Most people who walk into a Scuba shop for the first time are thrown into sensory overload as to the mountain of equipment in front of them is so daunting and foreign to them. With a glazed look in their eyes, they approach the dive professional behind the counter and tell them they are interested in getting certified. At that point, the glazed look becomes permanently fixed as the dive professional starts discussing schedule, equipment needs, risk and liability, costs and more. All the while, visions of the underwater world become closer to the soon-to-be-diver as he hurriedly hands over his credit card and schedule his or her class for the upcoming weekend. This is the point to slow down, start asking some questions and do a little due diligence. Following is a list of tips and questions to use while conducting your research to choosing a Scuba instructor:

Don’t just interview the closest shop to your home or work. Spend a Saturday and drive around to several shops in the area. Phoenix has over 20 different dive shops that can certify divers. Get to know the shop culture, how they approach training, and what differentiates them from everyone else.

Get to know the agencies that are available in your area. Each dive shop and/or instructor has an affiliation to a Dive Agency. PADI, NAUI, SSI, and SDI are among the largest and oldest. However, there are dozens of agencies that offer extensive programs and extremely professional curriculums. Many of them have become members of the RSTC which is an industry based umbrella that allows the different agencies to network among themselves and effect industry standards. Understand, from the candidate instructors and dive shops, what is different about their agency and why they chose them to be affiliated. Being the biggest or the “best” is not always the right match for your needs.

Take your time to research and find the best instructor in your area. Ask around to different friends who are certified. Ask them about instructors they like and don’t like. Ask what qualities make up a good instructor. Do a lot of research on the Internet within the different online Scuba communities. Also, consider alternatives to dive shops. Some of the best instructors are independent or affiliated with colleges, universities or the YMCA. Most importantly, don’t just jump into a class with any old instructor because that is the next one on the schedule and he or she is the one teaching it.

Interview potential instructors before you take a class. Most beginner divers never ask any questions beyond price. As the old say goes, “you get what you pay for.” Find a professional instructor that will provide direct answers to your questions and not just give you rhetoric. When they tell you something, ask them why? It’s during this interview that you will learn if this instructor has the mastery necessary to give you the knowledge and skills to meet your needs.

Following is a list of questions to ask your instructor:

How long have you been teaching? Experience is a great educator. Find someone who has been teach a while and is passionate about their profession.

How many students have you certified? Just because they have been an instructor for ten years doesn’t mean they have been active. The Scuba industry breeds a lot of part time instructors.

How many students have you certified at this level? If the instructor has certified very few people at this level, he or she may not be familiar with the curriculum and material being presented. You want someone who knows the material.

Do you certify all of your students? How many have you not certified? Not every student is ready to be certified. An instructor who (overly) confident states every student has passed his course, may not be doing a thorough job or may have very low standards for mastering skills.

Do you teach skin diving skills? What skin diving skills will I learn? Skin diving is a great way to get familiar with equipment, build up confidence in the water and have a lot of fun during surface intervals. If your instructor is not teaching you some valuable skin diving skills, you may want to look elsewhere.

What is the maximum ratio (dive professional to students) in the pool and open water?The lower the ratio the more 1 on 1 time you have to develop skills with an instructor. If a class is overloaded with students, the instructor may not be able to spend the personal time you need to master the key Scuba diving skills.

What certifications you earned and what classes have you taken in the last year? Any instructor who is not actively taking classes is destined to become a stale instructor. Further, by taking classes, an instructor can learn different styles and techniques from a student perspective.

Typically, how many hours does it take you to teach a student at this level? This is a difficult question, as it has to make economical sense. A beginner Scuba class does not need to take 100 hours. However, the more hours of training, theoretically, the more information being conveyed and learned. The real thing to look out for is the minimum number of hours. Some instructors breeze through class without any regard that you are there to immerse yourself in Scuba. One thing to consider is the smaller the class, the fewer hours needed and vice versa.

How many people will be in my class? Generally, any more than 8 people in a pool session is probably overcrowding a class. Lower numbers are better for you.

How many certified assistants will you be using in my class? Most instructors don’t have eyes in the back of their heads. It is a good idea to always have a second set of eyes in the water.

Where did you last go diving for fun? If an instructor isn’t diving for fun, then he will not be fun from which to learn. A Scuba instructor must have passion. The best way to do that is get on a plane and go some place fun and exciting. I want to learn from instructor that is still having a lot of fun with what they do.

Now that you have asked the instructor a lot of questions, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

Was the instructor patient? If the instructor wasn’t patient, or talked down to you, while answering these questions, he will probably have the same character trait during class. You want a patient instructor that will allow you to learn at your speed.

