So why do I do it? Because I love it. Because I'd rather spend my weekends carrying around dive tanks and weight belts and babysitting students than I would stand in front of a grill with a spatula in my hand.

(Okay, I do know that they don't technically flip burgers at MacDonald's - they have these nifty machines they pull down and cook the hamburger patties on both sides at once... but I'm being metaphorical and using analgies of a sort).

I've been teaching for a few years now (since I was 19), and working as a DM since I was 18. I would also like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, who's pretty capable when it comes to most things like work and practicality and logic. I'll be the first to admit that I'm still very young where diving is concerned, and even though I've done a lot of diving in my area, my diversity of experience is very limited. I have yet to get involved with real technical diving, or cave diving, or even diving in more 'commercial' place like the tropics.

Over the years, I've seen and heard a lot of people debating attributes of instructors. The two that come up the most frequently and are the most 'abused' in one way, are the AGE of the instructors and the EXPERIENCE of the instructors. The common message that always results from those discussions is that instructor's who are under the age of 25 are too young and inexperienced to teach diving.

I'm under 25. So automatically, I am categorised by people as being too young and inexperienced to teach.

PADI requirements for an Open Water Scuba Instructor are that they have logged proof of at least 100 dives, and that they are at least 18 years of age. When I did my IDC I had my logged 100 dives exactly. In reality, I'd probably done triple that, but really, when you're doing 4-5 dives a day every day in summer, are you honestly going to sit down each night and log them? I'm tired by the end of the day, and I have a dive computer. Granted, over the last three years I've probably changed more computers than people change underwear and because I'm not usually particularly technical with computers (PC and Dive computers) I've never ever bothered to figure out how exactly one downloads one's dive log from a dive computer to a PC. I only log the dives I do when I'm teaching so I set a good example for my students - January this year (2006) I logged over 60 dives PURELY in a teaching capacity. This doesn't include my 'fun dives' or take into account the times I've acted as a dive guide (which number a lot of charters, and 5-6 dives a charter).

I met PADI's OWSI requirements just fine, and PADI accepts that I am an instructor because I completed my IDC and passed my IE. Why is it, then, that people will still say that I am too young and inexperienced to teach?

Earlier this year, I had a phonecall from a gentleman (P) who needed help desperately with dive theory as he was going to be doing his second IE and hoped to pass this time. P has been diving for years and years and years. He has more years of diving notched up than I do by a long shot. However, P only dived about six times after his OW course, and then never, and only in the last two years has he ratcheted up the experience and dive numbers needed to get his PADI OWSI rating - in fact, he started his IDC with 98 logged dives and that was scraping the barrel dry (he has religiously logged all his dives EVER).

P is 49, and has those 'years' of experience over and above me, and yet...? Are you honestly going to stand there and tell me that out of the two of us, P is more experienced and able to teach than I am? We're both able to teach, but I have a lot more experience than he does.

I am a good instructor. I'm one of those anal people who loves rules and organisation and thoroughness and usually tries to jam more knowledge than what my students really need into their heads. I don't believe in doing something unles you're going to do it properly. I'm fortunate to work for a store who shares my beliefs that you're better off not giving a student a certification unless you trust them to dive away from your supervision. I can not tell you how many people we've given extra dives and time and effort without being paid for it, just to make sure that they can dive PROPERLY.

As I said before, I know I'm young and while I'm experienced in my area and teaching the basic entry level, advanced, rescue and DM courses, there is still a lot out there for me to learn. I won't, however, try to teach any of those things until I have learnt them properly and am experienced and skilled in them myself. I don't think you ever reach a point with diving where you stop learning. I love talking to other instructors and finding out how they do things. What their tips and tricks are. Things they do to make the courses more safe and fun. Similarly, I love sharing my opinions and ideas on teaching, and I'm lucky enough to have several instructors who have many years of teaching experience who share with me and discuss things with me and give me advice when I need it.

You know, I've completely wondered off the original track that this argument was supposed to lead too.

The area which I teach and work in has a very high density of dive center to diving population ratio - this means competition is intense and fierce. Much to the shame of the local industry, there has been a lot of mudslinging and back-biting and conniving between certain store alliances to try and shut other operators down. It is, in my opinion, disgustingly unprofessional and I’m horribly ashamed that the industry I so love and promote to other people is guilty of such petty and immature behavior.

What I found most upsetting, was personal attacks again me as instructor - that I was too young and inexperienced to safely teach diving. This was told to me by a good friend of one of my past students who came into our shop after completing his OW course with the dive center who had made those accusations against me. When I went for a dive with this gentleman (it being his first dives after his OW course) I was horrified at his diving skills and knowledge, and it was NOTHING to do with his personal skills but rather the training that he'd had.

