OCT 13, 2022
Have you ever experience an impatient SCUBA Instructor? Have you seen an angry football/soccer coach? An angry basketball coach? An angry school teacher? Do you think it is acceptable for a school teacher, a coach or an instructor to lose cool?
As far as I can remember, I seldom lose my cool when teaching, only sometimes a little strict.
No matter how hard it was to teach a new diver, I almost never lose my cool. Not until 2022 when I was working for a dive centre in Malaysia. I lost my patience because I thought I could train a diver to be competent enough to dive, in a short period of time. Typical schedule of that particular dive centre.
Personally, I think an impatient Scuba Instructor is not fit to teach. So I took some time off from the island to reflect on myself. In the end, I left the dive centre because I may never be able to teach a competent diver at the venue. With my ability, the schedule arranged by the dive centre is too short to produce a competent diver. Shall I say, almost impossible for me.
Apart from insufficient teaching time, there are many other reasons that cause a SCUBA Instructor to stress out. Unsustainable income, non co-operative boatman, bad weather, bad colleagues, poor working conditions, poor working equipments for students, over worked, just to name a few.
In Scuba Diving industry (as in any industry really), you will find irresponsible instructors. Those are the ones who just want to get you certified as quick as they possibly can to get paid. They have no stress at all. They seemed to be always cool and super happy. Probably they don't care if you are competent enough or if you actually meet the minimum requirements to be a certified diver? Who knows?
Not saying all super cool, super friendly super happy SCUBA instructors are bad instructors. But believe me, there are such instructors out there. Integrity is almost non-existence or very hard to come by nowadays.
Creating a balance between fun and at the same time keeping the teaching up to standard in a short period of time while thinking about if you will be able to sustain another year in the industry is still something I am struggling. Still far from becoming a "superstar" dive instructor.
I wish no one gets hurt in the pursuit of SCUBA Diving. A sport that loved by many.