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"Once you get to a certain part of your diving education, it is the diver who should take the initiative to search out other sources, read other books... in short, find all that they can about the subject." - Shek Exley
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I believe that the most important trait of a diving instructor is passion. Diving educators must have excellent diving skills, knowledge, and experience. It is the passion for diving that drives the best instructors to excel, not only as a diving educator, but in their own recreational diving as well. Diving instructors must continually raise the bar for their own diving abilities. To do this, they must seek to continue their own diving education and they must continue to dive for their own recreation. This will allow the diving instructor to gain new experiences. Diving instructors who have a majority of dives to 20 feet for 20 minutes on a training platform are not allowing themselves to gain important, new experiences to share with their students.
Many dive stores will assign you to a class without giving you any knowledge about the instructor. This instructor may not be the best fit for you. If your goal is to explore the magnificent shipwrecks in Lake Michigan, would you want an instructor whose only wreck diving experiences are the sunken house boats in the local quarries? If you wanted to learn the skills to dive deep, would you want an instructor who has never been below 100 feet? I only teach the type of courses in which I dive for my own recreation. So you can rest assure that the skills you want to learn are practiced over and over again, in a real world environment, by your instructor.
In order to maximize their profits, many dive stores will try to put as many students into one class as possible. The instructors may also spend the minimum time possible with you. I only accept a maximum of four (4) students per class. This maximizes the time a student can spend with me for an optimal learning experience. For wreck and deep diver training courses, I only accept two students per class. This will maximize your learning experience while providing you with a safer environment to learn. I go above and beyond the minimum standards. For example, my open water training program consists of six (6) open water dives. Most training agency standards say that four (4) is sufficient. I use the extra two dives to give students a buoyancy workshop. This gives you more time in the water to gain confidence and increase your comfort levels.
I am committed to diving and dive safety. I expect the same from the people I dive with and the people whom I train to dive. If you are committed to learning to dive safely, then I may be the instructor for you.
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