My Path to Becoming a PADI Scuba Instructor on Maui
Two years ago I moved to Maui “knowing” that I was going to be a dive instructor. The problem was that I only had five dives, with the most recent…
Two years ago I moved to Maui “knowing” that I was going to be a dive instructor. The problem was that I only had five dives, with the most recent…
Have you ever lost something on a scuba dive? Maybe an underwater camera, dive light, dive flag, or some other valuable item? Did you look for it? How did you…
Why would a PADI Course Director spend the money, and her vacation, to return to another PADI Course Director Training Course (CDTC) after she reached the pinnacle of her dive…
A day in the life of a Scuba Instructor at Maui Dreams typically starts the previous afternoon with a check of the schedule! This can be done via phone or with a stop at the store. Will I be doing an Open Water, Advanced or Rescue class? Maybe a guided dive with certified divers, or an Introductory Dive? There could always be a Scooter Dive, or maybe an EFR (Emergency First Response) class. For classes, I could be taking out anywhere from one to four people; for guided dives, it could be as many as six. Based on that, I formulate an idea of which beach to go to. What could conditions be like? Should I pick up my tanks tonight (we cannot begin loading tanks until 7am, so sometimes if it’s going to be a busy morning in the store we can load them the night before) or wait until the morning? All of this happens before our customers walk in the door.
(more…)Come on, have you? Well, if not, you might be surprised by the number of divers that have. As divers, we can sometimes be very focused on the numbers of…
About the IDC, what can I say? You learn so much about yourself and where you are in the dive world when you go through it – it’s truly amazing. During these two weeks of daily, intensive training, I had the one of the most fun, stressful, crazy, and growing periods of my life. I met a lot of really cool people and got “knowed up” by some very excellent instructors. We endured a lot of struggles, misinterpretations of training standards, and huge learning curves, but in the end you know what they call me? INSTRUCTOR!!
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Throughout my diving career I have learned again and again that “diving is a humbling sport”. Teaching SCUBA Instructors provides many more opportunities to prove this mantra. While teaching the recent Instructor Development Course, the dive gods smacked me again.
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It had been a great day at work. My two students (John and Barbara) and I had just finished the 2nd dive of our PADI National Geographic specialty, and as the conditions were ideal that day, both dives had been great. The three of us were slowly swimming back in and talking about what we’d seen. What we didn’t realize was that it was the PREVIOUS class I had taught them-Rescue Diver-that was about to become important.
(more…)When I was working through my Divemaster internship I assisted my Instructor (Don) with a night dive at Five Graves here on Maui. There were several divers in the group…