogs and will be taking his course next. New instructor here… following 5 years and 480 dives and I STILL wonder if I am doing everything I can and also continue to search for better ways to teach. I too read dive books one of which is “Diver Down” and that book alone just frustrates me with the level of lazy attitudes that ultimately kill. But thank you so much for your dedication to the hobby. I think you are in the Miami area? I just moved to Port Charlotte three days before Ian hit and am going to be riding out this one…. Idalia I think it is.
I’m looking into getting my open water certification but am starting with swim lessons first since I can’t swim.
My local dive shop also does swim courses (although the names of the businesses are different)
One dive instructor told me I don’t need to know how to swim in order to scuba (although the other did breakdown the needing to know how to swim the x amount of distance and float for x amount of time- I’m tiny and can’t properly float)
Instructor number 2 told me they are looking into bundling open water and advance open water into one training session also when I was asking questions about deep diving and when they recommended going into the Tec classes at that point (mind you I don’t know what gases are taught at which course at this point) he pretty much implied that the other gases don’t do anything but might make people more comfortable and that he doesn’t know whether or not he’s ever felt nitrogen narcosis BUT told me a story of how his buddy asked him about his air and he forgot why he was looking at his watch…. So yeah
I’m limited on where I can get my training done sooo I’m trying to do as much preemptive research before I’m ready for classes because it is shocking how little safety precautions is in the general scuba culture- those who I have found on UA-cam seem to be the underliners-
I got a PADI open water cert. I was flying out of the country two days after the cert was meant to be over so I was trying to get this cert as quick as I could.... and the dive school helped me out. We did every skill once, I didn't do the swim test (had been working as a lifeguard for two years before this) and I messed up the mask take off because my mask was on too tight and I ended up really struggling to get it off my head and felt panicked. But eventually I was able to take off the mask... and that was it, took it off once and the instructor was comfortable passing me.
I don't know if it was because I was a lifeguard and really comfortable under the water aside from the mask business. But he was really happy with me and it felt like we really rushed through the course.
Also all this took place in the ocean, we knelt on the bottom for our skills at first but I kept getting pushed over by the current a few times and ended up just staying in the neutral buoyant position.
I was victim of sin 7 . My instructor at the resort I learned with , told me I had to do my AOW course if I wanted to go on the dive the day after I certified. Knowing nothing I obliged and 4 days and 4 dives after starting the sport I was at 30m in the Caribbean Sea with no real clue .
I had a bad open water instructor and probably his worst sin-aside from rushing us through the course and not making sure we were comfortable with our skills-was failing to get us excited about scuba diving. After we completed our last open water dive, me and the other students just looked at each other and shrugged. Like, “okay, this is cool, I guess.” I think we were all a little bored, and very uncertain about whether or not we were truly ready to dive. My instructor just seemed“over it” and didn’t bring any joy or enthusiasm (not to mention effort).
I needed 35 pounds of lead to stay at the bottom on my OW course. I weighed 330 pounds and had a 7mm neoprene wetsuit with boots on me so I displaced a lot of water which made me very boyant.
my dad took me SCUBA when i was littlke boy ever since I LOVE SCUBA DIVING
I'm doing my PADI OW in China right now. I had a bit of an argument with my instructor because he requires only 2 ow dives on a single day, instead of the specified 4 on 2 days (specified in the PADI online theory class). He just pretended to be lost in translation... so I guess he broke the communication rule as well. I already paid, so I will have to live with it...
As a new open water diver. Nitrex cert also. I agree on the getting a few dives in before your advanced water certification.
I have a different opinion on the advanced courses topic. Did my SSI OWD in Germany, where we are diving in cold and dark lakes with shitty vision. I started the SSI AOWD with specialities Navigation, Dry Suit and Night Diving & Limited Visibility right after finishing my OWD. In my opinion this is absolutely required knowledge to safely dive in our local area. You can get away without those if you have a much more experienced buddy/guide, but then you are fully reliant on his skills. But generally I agree that one should not push too far without collecting some experience. The deep speciality for example usually is pushed to the far end of the course where the student already has 25+ dives.
