The comments in this video are not necessarily
my own. They're actually the observations based on the myriad of emails that I get on a
scarily regular basis from normal divers who have finished their basic training
or are struggling to finish due to some kind of instructor issue. These are the
seven deadly sins of bad dive instructors. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Divers Ready!
My name's James, as always so great to see all of your smiling faces. I hope you're all
doing really, really well. If you're new to our channel welcome, make your next dive on
our subscribe button, and support the content because we make videos with one simple goal and
that's to help make you the best diver you can be. And the goal of this video is twofold, I
want to make the scuba diving public aware that there are quality dive instructors out there
in the world who really care about their craft and there are not so quality dive instructors,
and here's how you tell them apart. Secondly, I want to help new dive instructors avoid some
of the pitfalls that I had to learn the hard way in my early career because there is no support
coming from your training agency. So maybe I can help you avoid forming a few bad habits. Now if
you're a diver who has been on the receiving end, let me know in the comments below. It's okay this
is a safe space let's dive in. First up, this is a doozy overweighting or poor buoyancy. I'll say
it again, when I was training to be an instructor, I was taught to tell my students to kneel. There
is a better way! If you're an instructor who is too lazy to teach proper buoyancy and insists
on teaching skills in the unrealistic position of kneeling on the bottom, we've already
made a separate video on why this is stupid, I'll link above there, then you're probably
also the kind of instructor who likes to convince their students that they need much more
weight than they actually do. Nearly every day, nearly every day I'm setting my gear up on a dive
boat and I'll hear someone ask for 24 pounds of lead on a shallow Key Largo reef dive. For a
jacket-style BCD in an 18 and I'll look over and I'll be like who needs 24 pounds of lead? And it's
a 110-pound girl wearing a three mil shorty. Now, where did this slip of alas get the idea that she
needs so much lead? Their instructor told them! Why? Why? Well, it's very simple, overweighted
students are easier to control. If in doubt you know where you're going to find them on
the bottom. It is much easier to overweight students and have them anchored to the sand or
dive platform than to teach proper weighting and buoyancy. It's just dumb laziness and it's
dangerous and it makes diving harder and more cumbersome than it needs to be which puts people
off the sport altogether and I can't stand that. Next up is poor communication or not responding
to requests for information. Look, hey guilty! Mi culpa! I have to own this one. Since starting
this channel this is definitely something I have had to work a lot harder at. I get inundated with
emails and messages across all the multitude of platforms out there including YouTube comments
and everything else and I try to direct everyone to my email because that's the absolute best
way to reach me but then I get busy teaching, I get locked into a long week, of course, my
days are long and you know, digging myself out of my inbox is the last thing I want to do in the
evening after a long day in the water. But it has to be done and I'm working to be better at it so
I get messages from people all the time that say they reached out to instructors for courses and
just never heard back at all. So I try and answer everybody who contacts me even if the answer is
just no sorry I can't help you with that. But at least give some kind of a response. I'm sure
I missed more than a few and if that's you I'm truly sorry. I hate the idea that people are out
there that like email James and he's too important to reply to me. That is absolutely not the case no
offense intended. Next up well, this is a big one, I should have probably put this at the number one
position, not that these are in any particular order. But yeah, standards violations. Teaching
the bare minimum minimal skills repetitions. I've talked about this a little bit before on the
channel but allow me to expand. The minimum effort instructor that's basically what we're talking
about here this is the instructor who either willfully breaks standards through laziness
or ignorance, or teaches just the minimum requirements or takes the one-and-done approach
to skills. Now you may have seen your instructor use something that looks like this, these are
skill slates and they're waterproof cards that basically have reminders for your instructor on
what is required on each different dive of the course that you happen to be doing. But these
are just the bare minimums, I should probably do a whole video just on standard violations
but for now, let me give you a quick example. Let's take the swim test for the Open Water course
for example. The standard for the swim test for the training agency whose programs I currently
offer says distance swim of 200 meters non-stop using any stroke without the use of mask, snorkel
or any swimming aids or 300 meters non-stop using mask, snorkel, and fins. So just with that one
skill the swim tests, some common violations committed on a regular basis include allowing
rest breaks, it clearly says non-stop. Allowing the use of a wetsuit, which is a flotation
aid, which it says you can't use and then not completing the required distance or cutting
the skill short. There's no reason for any of those three things to happen. There's a reason
standards exist and yes while I enjoy poking fun at the ridiculous business model of scuba diver
training agencies. We need regulated courses. We need standards, otherwise, this sport will be
incredibly dangerous. So if you can't swim 200 meters non-stop without a float you shouldn't be
a scuba diver. That's why the standard is there, you need to prove that you can and if your
instructor isn't allowing you to perform the full skill or not do the skill adequately they're doing
you a massive disservice and they're putting you in danger. One thing I like about the agency whose
programs I currently teach SDI, is that all of the course standards for all of their courses are
available on their website in the public domain, you don't need a login or anything. So if you're
doing an SDI or TDI course with your instructor, you as the student, can go to the website anytime
look at the course page scroll to the bottom, click open the PDF, bring up the official core
standards that your instructor is supposed to be delivering to you and keep your instructor
honest. Not that you should have to but see if you can find PADIs core standards on their
website good luck with that. In any case, it's important to remember that those standards
are the minimum requirements. If all you get taught are the minimums you're passing a C minus
grade. Now I'm not suggesting that instructors breach standards. That's not what I'm saying. What
I'm saying is there's a lot that can be taught outside of the course standards that agencies'
courses don't touch on. For example, diver boat etiquette, how to buy dive gear, and how to
pack dive gear for travel, I could carry on. But would dive instructor C minus dive instructor or
did they put the extra effort in? Did they have you repeat skills until you are completely
comfortable and fluid? One sign combination my students see regularly from me is great,
excellent, good job, handshake, do it again, and they're like wait, I thought you said I did
it well. Yeah! You did it well, do it again, repetition. Next up let's talk about poor briefing
or debriefing skills. Typical signs that a dive instructor's briefing skills and not where they
need to be include no briefing or debriefing at all. I've seen that happen, the brief or debrief
is not structured or organized which obviously leads to confusion. Or the brief or debrief is
not interactive and the communication is all one way. There is a really easy way to tell if an
instructor's briefing was either non-existent or weak, look at the team in the water, how
much communication is happening? If you see an instructor under normal non-emergency conditions
give more than two or three hand signals in a row, if their body language seems frantic because the
students don't understand what's going on, or if you see them furiously scribbling notes on a slate
or in their wet notes, there is a high probability that their briefing was utter garbage. The way I
like to handle briefings is multi-leveled. First briefing of the day is before we even set our gear
up, super high level the schedule the overview, the goals for the day, where we want to be
at the end of the day, and the themes for each dive we're going to do that day. Then comes
the dive briefing that happens on the dock less than an hour before we splash which is a detailed
step-by-step chronological plan for the dive. Then before we don on gear and buddy check, I do a very
concentrated reminder of the briefing of the key points and objectives of the dive super focused.