Talking to him, I teased out information about his course and how it was conducted, and the way in which he was taught. This person was very bright, and one of those people who took to diving fairly easily, so overall he was okay in the water, but simple little things that I don't let my students get away with not knowing were ignored. Big, obvious things that are part of the course standards were simply skipped or glossed over.

And yet, that instructor felt the need to inform the class that he was teaching, and potential customers, that because of my age I was unsuitable as an instructor and really, something should be done about that girl.

I'm gratified and honoured by my students who have, on numerous occassions, thanked me for teaching them properly. They often come into the store with comments about other divers who were taught by 'other shops' and how they just didn't get the quality teaching that my guys did. There is no better feeling than when my ducklings are in the shop, and they say with pride to a potential student "Gracie taught me how to dive, and she's a brilliant instructor." Yes, it's blowing my own trumpet and stroking my ego, but it reaffirms it to me that my efforts to make sure my guys KNOW how to dive is noticed.

Still, it doesn't stop the frustration and unfairness of having my age used as a discrimination against me.

Which brings me back to the question of the age old debate - what's too young and too inexperienced for instructing?

I started teaching when I was 19. On some levels, I was perhaps too young because I wasn't completely confident in myself as a person yet. I had doubts that people would listen to me, or follow in my instructions, and I wasn't sure that I was old enough to teach. However, my first course showed me that I was wrong. I was capable of teaching these people because I knew what I was doing. I'd assissted on so many courses during my DM and after, that teaching just happened. I started off with very small classes, or team-taught bigger ones, until I was comfortable in my own systems and abilities to supervise students in open water.

In reality, I don't think 18 is too young for teaching, PROVIDED the person has experience. It's not easy to get experience at 18, because you need to be 18 before you can start your DM course with PADI. Then again, I look at some of the young guys who are children of the shop owners and know that if they turned 18 tomorrow, they would have enough experience under their belts from watching courses and helping out, to do their DM and instructor course straight away.

Ultimately, I think most of being a good instructor comes down to attitude, willingness to continue learning and accepting that you don't know everything, and a genuine desire to teach your students how to dive WELL.

I'm proud of my students, and I'm not ashamed to send any of them out diving with other instructors or dive operators because I KNOW they're good divers and have been well trained. There are local instructors in my area who are terribly, terribly slack at teaching people properly. Maybe they're too old to be instructors - worn out by all those years and years of experience. Too tired and weary to care about their students because they've taught so many, they know what they're doing and the students will all pick it up with time anyway.

It hurts when people attack you personally, especially about things that you're vulnerable about because you care about them. My guys and the store guys all say those things get said about me because the other instructors are losing too many students too us because of quality and service we offer, and that I shouldn't let it concern me.

I try my damndest to be a good instructor. My students have become my friends - their children are 'my kids' and most of them keep in touch on a very regular basis, even for non-diving events and random things because they know we care about them and that they are more than just customers to us. It's not unusual to find several of the guys hanging around the shop at all times having coffee and just chatting.  

You know what? I love diving. I love teaching diving. It's why I have given up all pretences of having a 'real' social life and function from weekend to weekend thinking living and breathing diving. The day I stop caring about my students, or find myself wishing that the damn course would just hurry up and end so I can go do something else, will be the day I stop teaching.

Diving is about passion and freedom and fulfilment to me, in a way. When I teach my students, I try to share that with them. If I'm not enjoying the teaching or the diving, they won't enjoy it either, and I won't teach them properly. Why do that to them, when they have the chance of finding a lifelong enjoyment and experience?

Yes, the rumours and attacks hurt a lot, but they won't stop me teaching. I won't stand up and scream and shout because ultimately, it doesn't accomplish anything other than create more drama in an already war-torn industry where I live.

I just needed to get this off my chest somewhere, and this blog is proving to be my stomping ground now for getting all these indepth sort of ideas out of my head and realised somewhere. I don't like talking to people about serious issues like this, or my thoughts and feelings about things, so this blog is where they've stayed.

If you've actually read this, then WOW, kudos for wading through all of that. I've posted this mainly for personal reasons, and don't expect you all to respond if you've actually managed to get through this lot. If you want to comment or whatever, feel free to do so because I love reading your comments and opinions and discussing, just be aware that my intention in this post WASN'T to set myself up as the World's Best Instructor or to imply anything like that - I was trying to be honest and am well aware that I have my own flaws and personal failures both as an instructor, and as a person (if you feel the need to tell me what those flaws and failures are, just please do so kindly!).