I once had a PADI instructor that told me I wouldn't need a dive computer (or anything that shows how deep i am) because I would stay on her level, and she would have a computer even when we would go down 18 meter and I was just a fresh OWD Diver (did the OWD somewhere else with really good instructors luckly)...
I declined and demaned a computer or I wouldn't do the dives with her. She then gave me one. Was the reason i bought one for myself before the next dive vacation, to not have this discussion again.
Oh additionally, I did the Perfect boucancy course with her and it was basically just 2 regular dives where she hang a pound of led in the end of the dive to one of my sides and said i should now try to balance...
Learnd in my later AOWD course that PPB can be way better then that.
Also she had OWD Students herself come with to their first real dives - and they didn't have a computer as well...and we more then 18 meter deep (he was 2 meter below me and I was basically at 18,5 to 19) but how would he know?
I recently talked to a presumed dive instructor, and they said they've never dived in Bonaire because all the vehicles there are manual transmission which they can't drive. :D
Last point happened to me. They suggested me that I could attend to the advance open water right after I got my ow certification. I said no. I don't feel like I could be and advance scuba diver yet.
James, try visiting WAPSAC and see the litany of Bad instructor practices.
Thank you very much James for the reading list!! :)
Glad to help! Dive safe.
I find it interesting that you mention backing OW with AOW as a problem. Personally, I lean towards them being a single course. Most of the skills taught in AOW are basic dive skills. In particular, as you say, lots of shops teach minimum standards and trim/buoyancy are almost always simplified to a criminal degree. What are your thoughts on doing it this way?
For further classes, I agree. 25+ dives between courses to hone skills.
Everything in AOW use to be in OW until the mid to late 90's. I debate on this one all the time too.
It would be so cool having this guy as an instructor
I Made My advanced Open water course basically 5 dices after my Open water cert. I really should have waited and made more dives befor donde ng the advanced cert
Great videos! This and the rescue diver video are some of the best. Just got my advanced open water, going for my rescue next. Thanks James, informative and entertaining...although you dont talk "American". Just kidding!
I'm glad my instructor has non of these :)
I am really happy with him too. That's why we stick to that instructor for every class we take (we only did owd and aowd but atleast I'm planning to do rescue and nitrox when I have the money to do it (but I'm gonna take a dry suit class with the guy who sells me a dry suit, but that is included into the price for the dry suit and he seems to be a good guy too))
@S C could you try to say the first sentence different? I'm not a native speaker and therefore couldn't really understand what you were saying.
Actually most of the instructors I've met in Germany seemed really good to me. But another instructor like James might see flaws I can't see. They can't all be good :D
(me and my father were pretty easy students tho. We didn't had many questions and got all the skills right away (we snorkled before we went to scuba diving))
@S C His name is Matthias he is an instructor in northern Germany in the baltic sea :)
@S C great Location? We don't have a lot of fish nor big reefs 😅
I am a BSAC diver and before my first lesson my instructor told me. I have no weight in my BCD but you have 4KG, we have to over weight you so you don't float. That is terrible. When I asked another instructor why I have to be over weighted they said it was too much work to teach a student to be neutrally buoyant when you are trying to teach them skills. Buoyancy and trim should be mandatory training in your first few pool sessions.
I'm a long time diver, I have no desire to be an instructor. BTW I've taken a lot of courses, (up to master diver) never had a swim test.
i think a good instructor can spot students having trouble swimming and ask for a swimming test, i brought my friend for open water course just last weekend and the instructor saw something amiss when he had trouble swimming and asked him to do a swimming test, true enough he couldn't swim, the instructor then gave him time to complete his swimming lessons, and resume his OW training later
I've diving for 25 yrs and master diver don't remember a swim test
I did. The instructor actually read the requirements incorrectly (doubling them) and nearly "killed me". 😅 Fortunately 1/3 through she re-read it and realized she had doubled it and let us know.
FYI: referring to swim-test
Love your videos …AND am one of those who went to your website, sent an email about getting tech trained, and never heard anything in response.
Once again you have hit the various nails on the head. It is very disturbing to see these shortcomings so regularly. Keep up the great work man!
