Training organization or Instructor
People sometimes ask me:” Why are you PADI technical Instructor? TDI is better because they are Technical diving organizations from very beginnings while PADI’s origins come from Recreational diving and they announced technical diving only at the beginning of the 2000s.” My answer is always the same:” I don’t choose an organization to take a course from, I choose Instructor.” I’ve been lucky enough to have good instructors and they all were PADI. My technical training was always followed by standards but not only. My instructor always followed the latest innovations and trends into a technical diving sector and gave us a chance to practice them. We moved emergency skill practice from theoretical to practice (like how to ascend with convulsing buddy who has oxygen toxicity) or how to breathe from one regulator and do deco stops. These things you will not find into the list of skills and they are maybe not needed there, but we had fun, safety was always first and we became prepared for any emergency. So what I want to say is: I am a fully prepared Technical diver and it doesn’t matter which organization my knowledge comes from, because it’s called Technical diving and I learned it from Instructor I trust. And I am trying to be the same for my students, to give the best skills and knowledge possible existing into technical diving.
Sometimes it’s more than just a Technical diving training because it’s a level up training for any level of diver. You can feel super comfy in recreational diving but feel absolute zero in technical. And it’s normal and it’s the only way to improve yourself – get out of your comfort zone and move on!
Training is not always easy
In the last couple of weeks, I was busy with one of my students. She did all the courses with me starting Open Water Diver and it was never easy. Especially challenging was sidemount course – clips and houses, tanks and tank bands! We spent a lot of time to figure it all out, but we did it. And she learned how to do frog kick and keep the horizontal position and manage the same tank pressure. So she was happy about her achievement and finally started to enjoy sidemount diving. And then we started Technical diving courses:) After the first couple of days of training and struggling again with so many things Anna was about to give up. Any Instructor task is to keep all things in balance, ease students a task and make understanding easier. Same time you have to be a good psychologist to feel how much you can push and when is the time to stop and look for other solutions. So it was interesting to see that if we remove deco cylinders and leave only sidemount configuration, accidentally Anna felt very comfortable and had no problems with clips and houses anymore.
Struggles and winns
The original plan was to do all 3 PADI Technical courses (TEC 40, 45 and 50) but during the process, she was about to give up on TEC 50. She was struggling with inwater skills while she was really good at knowledge. After a talk, we decided to continue and I think psychologically it was the right decision because it gave confidence in what she does and extra time to practice skills more. If she would leave with what she did, next time we would struggle with the same things again.
Congratulations Anna! You did the titanic job and improved your self as a diver 300%! We wish you safe and amazing diving and to never stop learning something new! Proud of you!
Additionally, I add a video from our training. Try to compare how Anna looks at the beginning of this clip and the end and you will see a huge difference.
Sincerely yours,
Martin