Back to Our Story
In the incident I witnessed at Blue Grotto, it was readily apparent the panicky student was nowhere near ready for open-water training. She most likely had been dragged along because her classmates were ready, and her instructor did not want to make her repeat her confined water training, or could not be bothered to do the necessary make-up sessions with her ahead of time.
It’s also very questionable whether someone so afraid of the water had any business being in a scuba class in the first place.
It would have been one thing had the instructor said, “Obviously you are not ready for this. You need to get out of the water and think long and hard about whether you want to continue. Then, if you decide you do, in fact, want to continue, we need to spend considerable time in the pool before you attempt this again.”
To suggest, instead, that the student should “try again” just as soon as she “calmed down” was absolutely one of the most egregiously irresponsible things I have ever seen a dive instructor do.
What if, on her next attempt, the student were to panic, hold her breath and bolt to the surface, embolizing on the way? A trial lawyer would have a field day with that one.
This year, dive instructors in the USA paid an average of more than $500 each for professional liability insurance. And, while this is but a tiny fraction of what physicians and other professionals pay, it’s a lot considering the average instructor doesn’t really make anything from diver training, once he or she covers all the expenses involved.
If you are an instructor who just got done writing that big annual check, and you are wondering why it was for so much, the answer is, it’s because of idiots like the one you read about here.
It’s time for a major reality check, folks.
- Diving is not for everyone — and not everyone can learn to dive at the same pace.
- You are going to have students to whom you will need to say, “I’m sorry, but diving is not for you.”
- You will have others who need to repeat several classes before being ready for open water training.
- All of the your students need to have the opportunity to practice vital skills more than just once. And, once they get it right, you need to give them the opportunity to repeat those skills again and again, so that what they internalize is the experience of doing it right, and nothing else.
Remember: Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
::: TOP ::: SUBSCRIBE ::: CONTACT US ::: ABOUT US :::