Great video James! I would love to hear your opinion as well as those of fellow instructors on the teaching skills neutrally buoyant vs kneeling. Particularly in poor vis, drysuit condition. I taught almost exclusively neutrally buoyant open water classes on Utila and Fiji. But now that i am teaching back in Canada we teach our open water students in drysuits from the get go. That paired with sometimes 3-5 feet of vis in the summer months and I feel like kneeling suddenly has its place. (Along with a lot of assisting DMs). Anyone have any other teaching tricks to combat the low vis and added student difficulties with drysuits?
I've seen a newly certified OW with 1 post cert dive, start dry suit training.
I'm 100% with you on everything you mentioned except for the AOW course being taken too soon.
IMHO i see the AOW as cash for depth, there's nothing added to the course, it's just 5 "adventure" dives.
I think let's get all of the courses out of the way and start diving RESPONSIBLY
Please correct me if I'm wrong
I had an instructor who clearly overweighted all of us students and also did not seem to appreciate fin buoyancy when recommending fin selection. One of the other students was recommended to switch from a semi-neutral buoyant fin to Jet fins and proceeded to spend the rest of the class "walking" through the water.
fins are not the problem, it part of a total setup that can be adjusted. I where RK3 HDs, no weight in my trunks and I am fine.
@@shuntao3475 I totally agree, assuming that the total setup is adjusted. The total setup was not considered. Since ScubaPro Jets are noticeably negatively buoyant (unlike the standard RK3s), the end result of the switch resulted in a diver completely out of trim.
I saw students doing advance and deep courses without the ability to make a safety stop successfully, just stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes without going to the surface.
So direct and honest….i like 😊
Thanks for watching! Dive safe.
What’s funny is I just got my Scuba Cert Saturday and watched the movie Se7en last night.
"Little bubbles there's no troubles"
I've had to change my current OW student's rental regs 4 times now due to TINY leaks. Trying not to pass a bad habit onto the student, but it's very tempting to just ignore little bubbles and get on
There was a guy in my rescue diver class recently proud of his 90’s jacket bcd and regs he’d never had serviced. EVERY fitting had bubbles coming out of it. I asked the instructor is he was our sacrificial victim.
Good reading list. “Scuba Professional” by Simon Pridmore is a great book for instructors too.
Just get certified in cold water dive area, not warm like Florida or etc.
Usually warm water divers are less skilled because you don't have to worry much about your gear, buoyancy etc.
Very good topic. As an asst instructor I have seen good and bad students, and felt the squeeze of the time limits we have to train people.
I have had passionate debates with other dive pros on the training we give. The shop I used to teach at ran 3 hour classes (usually 6pm to 9pm). This time was usually split about 50-50 classroom to pool. I favor far more time in the pool and think that at least some of the stuff in the book isn't terribly useful to the average diver. I get that there is a need for being personable- I am guilty of delivering a military style briefing more than filling time with stories and anecdotes. However, I've watched students eyes glaze over after 45 minutes of class teaching (especially those after work hours) and you are essentially wasting time you could be in the water. I believe that you learn more from doing than sitting in a class, and actually being in the water engages students more anyway. I am not convinced knowing all the medical terms we teach is that useful to day one divers. As a teacher/guide/dive leader you need a deeper knowledge but spending hours on medical terminology for new recreational divers that will likely never need it just cuts into training time even more. After speaking with many instructors I've determined that the only time they ever use all that medical terminology is teaching it in OW. Never using it in any actual scenario. That is time I'd rather spend in the pool doing basic rescue techniques than in a class room shoving 20 letter medical words down students' throats. The former is a far better use of limited training time.
I believe the best instructors do the most teaching with a regulator in their mouth, not talking in front of a white board.