Then we do the dive. Now all of that is led by me, but it's very conversational it needs to
have student input and they need to tell me that they're comfortable with the plan
and suggest any changes that they'd like and it's a two-way street. Unlike the shit
you'll find in the TDI manual that states, ideally the debrief will take place prior to
exiting the water, don't even get me started with that. I don't start a debrief until the dive
is over and the dive isn't over until every member of the team is back on board the boat, all
gear is secured, and each diver has been made comfortable. Only then can we have a thorough
debrief which is a different style of briefing. It's very conversational very relaxed usually led
by the student. Believe it or not, there are still instructors out there who have weak dive skills
themselves and weak knowledge. I got on a dive boat with my CCR the other day and I heard another
instructor student ask them what gear I was carrying. And the instructor explained oh that's
a close circuit respirator. Huh? Say that again, one more time. And then they proceeded to explain
incorrectly what a closed circuit respirator is. Now I'm not giving that example to poke fun at a
fellow instructor there's no fun to be had there in that individual's absolute ignorance and lack
of professional knowledge. And whilst not every dive instructor needs to be a CCR diver, I would
expect at least every dive instructor to have a basic knowledge of what the acronym stands for
and what a CCR actually is. Basic knowledge. I also see dive instructors with horrible sac
rates. I see dime instructors with terrible trim and poor overall dive skills. How? How are you a
dive instructor when you can barely dive yourself? When you become an instructor you instantly become
a role model and an ambassador for the sport. It is your duty to continue your own education
outside of what your agency has taught you. It is your duty to work on your dive skills. So they
are as good as they can be and part of the problem here is the “zero to hero” instructor development
programs. They need to be dropped into the fires of Mount Doom. Also, new instructors remember
this, if you take one copy of each manual your training agency produces, and you read them
all cover to cover and digest everything, you have about 10 of the total knowledge you need
to be successful in this field. At any time I have two books on my bedside table, one is usually
a murder mystery or a rock and roll biography. The other is a non-fiction book to do with diving
physics, physiology, leadership, and communication something that will further my professional
development. If you're looking for a place to start, I have a suggested reading list on our
website and I will link to that in the description of this video below. Next up a common frustration
I hear from students is, some instructors like to be incredibly vague with their pricing structure.
Oh! man, here we go. There are many “how cheap can we make it courses” out there and I don't
understand the business model of that. No sane student wants the product or service of the
lowest-bidding dive instructor. Just like no skydiver buys their parachutes from Bob's Discount
parachutes bargain bin. But okay, fine charge what you want for your services. But don't nickel
and dime man! That's just dirty. I hate that I see online offers all the time for “get scuba
certified $99”. WOW! What a deal. Your training must be amazing at that price and then you find
out that you need to buy your e-learning and you need to buy your cert card and you need to rent
scuba gear and you need to pay for the pool time, and you need to buy our spaces on the boat and you
need to buy your airfills and... of course, your course ends up being the same as everyone else's.
They just went the greasy used car salesman way of doing it. And I hate that! Tell me the price,
tell me what's included, and tell me what's not included and how much that costs, and allow me to
budget. Number seven then is, overselling. Say it with me together, an Open Water diver with four
or five logged dives is not ready to take their advanced class. I don't care what standards allow
and I don't care if the student happens to be God's natural gift to diving. I will never sell
an advanced level class to an Open Water diver I just certified. If I lose business because
of it, I don't care. I'll sell you the Open Water course oh yeah, and I'll sell you a nitrox
course together with it. But then you're going to go away and do 20 or 25 dives without me before
we even talk about going to the next level. Go, go and do some actual dives and come back and
see me when you're ready for the next level, in six months or a year. This ramming the next
course down the student's throat is absolutely absurd. And I will say that we are slightly better
at the technical level I guess because there is more risk. So any technical diving instructor
that I respect is very good at saying to potential students you're not ready. Go and get more
experience and then come back. And I just wish that happened more at recreational levels too.
But again this needs to change your agents agency level and whilst all training agencies still
allow back-to-back courses with no required extra experience in between there will be instructors
out there toting the minimums and doing the bare minimum. That makes me very sad. Let me know in
the comments below which of these or other deadly sins did you have perpetrated upon you during your
training. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for spending your time with me. Don't forget to
subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already and smash that like button if you enjoyed
this video. If you didn't enjoy this video hit the thumbs-down button twice. Share this video with
your dive buddies so they can be better informed about selecting dive instructors, and I will see
you in the next video. Dive safe, dive often.
