Bad diver.
So is there such thing as a bad diver?
What makes a bad diver?
When a person learns to scuba dive, he/she takes the mould of the instructor. The person will become a diver based on what is taught by his/her instructor, and whatever knowledge (or crap) that is passed onto him/her. So he/she becomes that mini-me of the instructor…good or bad.
An extension to this would be the loyalty towards the instructor…blind faith, most of the time. This further solidifies the trust and attitude of this former student towards the instructor. This is evident in the former’s willingness to follow each, if not every trip that is organised by this instructor. As a result, any attempt to make this former student see the other side of the instructor, be it good or bad, will be met with stiff resistance.
If the mould is bad, and the diver’s attitude of not wanting to listen to anyone else, not wanting to accept constructive criticism, seeing everything as a criticism towards him/her or his/her instructor, then this diver would be in trouble. We have seen how some money-centric instructors skip certain modules to save time, or because he/she has too many student to instructor ratio (PADI recommends 4 students to 1 instructor for Junior OW, 8:1 for others. Personally I have seen 20:1). As a result, we get divers who stop after completing their OW course and die a natural death; we see divers who continue but do not enjoy diving; and we see lots of marine habitats destroyed through the couldn’t-care-less attitude of the divers.
So who is to be blamed? Just the instructor? Or both?
SeaDemon Says 