Course or Mentor? Your opinion...

[chris_t]

Hi,

I have been reading the thread in the Deco Diving section, 'advice on deep diving please', a few pages at a time and have been digesting various pieces on information and opinions of deep/deco diving.

It mentions having a mentor or further training is required for progression to deeper diving.

I have my views, and (think) I have decided on the path I wish to choose, but in my occupation, people taught on short course's are generally poor at thier job, as opposed to a time served apprentice.

One quesition from me is the dive centre approach to gases. Do you need a qualification card to get nitrox 32? nitrox 50? Hows about trimix? (note - I am nitrox qualified).

If you were to 'do it again', how would you learn deep diving?

Chris

[onthetrain]

Persoanlly I would do the same all over again...

I progressed my diving by doing a course a year to further my qualifications and then spent a year practising what I learnt before going ontothe next level.

That involved a mixture of (mostly) good instructors, mentors & buddies as well as lots of diving

[wreckweasel]

Mentoring or courses, the important bit is the skills/mindset of the person you're learning from. Oh and personally i seek variety in that, so I can compare/contrast styles & opinions.

[Scuttler]

Unfortunately everyone is different.....what works for one person wont for another.

Having said that in my ideal world I would have a mentor. It's not an ideal world and I have a inite resource in terms of cash.....so I tend to search for the best instructor I can find......from there on in I try to build my skills up to a level I am happy with.......but I still ask questions of my trainers....and am willing to pay for more instruction if I'm not happy with what I am capable of.

[Gav]

I have been extremely fortunate, through these very forums, to have received an incredible amount of mentoring and instruction this year.

I started by attending Mark Powell's workshop at Stoney, which was the first time I'd met people that I only knew from YD. That led on to a commitment to take GUE Fundamentals (which has been delayed, due to personal reasons, from September until November) and a day with John Kendall who was a great help with kit configuration. On the way I undertook an Advanced Buoyancy Control course, again with Mark; but as a spin off from both I have been extremely fortunate to have a superb mentor in Garf, with whom I've now spent three sessions, in addition to the Experience YD weekend at Vobster. I've then had the chance to practice the things I have learnt with other YDers such as Fiona and Jimbob.

There are a lot of extremely good divers on these forums, some, such as Mark and John, are paid for it, whilst others such as Garf generously donate time to help others.

The one thing that they, and many others, have in common, is a willingness to help develop others through a combination of both mentoring and instruction which provides a superb platform to help people develop over time through learning, development and the chance to practice.

Thanks.

[Mal Bridgeman]

I actually think a combination of both .... a course with an Instructor will help accelerate learning new things whereas time with a mentor will help consolidate the learning and help keep you on the rails when things are not going so well..... this approach has served me very well

HTH
Mal

[Howard Payne]

Totally agree with Mal - a combination of both is great. As Alan said - a course-ish a year then spend the rest of the year consolidating those skills is great.

The GUE / DIR community in the UK is relatively small and there is a strong tradition of mentoring - which you feel obliged and happy to pay on to others who show an interest.

There are plenty of people outside of GUE / DIR whose opinion I value highly and who I have learnt much from as well - even if its only little things to stick in the toolbox. One of them has posted on this thread

Knowing who to listen to is the trick - but I suspect most of us have a knack for identifying that - depending on where your thinking lies

[tom]

Originally Posted by chris_t

One quesition from me is the dive centre approach to gases. Do you need a qualification card to get nitrox 32? nitrox 50?

depends on the shop - I've had to show a card and sign the paperwork in some places and not in others. If you only ever get fills from somewhere you are known, lack of cards might not be a problem. but you might get caught out on a trip away or something.

[Mark Chase]

Both is nice

A good mentor reduces courses to the point of being boxes to tick off for life insurance and getting gas away from home but a good mentor is very hard to find.

I was lucky, My mentor was skint and couldn't afford to buy a car. I had a car and didn't mind paying for all the gas.

He put up with me being crap and inexperienced and i put up with the fact he couldn't get in a round of beers.

It worked out rather well

Since he discovered women and started traveling the world (literally) I have taken a lot of very good advice from my M8 Pete who seems to have popped out of the womb and straight in to an ABLJ.

I did the courses because I felt I had to for life insurance purposes and to get the gas when i needed it, but despite that i cant say I ever did a course I didn't enjoy or learn something from.

ATB

Mark

[Garf]

Originally Posted by Gav

but as a spin off from both I have been extremely fortunate to have a superb mentor in Garf, with whom I've now spent three sessions, in addition to the Experience YD weekend at Vobster. I've then had the chance to practice the things I have learnt with other YDers such as Fiona and Jimbob.

That's very nice of you to say mate. Now what are you planning at the DIRx weekend, as I seem to have the weekend free at the moment, want to spend the weekend practising stuff?

I think the reality is you need both. You need professional instruction and you need to be diving with people you can learn from. When I asked the question "how do I get better at DIR skills", just about everyone said "go diving with people you can learn from". When you get in the water with people who are a little further along the path of control than you are, you cannot help but continually try to raise your game to their level. That being said, there is a line where mentoring stops and instruction begins. I'd be happy to "teach" basic skills to try and improve buoyancy and trim etc, or teach someone to fin backwards, but I've already said no to a couple of people that wanted me to do a crash "course" in deco diving for them over a weekend. I don't have the experience, training, insurance, or indeed the professionalism to attempt something like that, and I wouldn't dream of trying. It's important for anyone who mentors others to recognise there's a point where you have to say "no, I'm sorry, you need professional training". You're there to provide guidance, and nothing more. there's a point whenever I'm diving with people who want to learn something that I will not cross, and that's the time to give them Mr Powell's number.