DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

CONTROVERSIAL CORNER Australia’s worst scuba diving instructor This article is written to help dive instructors and divers to learn from the dangerous mistakes of a dive instructor from a real life diving situation.

It is quite an achievement becoming Australia’s worst scuba diving instructor. This is an accurate account of the antics of a dive instructor who used her position on a live aboard to create malice as well as place guests in dangerous situations several times. The candidate was was a 70 year old diver of more than forty years, six thousand dives and a diving instructor with hundreds of certifications. On day one, he asked for a compatible dive buddy but was told to wait. Then h e was told that he had to do the self reliant diver course as they could not allocate a suitable dive buddy. He tried had to put it off, being a very keen underwater photographer and never wanted to waste 3 to 4 dives dives on a live aboard doing an entry level dive course. The head instructor on board insisted that he did the solo course. Later on day three, after eleven dives and some fatigue settling in, she pressed again and again. The older diver capitulated to her suggestion, reluctantly. That was after the third dive of the day. It all started with a 200m surface swim. Conditions were very rough with more than 23 knots of wind, rough waves and white caps all around and a strong current. The single candidate was told had to swim two times around the thirty metre dive boat, fully geared up with pony bottle and large camera housing, carrying close to 45 kgs of gear. The instructor insisted the exercise be carried out with all gear. Really? The going was tough so the older candidate decided to take his time and pace himself. Naturally, he used his snorkel. He always taught his students that a snorkel is a mandatory piece of diving equipment. If you have a long surface swim, you have to lift your head to breathe and this becomes a significant source of fatigue, especially in rough water. He is most amused at the number of divers who scorn the use of a snorkel. The day they get caught out, they will realise how a snorkel is a potentially life-saving piece of dive gear. This was one of them! An unsafe situation. After one exhausting lap, the instructor who was on the boat had lost self control and was screaming something angrily that simply could not be heard above the noisy waves and wind. She was waving her arms around in a clear gesture of anger and frustration that her candidate was not doing something right. Guests wondered what the hell was going on! After completing the exhausting swim twice, the first encouraging words from the instructor were, “You failed the swim You were not allowed to use your snorkel!” The candidate said to her, “Why didn’t you tell me after the first lap”. He was also thinking that these sort of pre diving activities should be undertaken in a safe water environment with appropriate gear not in stormy seas in strong wind. Something amiss here! Then came the first dive, another monumental disaster. Skill one was the surface buoyancy check. Even though the instructor had seen the candidate do eleven dives perfectly in the previous days, she insisted on this skill. It was beginning to look like the instructor was being unhelpful and up to no good. During the Neutral buoyancy check and the Surface Air Consumption check, she was demonstrating complete loss of self control and anger again, gesticulating wildly in the water that something was not correct without explaining what is was. After the dive, her feedback was two words. “You fail!” Again! Next dive, we did the compass swim. There was a moderate current across the direction of swimming. This meant that the out and back compass swim would end up being a triangle, 12 m error going East, 12 m error on the return. After two attempts to do the compass swim and more wild angry gesticulating underwater, the feedback from the instructor was “You fail” You will have to do it over. He mentioned the cross current which was ignored, twice. Next dive, she insisted that the compass swim be repeated. The candidate swam out west for one minute and then returned East for one minute. This time the current was even stronger and the

error was 20m out and 20m back. He ended up 40 metres down current from the starting point. The supervising instructor was demonstrating more scowling underwater and insisted on him repeating the exercise. The candidate told her that was because the strong cross current has moved the swim off course by about twenty metres a minute out and then another 20 metres back, making a total of forty metres. Back on the boat, the Instructor told the candidate that he had failed again. The candidate by now was getting to the point that he needed to speak up. He told the instructor that the compass swim was done perfectly, Spot on. It was the current that caused the errors about the same degree three times. The compass navigation was as accurate as possible. Her response “You fail” At this point in time, many of the other guests on the boat were finding it quite amusing that a diving instructor could be so rude and unprofessional in public. How did you go they asked him.His reply that he had failed again brought amused but sympathetic laughter. They could see the silly, dangerous game that was being played and the folly that was being perpetrated. The candidate told the instructor, “ I am not doing that compass swim again,. What I did was correct” You are wasting my time! Before the next dive, they said to him “Are you a Solo diver yet. The candidate replied that nothing had been said as he waited ages to see if a buddy could be found. The course guidelines state that the instructor must give immediate feedback and also create a positive friendly learning environment. There was something malicious going on here. The instructor was up to no good and was actually intent on venting a personal problem. That instructor was suffering from burnout. When a Scuba Diving Instructor places a student in dangerous water, gives negative hostile feedback to candidates, the PADI system of teaching guidelines have been seriously breached. Padi always says that diving is fun. When an Instructor becomes angry and malicious, she needs to get out of the game and go back to serving in a bar or something where she cannot spread misery to guests. If the candidate has his say, he would strongly suggest that she should be sacked and at least, be formally reprimanded for breaking standards. She should not be in charge of diver safely. Creating problems like these is dangerous and brings great disrespect to the dive operation. It brings enormous discredit to the dive industry. Word spreads and divers get to hear about diabolical behaviour of people abusing their position of authority in this was. It hurts the hip pocket of the dive boat owner. In short, it is a disgraceful behavior. She is most definitely the worst scuba diving instructor in Australia. This is even more so in light of the fact that the candidate was one of the most experienced divers in Australia and was celebrating forty years as a dive instructor that week and has done thousands of solo dives. There was no recognition of prior knowledge, skills or experience as should have been the case. Sadly, Instructors behaving badly is not that uncommon. Once on a dive boat, the power imbalance fortifies bad judgement and bad behaviour such as described. This article is designed to be help instructors avoid falling into bad habits not matter how fatigued they become and to always treat dive candidates with respect. Being in a position of authority with relatively litle experience can be a very dangerous combination, as it was in this situation. It has led to lives being lost by instructors behaving badly. I sincerely hope that that instructor is no longer in the industry as she has done far more harm than good for the sport. For this very reason, Bob Halstead ran a column in Dive Log for years called the Adult Diver. The point was treating divers with respect as adults.

70

Dive Log Australasia #413 August‘25

www.divelog.net.au