If you ask the average person what he dreams about, what else he would like to do interesting in life; a very often mentioned dream is the desire to become a diver. If the possibility of becoming a diver is so fascinating then the possibility of becoming a scuba diving instructor is a dream to some power. This is really something.
One day, sitting somewhere in a hotel by the warm blue water, you’ll see a group of instructors at a neighboring table discussing recent dives, plans for tomorrow, new skills acquired by students. Diving T-shirts, hair faded from the sun (in those who have it), plans for tomorrow.
But, after all, it could also be that sitting at a table in some hotel by the warm blue water and discussing with your colleagues the latest dives, plans for tomorrow and new skills acquired by the students, you turn your attention to someone who is watching you closely. Well, and then you’ll think it’s a good thing you’re already here, although being there doesn’t mean the goal is unattainable.
Divers have two views on how to become a diving instructor.
Some in the basic diving course, come out of the water a second time and ask “and how does one become a diving instructor?”.
Others have been diving for many years, have hundreds of dives behind them and one day, at the urging of friends and some inner voice, decide to become an instructor. Regardless of how we evaluate these motivations; often good instructors and sometimes poor instructors remain from both. It is decided by a certain, quite hidden inner “I”, manifested by our approach to people.
I don’t know what other instructors find most valuable about being an instructor, but I personally think the best thing about being an instructor is getting to know people. This is getting to know in a slightly deeper and more complete way than meeting new friends on vacation. However, diving is a bit of an adventure, a challenge, some risk. When we dive together, or train new students, some deeper relationship is formed. The fellowship is definitely deeper than when we just meet for a get-to-know-you evening at the hotel. Simply diving brings you closer. After a few days, we know more about each other than ordinary acquaintances. This does not immediately mean a great friendship – although diving together often leads to true friendships, but even relatively fleeting encounters with other divers at the dive base, lead to strong relationships.
So one day we get the idea to become a diving instructor, and then the important question “How?” is asked.
If our idea is quite exotic and we have never dived, we need to start by learning to dive, i.e. take the first diving course, then the next and the next. After some time, we are in the situation of a diver who comes up with a similar idea by diving for years. Without this initial training and the experience gained, it simply won’t work.
If we are a diver and become interested in the prospect of becoming a diving instructor then the next step is to see what, if any, gaps in our diving training we need to fill, before enrolling in an instructor course. With some simplification, because it depends a bit on the organization, we must have done three consecutive diving degrees:
- Basic Course
- Advanced Course
- Rescue course
After that, you need to do underwater guide training and we are ready to attend the dive instructor course.
The instructor course is about 10-14 days of training – and at a very high intensity. Classes are from morning to evening and self-study “after nights” is nothing exotic.
The diving instructor course includes a CPR and first aid instructor course, a diving instructor course and often additional training to teach, so-called specialized diving, such as dry suit, wreck or night diving.
First aid instructor course
The first aid instructor course teaches future instructors how to practice skills such as:
- Assessment of the scene of the incident, accident
- Use of protective barriers like gloves or CPR masks
- Assessment of the victim
- Basic procedures for a person who is conscious, unconscious or without signs of circulation
- Techniques for performing chest compressions to induce artificial circulation
- Full Resuscitation or chest compressions combined with artificial respiration
- Management of severe bleeding, traumatic shock and suspected spinal injuries
- This includes assessment for injury or illness, and bandaging and immobilizing limbs.
The study covers both situations where the injured person is an adult and those where a child or infant is injured.
Diving instructor course
The diving instructor course covers many aspects of teaching diving to future students. A dive instructor must simultaneously teach, provide underwater belay support and reign in the logistics of the classes being conducted. Combining these three areas into one safe and effective training requires considerable skill. That’s why a good instructor course is so important.
Learning to give lectures
In the diving instructor course, candidates master the methodology of lecturing. Lecture skills are not an innate skill of the average diver. Therefore, the ideally prepared modular lecture methodology makes every lecture after the course enjoyable for the instructor and valuable for the students. Candidates are given ready-made lecture outlines and learn to prepare their own valuable and interesting lectures based on them. The lecture skills acquired are useful in diving but also in normal life.
Teaching diving in the pool
The next skill mastered by instructor candidates is to teach diving in the pool. Whether it’s just a simple clearing of the mask from the water, a slightly more complicated hovering in the depths or blowing a buoy, or an elaborate exercise like bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface, the instructor’s ability to perform the exercise is only the first element. The most important thing is to know how to teach it to students so that it is safe and efficient. In this area, the most important part of the instructor course begins to manifest itself.
Safe and efficient teaching. The ability to level the difficulty and logistics of the group being trained has a huge impact on safety but also on the pace of learning. A future instructor must learn how to use the standards of a diving organization to teach specific exercises. A typical example is learning how to clean a mask of water that a diver specifically poured into it to get rid of fogging on the inside of the windshield, or that poured in “on its own” as a result of inattention or poor mask fit and correction.
The next steps in learning how to clean the mask are as follows:
- Blowing out a partially flooded hood, stationary:
In water shallow enough that the diver can get up at any time and the mask is filled with water only a little – the first time the student kneels stably on the bottom of the pool. - Blowing out a completely flooded hood, stationary:
In water shallow enough that at any time the diver can stand up and the mask is filled with water completely – the first time the student kneels stably on the bottom of the pool. - Repetition of the above exercises, but already performed only in partial support against the bottom with the ends of the fins in the so-called pivot, which requires both the exercise and keeping an eye on buoyancy.
- Performing the above exercises while swimming in the depths.
- After that, there are further developments of this exercise:
Shooting and putting on a mask underwater or swimming without a mask or breathing without a mask for an extended period of time.
As you can see, a very strong emphasis is placed on the juxtaposition of these exercises, choosing the right place to perform the exercise, adjusting the degree of difficulty imposed, slowly achieving situations closer and closer to real diving.
Poor training logistics lead to an increased chance of an accident (for example, when a trainee is instructed to flood the mask too quickly and too deeply, which can lead to a sudden ascent); the trainee is slower to learn (this every athlete knows that initial correct mastery of a new skill requires comfortable, isolated conditions); the skill is taught imprecisely – a stressed trainee tries to perform the exercise as quickly as possible without focusing 100% on correctness. This results in wasted time and increased risk. Training is more dangerous and less effective.
That’s why it’s so important for future instructors to master the methodology of teaching basic diving skills, and the pool is an ideal place for such learning.
Teaching diving in open water (lake, quarry or sea)
The next area of instructor mastery is teaching students open water diving skills. In this situation, new problems are again before the new instructor. An ocean of opportunity but also an area full of pitfalls. First, a decision is needed on what skills can be taught right away in open water and what skills must necessarily be taught beforehand in the pool or in similarly friendly conditions. At what depth do we conduct the given exercises with the students. How we belay them. Belaying in the pool is sometimes important too, but in the open water of a lake, quarry or sea it is even more important.
At the end is the instructor’s exam. All in all, there is nothing to elaborate. It is the instructor course that is important – the exam is just a formality. The exam actually tests the training skills of the Course Director, i.e. the person teaching the instructor course. If candidates fail, the one who trained them and allowed them to take the exam is to blame 😉
Candidates take tests on theory and teaching standards. They credit lecture methodology and teaching diving skills in the pool and open water. The exam is a full two days of nerves, preparation and struggle for the result.
But then you don’t have to prove anything anymore.
