- Hi y'all, and welcome back to the
Scuba Diver Magazine YouTube channel.
My name is Marcel van den Berg
and I'm a PADI Platinum Course Director.
Today we're gonna be focusing
on why it's important to be a safe diving
instructor to be a successful dive professional.
This video is part of a series of the six best
attributes to become a more successful diving instructor.
So don't forget to check out the other videos.
Also, if you wanna stay updated on any
of our future videos, please don't forget to subscribe
to this channel and hit that notification bell
so you get a notification every time we upload a new video.
Also, if you wanna become a diving instructor yourself,
I teach monthly IDC courses.
In the description below you can find a link on my website
and then you can get in contact with me
and we can chat about your future.
Finally, I also have my own YouTube channel
which is Marcell van den Berg and Scuba Diving Tips.
In one, I focus more on the dive professional level
and in the other one more on the recreational divers.
Go and check that out as well if you wanna learn even more
tips after this video.
Last but not least hit that like button, if you liked it
and don't forget to leave a comment below
especially if you have your own tips
because we can all learn from that.
Now with no further ado let's get into this video.
(upbeat music)
All right and now we've come to the last of our
six fantastic attributes to have as a diving instructor
and that is to be a safe diving instructor.
Now, when we started this video or these videos
in the beginning, I already said there are so many more
attributes out there.
And I just let you came to the conclusion
that I'm gonna make more videos with more attributes
out there in the future because, again,
they're all important, but I think this six
are the top ones you should have.
And it gives you a huge edge over diving instructors
that are not using, or not having this six attributes.
So, being a safe diving instructor is really
really important as well.
And the thing is, is that all the other ones, like
for example, the humor, the caring, the having patience
they all relate to having a great attitude in the end,
but being a safe diving instructor,
that is something that is a great attitude
but it's also a bit of knowledge
and it's also skills together.
So now we're combining knowledge and skills
and attitude together into one.
And that will make you safe diving instructor.
If you only do one, you're not
that safe diving instructor that people trust
and would follow to the end of that ocean.
Now why do some bad diving instructors
that are not so safety minded get away with
still students loving them and, you know
want to continue with the next courses and, you know
getting like good perfusion and all that kind of stuff.
But, but you know, some of us, you know
that are around the professionals
and we kind of look at it and go, Oh my God,
this diving instructor did that and that's wrong
and that's not safe, but still they're very successful.
And that's because they have all the other stuff.
They have that, they're super funny
and they have the care laws and all that kind of stuff
but you know, in the end they just do these unsafe
silly things in the water
and it doesn't mean that if you're unsafe,
that your students will get injured
or they will even worse, maybe lose their lives
but you are, you are increasing the chance massively.
And if it goes wrong, it only has to go one only once
I can tell you, and not only is that of course
extremely bad for the person itself that got injured
in this case and the family members
but it is very bad also for you, for your own
hopefully feeling inside when you hurt someone.
But even if you even like that stuff as a bad instructor
you really just don't care about anybody
it will definitely hurt your career.
And will end it very, very quickly.
So if you only care about yourself,
which is not good, and you're not going to be successful
as that instructor then still you should be
a safe diving instructor because yeah,
it's everything goes wrong when somebody gets injured.
And that's why sometimes I say, okay
you need to be funny you need to care and all that stuff
but you can only do all of that
if you are a safe diving instructor.
Then, only then can you start focusing on the other stuff.
And people say, yeah, but you said that all
you need to have a good attitude before all the stuff.
Yeah, but that's related to being safe diving instructor
'cause I really truly believe out of my experience,
seeing and working together with hundreds of
other dive professionals around the world,
the ones with the bad attitudes by far are also
the most unsafe diving instructors out there
because they just really don't care about
the life and safety of somebody else,
but also they can't visualize
all the different things that might can go wrong
when they do a certain thing with their students
you know in water with skills
or whatever they say to them in a classroom,
they just think very short minded.
So it's like, alright, you know
I'm going to go on into water
and I'm going to swim to a little tunnel
swim to that is borderline sort of like
almost like a cave with an exit.
And of course, it's beautiful to go through it,
it's beautiful to see all the corals inside around you.
Like, you're almost in a movie, you know, camera,
and I know it's cool experience, but you know,
they take these students through that
nobody really gets injured.
That justifies what they did.
They think it's going to be safe all the time.
And that's how far they think.
They know that people loved it as most, as a dive
they maybe even want to do the next course.
And the instructor can make more money
with that and everybody happy.
But if you think a little bit further
and you think, okay let's just get a piece of paper
and a pen and just write down all the things
that can go wrong when I take them to the little tunnel,
then you can very quickly see, okay,
they might scratch themselves on the wall of corals.
That might hurt the corals as well.
That has been there for maybe, I don't know,
how long decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years.
And it might destroy entire ecosystem within that tunnel.
We've seen that as well, where a lot of the corals
that when you damage one, it will influence the others
maybe because they scratch themselves
on something in that tunnel, it might be poisonous.
And what if it's not poisonous and even then
they just get a little, you know, sting.
They might freak out to go up
or they float up and there's a ceiling above them.
And not depending because of that situation
because of feeling trapped in something.
In front of them or students behind them are students.
So to go to these tunnels
I know it's a whole video for another day.
You need to do, in my belief, proper training, you know
you need to do proper cave courses and things like that.
What I'm trying to say is
is that a lot of the not so successful diving instructors,
they don't think that far, right?
