[Andrew H]

When I trained it was 100 dives and one year for instructor. I went from open water to instructor in 13 weeks not from non diver. I did do most of my training with people who trained from non diver, and would be continuing their training when they had more experience and time certified.
I have dived in zero viz, and in heavy swell and surge as did all the people on my course. I felt well prepared to teach in the area I qualified in. I fully agree that Red Sea experienced instructorwould be unprepared to teach in UK waters, and although NZ is colder and rougher than that, I don't feel prepared to teach in UK waters. My teaching was, as all teaching should be, done in areas I had dived often before.
I have never had a buddy panic on me. Some people could dive for many years without having this happen, and unfortunately it really isn't something you can train for as such. I have done first dives with some very stressed looking divers, who warranted, and got closely watched.
Teaching as an assistant under more experienced instructors must be part of the BSAC structure. It's hard to see how it could work under a more commercial system. I was lucky to work for a large LDS and had the benefit of working alongside amore experienced instructors many times. The PADI system provides instructors with knowledge far in excess of what is to be taught at open water level (enough to teach DM's) so that it is uncommon to have a student ask a question which is hard to answer. In any case most such discussions are best left for a time outside the course. It is surprisingly easy to ask questions with no simple answers in diving, especially in deco, and it seems that the more you learn the less you know.

I taught whitewater kayaking in the past but had no qualifications for it. I never taught without an experienced instructor there though. Kayaking is a tough one because you don't log trips and as I said before years don't mean much. I have also taught climbing and abseiling. Qualifications are very new to some sports, and have largely come through risk management and liability, rather than poor instruction. Used to be if someone wanted a go you would pick a suitable mission and go with them. Now people want to fork out their money and do the whole nine yards. Someone's going to take their money.

Andrew