can you explain why you should not do the advanced course right after the open water course? i was on fun dives before taking OWD and my motivation to get certified was to be able to be responsible for my own safety since i did not like to be dragged around and exposed to risks and not know about alll the safety measurements. i felt great doing the advanced course right after OWD, the skills were easy. i would have felt limited with just OW on fun dives. most fun dive instructors/agencies are horrible. i am deeply concerned that i will not be able to learn anything on fun dives if i am not capable of being my own boss. on a fun dive, no one will correct my trim position or breathing technique. i am on my own. so i took the chance to learn as much as i could and do the AOW quickly. i did really well and now i feel confident enough to go on fun dives and be responsible for my own safety and to continue learning on my own, to improve my trim, SAC and bouyancy control on my own. i learned to dive with minimal weight (3-4 kg of lead). i learned to co trol my bouyancy with my lungs instead of my bcd. i feel really confident in my abilities now and i think i wouldn‘t have reached that level with fun dives after OW. and my instructor said: „it‘s easier to work on mistakes now and not let them become habits by diving without an instructor to correct you“
what‘s your opinion on my experience? would be really great to hear your thoughts! ❤
Mine wasn’t over it was under. I was in a seven mill wetsuit. When I got to about half a tank when we got to about 4 meters I would pop up like a crock. They never gave a swim test. I’m a good swimmer, but still should of been tested
Great points totally agree
OMG, I know some places where people start from OW straight through DM in a few months.
I loved the video and it was super helpful. Any tips for divers in land lock states where the selection of instructors is pretty slim?
Have to admit I didn't do many skills over during the training but even now if I hit a pool I do them to keep them sharp. Didn't get pressure to move to the next level out of OW but sadly the shop did have an extra fee to rent the mask, snorkel and fins but they used that as a way to try to upsell gear. Personally I don't see a major need to drop 300 on a mask, fin and snorkel when it's so low tech I can make something that will work in a pinch with a few shop tools and duct tape, lol. Also saw some people going out and dropping a couple thousand on gear which just made me shake my head, I eventually started getting gear but took my time so that I knew what I got was what worked well for me not just what the shop said was the best.
After my AOW course the shop I dealt with (different one this time) was pushing the rescue diver course and there was no way in the world I was ready to do it. My wife passed away 02/2019 and she was a major reason why I started diving because I was truly lost and wandering. I had always wanted to dive but never truly expected to be able to but while I was in the water I truly felt calm and able to handle things. The pool part of the rescue course was no big deal but the CPR part was........ difficult for me to deal with. I found my wife not breathing and started CPR while calling EMS for help. It didn't do any good but feeling her breastbone break under my hands nearly broke me as well. I had been diving for over a year when I rescue certified.
I have to agree the zero to hero places need to be shut down. At the very least there should be a couple months and 20 to 30 dives to 50 feet for 30 minutes between each course till you have finished rescue IMHO. It would give people a chance to let their skills soak in and really be put to work. I have seen so many people just OW certified with so many bad habits it's scary sometimes. One couple both had backplates and wings and both of them had no sense of trim and were basically at about a 45 degree angle while swimming along in a lake kicking up crud from the bottom the whole time. They were both AOW certified but were unable to trim while swimming.
Anyway will be down in your area (Fort Lauderdale) for Thanksgiving. On Black Friday I hop a ship to have a little downtime, going to try and get a couple dives in on Thanksgiving day and already have one setup while on the ship in St Kitts and hopefully get another one in Sint Maarten.
Tempted to add, No. 8 - in two parts: a) Paying more attention to the more attractive students in the class, up to and including hitting on them as soon as they've qualified and they are no longer 'your student', b) failing to correctly handle a situation where a couple are learning to dive, and one half of the couple is clearly i) not really that into it and nervous, but being pushed into it by their partner, or ii) having everything done for them (e.g. gear set-up) by their partner, and thus not really learning how to dive.
I unfortunately had a bad experience with a scuba diving instructor that actually Caused me to quit getting my open water certification just under a year ago Up here in New Jersey. I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus and say that person's name but For our first pool session He brought us to one of his friend's private swimming pool in a backyard in New Jersey when it was 50ﾟ outside and the pool Was green from allergy Was green from allergy And made all of the students jump in the pool to do their swim test without a wetsuit It was so cold that when I hit the water it literally knocked the breath out of me.
I am a certified diver have been since 1986 my son is currently going through OW1 right now and the on your knees hand signals have been used several times also the weighting issue has been approached by the more the better I don’t want to be rude or intrude on the instructor I am just in the water observing I am also prior military and the brief before entry is ok but there is no debrief after words in your professional opinion how show I address this or should I just wait till my son is completed and fix the issues one on one with him thanks again your content is extremely helpful
I graduated from my diving classes. One time doing a skill, move on. No repetition at all. They insulted the students. Had my C card thrown at me when I went to go get it. Have never stepped in that shop again.