They just think I'm getting to tunnel.
They love it, I've done it before.
And that's it, let's have a, you know, a drink
in the end of today with sunset and let's do another course.
So if you wanna work on becoming a more safer diving
instructor get yourself a pen and paper,
and/or of course having more eco-friendly
get yourself a laptop or a phone or a tablet
or whatever you'd like to use and make notes
and go in your mind through to dive.
you know, go through the swimming pool sessions
go to dive number one, dive number two fear of water course.
But also other courses, events, rescue
whatever courses are out there.
Just go to those dives and just write down
all the possible things that can go wrong
with one of your students, you know
and then try to stay away from that.
I know you might go right now.
Yeah, but come on, it becomes a little bit, you know,
a little bit boring, then you know, some of these dives
and you know, all these people do all these kinds
of fun stuff and I won't anymore, but don't forget
that your students don't know that, you know,
do you really think that these people come
to a dive shop and they, they pay all that money to
to go to these tunnels and to do all these,
all these crazy jumps off the boat and, you know
play around with aquatic life that, you know
might not be forcing this, but they don't know all of that.
And you know, you really think they wanna do this.
They want to pay money for that. No, they don't.
They don't know about it.
Do everything proper.
Do everything by the book, follow the standards
of your training organization and when you start doing that,
you find out your students are still coming
and they can scream when they come up
because what's the ultimate thing that they want
after diving, not only to stay safe and alive,
which is really important to them
but to maybe see some cool stuff as well.
And if you're in an area where you have lots of fish
and you have lots of corals and all that kind of stuff,
then that's what they wanna see.
And when you spend time when your dive
to do all this funny stuff, these more dangerous stuff,
you're gonna take it away from their time
to look at cool fish or to find cool fish,
especially in areas where you don't have so much
aquatic life, right?
So I can tell you already, when they see that stingray
for the first time or an angel fish
or even a tiny little brown fish
on an maybe less interesting dive site,
for them that is the ultimate goal.
And they didn't even join an amazingly beautiful life
but they did while staying safe, while staying alive
and this not only makes them enjoy it, but they now go wow,
my instructor did everything in his power to keep me alive
and I'm ready to see more. I want to do the next course.
I want to become a diver.
And that's because you not only kept him alive
and you know,
didn't kind them injured, but they know that you did it,
they can feel it.
And especially as the couple of other instructors around you
that might do some more silly stuff
then they actually kind of appreciate it as well.
And they're kind of say,
I've heard this a few times where people came up
and they said, wow you know, I saw some of the other
instructors doing some stuff and we are not.
And first I thought you were a bit boring.
And I was like, oh, thank you.
But actually now in the end,
it's the reason why we wanna continue with the next course.
And especially me, because, you know
I was nervous in the pool and look at me now
I just completed an open water course.
So again, being a safe instructor is an absolute win-win.
I can talk about this one for hours and hours and hours
as well and I will, I will.
I will make tons of videos about different topics
how to improve your safety with your students.
But for now I think it's enough.
And I hope that these six tips I just gave you will help.
A lot of it you might've already known, of course.
And you might, you might get a little bit
out of this video, but I hope that helps.
And again, I will be going into more topics in the future.
Now, remember, if you like these videos and these steps
then please smash that like button
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And that means that we can give these tips
to more people as well.
Plus it's just a personal compliment.
I, you know, I kinda like seeing that little
like number going up, so thank you very much for that,
but even more importantly, don't forget to subscribe
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That's really important because then you get a notification
for every time we upload a video in the future.
So that's really cool, but even more important to me
like I said, I love to be around students
and teach students and improve on things myself.
And I know that you guys have fantastic tips
yourself that really work well
for you to become more successful.
So there is a comment section down here.
So please leave a little comment, you know
if you liked it, say I loved it.
If you didn't, like it say, oh I didn't like a certain,
you know, tip, but that's okay too.
And maybe I can reply on that and we can see if
we can learn from each other, but even more important is
if you know something really cool
then please put it in the comments below
because not only other people can learn from that
but I can learn from that as well.
And I love to always improve my skills
as a diving instructor also,
that will be also.
Now to finalize this, I know that's a lot of information
but if you wanna become a diving instructor yourself
so you, you're watching this thinking
should I become a diving instructor.
Then again, I teach monthly IDC courses.
So in the description below,
I have a link of my website, please check it out.
Lots of, lots of cool information
on how to sign up for the course.
And then please get in contact with me through the website
by you know, sending me an email
but you can contact me also by, you know
things like WhatsApp, Messenger,
we can call each other, you know
send a postal pitching or do some smoke signals.
I don't care.
I am ready to chat with you
and to discuss your future becoming a diving instructor.
So don't forget to check out that link.
And then last but not least, don't forget
I have my own private YouTube channel as well
which is Marcel van den Berg
for more professional videos and Scuba Diving Tips
for recreational videos.
So those links are down there too.
So please check them out and please hit that subscribe
button on those channels as well.
Anyway, thank you so much.
Thank you Scuba Diver Magazine as well
for allowing me to use your channel,
to share these tips with everybody
and guys by far one of the best Scuba Diving Magazines
out there.
So if you haven't checked out Scuba Diver Magazine
please do so, you can do it online or a paper version.
And of course you can find those links down here also.
All right everybody enjoy diving, enjoy teaching,
enjoy your students and become more successful.
All right.
Bye-bye
(upbeat music)