In Reply to: ROTFLOL!!!! posted by seahunt on January 25, 2006 at 08:47:21:

Well, mike (small-M), I see you were born to be an instructor!

Since you live near L.A., I would urge you to get the L.A.County instructor cert, if you have time. That one carries a tremendous load of history and tradition with it.

If you can’t get up to L.A. to do it, then any YMCA, NAUI, or SSI instructor program would do well for you. SSI is somewhat problematic in that you are linked to a specific SSI store, whereas with YMCA and NAUI you have more freedom.

The instructor programs normally give you a segment on teaching theory itself, and then you plunge (no pun intended) into pool and open water training as well as scuba specific classroom science.

The basic teaching progressing is normally from swimming skills, to snorkeling skills, to scuba skills. Some programs add a freediving segment between snorkeling and scuba. It is not difficult, certainly not rocket science or computer science.

If there is a scuba store in your area that you like, then you could hook up with them and become one of their regular instructors. You might enjoy that, since you already got an early start in life (31 years ago !!!) doing so.

I would steer away from PADI if you can. And GUE is a complete joke, so steer away from that one as well. PADI and GUE are very similar, both having rigid procedures and bad protocols. If you had to choose between the two, I think PADI is the lesser of the 2 evils however.

• I don't think so seahunt 11:30:24 01/25/06 (0)