The Relationship between an instructor and student is a very
special one and if you get it right it can produce fantastic results. I always
find it amazing that people compare diving agencies and courses and how
ingrained diving politics is from a very early start even though all the agencies
teach very similar courses and skills in very similar ways as that is the best
way that diving is done. This is even more amazing considering many instructors
teach for multiple agencies, even the ones that they often turn you against.
Whatever the course it is only ever as good as the
instructor teaching it. If you can find a good instructor then I would say
stick with them. You may do courses with others as well but it is always worth
coming back to the person that you trust to give you their opinion. I still
keep in touch with my original instructor on a regular basis and except for my
professional qualifications he has taught me every course I have ever done from
Open Water to Trimix. I still to this day ask his advice and opinions on diving
and we often discuss teaching methods and approaches. He has an amazing wealth
of diving knowledge and teaches for PADI, BSAC, TDI and IANTD, and has always
given me a balanced view on the pro’s and con’s of all these agencies. Always
remember no system is perfect and depends as much on the instructor as the
system they are delivering. Ask yourself this “Would the last course you were
taught have been really any different if the same instructor had taught it from
a different organization? Would the key facts and information have been any
different?”
I know that in the
courses I teach I try to draw on the positives I have seen from all the
agencies and different instructors I have trained with. I also try and work out
the con’s. For example I teach the PADI system as I have always found the books
and materials to be the most user friendly and accessible, however I have also
always tried to include my students in an active diving group/club which I have
always liked about the organisation of BSAC.
The most important aspect of learning to dive is finding an
instructor to trust and makes your experience rewarding. When you have found a
good instructor who can offer you the courses you need then why look elsewhere?
Your instructor should be on hand to offer support and advice on diving while
on a course and after it as well. They shouldn’t be there to squeeze you for
every penny you have but should offer you services they think you need and they
believe in.
I personally always try to get my students to get to at
least rescue diver as I think the skills you learn at this level are the
minimum any good diver should have. I also try and get them to book courses in
blocks. This allows not only discounts, as I can structure more efficient training,
but also gives more time to explore other aspects of diving. Say you did a dry
suit course, a deep course and an enriched air course. Doing them separately
you get 2 dry suit tuition dives, 4 deep tuition dives and 2 enriched air
tuition dives. Now if you booked them as a package all together you could have
the chance to do 8 dives in which you could use a dry suit and enriched air
while diving deep while still focusing on the specific skills that each dive
would require for certification. You come out with 8 enriched air dives, 8 dry
suit dives and 8 deep dives, now which diver do you think would be better?
The dive industry is often its own worst enemy, especially
in holiday locations where they tend to “pile’em high, sell’em cheap”. Having
seen instructors with 8 students in Open Water I wonder how they would cope if
it went wrong. In the UK we are governed by HSE and so a much more realistic
ratio of 4 students to 2 professionals is more the norm, and also the numbers I
would try to offer where ever I was diving. I always think that you get what
you pay for and if you pay almost nothing for tuition in life support skills
then don’t be surprised if you don’t always get the quality you are looking
for.
On almost all of my diving courses where I was the student,
I have had a 2 to 1 ratio or more often than not 1 to 1. This meant that the
attention and focus was always on me and my improvement and we could always
work on the areas in which I was weakest. To get this high level of tuition and
also the custom focused courses I have always paid a premium and it is a
premium that I am always willing to pay. Next time you think of booking on a
course don’t just look at the cost but the value. I always apply a very simple
equation in any situation where I am looking for instruction:
Cost Per Min of Direct Instructor Time = Course Cost / ((Course
Time (min)/Students on Course))
Let us compare2 Open Water Courses, 1 which is £450 with 2
students on the courses and one at £250 with 6 on the course. Let us say you
have 20 hours of direct Instructor class time doing theory and water session.
The 2 student course:
Cost per Min of instructor time = £450 / (1200min/2) = 75p
per minute of direct instructor time
The 6 student course:
Cost per Min of instructor
time = £250 / (1200min/6) = £1.25 per minute of direct instructor time
So you tell me who is getting the best value for money and
who will be the better divers?
We all look to get different things from diving and I would
never want diving to become to elitist that it priced out people who can
experience so much from it, though I would always say get the best training
that you can afford and that if it is the difference between some new shiny
gear or paying a little more for your training then I always think that the
training will always offer the greatest return.
