In the field of diving instruction are a lot of diving instructors who offer the best or highest level of training but charge rock bottom prices. What is wrong with that picture if you start thinking that these individuals have to maintain their own diving skills, engage in diving activities and have to make a living of the fees they are charging to their potential students? If they compete so hard do they have the time to go through with detailed quality training or do they just push people through to get to next course and start all over again. Dive instructors who live on the financial edge could be prone to sloppy instruction to shortcut the educational process to get to the next training program and student. Cheap instruction and courses with a heavy discount in conjunction with cheap and inferior equipment are not the best foundation for a solid diving education. Why many students who have experienced such a short cut diver education have overcome the shortcoming through accumulate diving experience a primary successful diver training program could have build a solid foundation. The true problem for a potential student is to how to find not only a certified but also a qualified and experienced instructor in the field of diving one is looking to get instructed and taught in.
In some instances less experienced instructors are trying to establish them self in areas of high quality training and with heavy discounted prices potential students might be drawn to these diving instructors and in the process potentially receiving diver training that is inferior to other perhaps more expensive diving instructors. What you pay for is what you get in most of the instances but choosing only the most expensive diving instructor might not hold the whole true answer.
The location of an experienced and qualified diving instructor that is maybe residing out of your region of residence could involve travel, financial and time commitments to receive your quality diver education. It is you who is striving for perfection, higher diver education and elevation of diving skills and that might involve research and long distance travel. Cutting corners in diver education while spending money on travel and equipment does not make any sense. Why saving on the one thing that could save your life or someone else’s life?.
How do you evaluate a diving instructor over long distances with the number of instructors ever increasing with the advertising and promises mounting can be a difficult task. One good way to evaluate your potential diving instructor is to invest a little time into research and finding out if the instructor is actually doing the kind of diving he is training in, not only doing training dives but actually doing this kind of diving in his own time. Does the instructor has been participating in expedition projects that included that type of diving, does the instructor did or does organize projects on a larger scale which is including this type of diving. How long is the potential instructor engaging in the type of training that we seeking training in and how many dives or hours did he dive in that type of diving.
Another important point is in how many different environments did the instructor conducted his dives activities in, is he or she experienced in warm water only or does the instructor have experience in cold water, black water, currents, wrecks or caves to relate within the training program to potential hazards or unique circumstances in various environments. There is nothing wrong getting in touch with a potential instructor and ask for a diving history report in various environments, experience in personal and teaching various levels of diving or a diving resume. This contact can be used as well to talk about course content and scheduling issues.
How experienced your instructor is going to be is partially depending on if he is a full time or part time instructor. Instructors who teach during weekends but have a full time job during the week are part time instructors. While these part time instructors are mostly as dedicated as full time instructors they may find enough time to do their teaching and training dive requirements but could fall short on time staying up current with new diving skills, techniques and equipment developments as well as for their personal fitness program.
The full time instructor who is focusing his or her total available time to become and stay current in developments including time for their personal training program will find as well time to do some recreational diving, outside the teaching diving requirements to maintain and gain upper level diving skills. These full time instructors are more immersed into the world of diving, re-evaluating them self during their recreational diving activities, learning new skills and drills and most of them have taken continuing education programs either at the instructor level or the diver level while participating in advanced forms of diving such as technical, wreck, cave or rebreather diving activities.
The training program of your choice will and should provide you with a number of highly educational materials along with the instructor’s knowledge and presentations. While each student is required to own their own related course materials it is undoubtly beneficial to pre read and pre educate oneself prior to the course or training program. This pre education phase of the diver training program is very important to facilitate the teaching process once with the instructor and understand the topic and matter talked about. It gives the student a unique chance to formulate questions that can be brought up during the lecture portions of the course to identify areas of special interest as well as to see if the instructor is knowledgeable about the topics presented, hence evaluating your instructor of choice and identify an experienced professional individual.
Prolonged pre-course study periods can be used to research various sources of information. Your selected instructor can answer all of your questions during a pre-course period while staying in touch and communicate. Local libraries are another source of information, which might fill in some of the deeper questions or history related areas. In today’s age and time the Internet is the ultimate resource with literally billions of web pages on the World Wide Web. While most people are connected to that vast recourse they have the unique chance to access and experience in their mother tongue the remarkable amount of diving related information. The great advantage of Internet related information is it’s almost instantly available and is almost unsurpassed with the up to date status in regards to new developments and scientific studies.
Greetings
Matt