Would I be happier learning from a man or woman? Only you can answer that question. Good and bad instructors come in all sexes. However, this is a physical sport and someone with the same physical concerns may be a better teacher.

Would I let this instructor take my loved ones underwater? If the answer is no, run fast.

Scuba diving offers a lifetime of adventure. Finding the right mentor and role model is essential in developing your dive path. Do your due diligence, take your time and have fun.

For more information about the author and where he teaches, please go to the Academy of Scuba.Follow the author on FacebookFollow the author on Twitter

When most people think of the golf industry, the first career that come to mind are those of pro golfers. If they think a little harder, they’ll most likely come up with a list of careers that have to do with the maintenance and operation of golf facilities. Careers in the golf industry come in many more varieties than you would think.
Trick shot artist: You may find it interesting to use superior golf theories in order to plan trick shots for filming. Like the stunt driver of sports, a trick shot artist puts together those amazing shots that are only seen on Hollywood sets. A person in this type of career straddles the film industry and the golf industry, requiring knowledge of both.
Golf equipment tester: Imagine spending your days testing new styles of golf clubs, or driving golf carts around. If you think about it, someone has to test out all of that new equipment, and who better than someone who knows the golf industry inside and out.
Golf fashion designer: Golfers, whether professional or otherwise, care about what they wear just as much as any other athlete. Whether you play golf on TV, with your coworkers, or just with your buddies, there will always be people watching, and so good golf fashion is a must. As a golf fashion designer, your products can help set the trends for the entire golf industry.
Golf fashion model: No matter how good-looking he or she is, a model will not be able to sell what he or she can’t demonstrate accurately. Therefore, a model who knows the golf industry and has good form will be an asset to anyone selling a golf-related product.
Golf writer: Golf offers many different areas for writers to specialize in. Golf advertising writers and copywriters help write marketing materials for businesses in the golf industry, and golf journalists write news stories and magazine features for specialty publications. In all of these careers, it is vital that the writer be knowledgeable about the sport, so that he or she can write about golf accurately and confidently.
Scuba diver-Ball retriever: If you have ever wondered who retrieves all those balls that are hit into the golf course lake, here is your answer. If you can’t think of a more unique and enjoyable job than scuba diving for golf balls, then this one might be for you!
Golf psychologist: No, we don’t mean that the clubs need shrinks. As with many other popular sports, golf is highly competitive, and with intense competition comes stress, anxiety, depression, injury-related disorders, and many more psychological issues. A golf psychologists literally talks to members of the golf industry, such as professional golfers, in order to help them manage the repercussions of the sport.
As you can see, there are many interesting and unusual careers available in the golf industry. If you have a good golf education and a creative mind, the sky will be the only limit on what you can do with it.

Scuba diving equipment has evolved to become sophisticated, incredibly safe, reliable and high performance. There’s a massive range of options and features available, to allow scuba diving in any environment.

To familiarize you with how a set of scuba diving gear works, we’ll run you through a basic set, and discuss what options and features would be suitable for warm water Koh Tao diving.

Firstly we need somewhere to store the air which we’ll be breathing whilst underwater. Scuba cylinders or tanks) come in a range of sizes and materials. Scuba diving Koh Tao we opt for aluminum cylinders, which are resistant to the corrosive salty ocean conditions, compressing air into 12 litre cylinders at two hundred time normal atmospheric pressure (200 bar). That volume of air allows an average diver to dive for about 45 minutes at normal recreational depths, (factoring in a safety margin).

This is the bit which attaches to the valve of the scuba cylinder. Since the air inside the cylinder is at two hundred times normal pressure, we need to reduce that pressure down to make it breathable. This is the job of the regulator first stage. Most first stages reduce down the pressure to about ten bar above ambient water pressure (called the intermediate pressure), which is then fed down to the ….

This is the bit that you put in your mouth and breathe from. The second stage contains a large diaphragm which the surrounding water pressure pushes on. What that does is adjust the intermediate pressure (delivered from the first stage) to exactly the same pressure as the surrounding water. The result is that when you breathe in, a valve opens and allows air to flow freely. When you stop breathing in or exhale, the valve remains closed allowing you to conserve your air supply.

In case your buddy has an equipment problem, you also have a alternate second stage attached to your first stage, which means in the event of an emergency your buddy can also breathe from your cylinder. This is one of the reasons why it’s always a good idea to stick with a buddy when scuba diving.

Obviously we need a way of keeping the cumbersome cylinder attached to us, so the BCD is a robust jacket which allows you to strap the cylinder to your back. The BCD also has a second important function. You can adjust the amount of air inside the jacket so that you hover motionlessly in mid water and control your position underwater. Whilst at the surface you can inflate the BCD to avoid swimming to stay afloat, and save energy.

Your body looses heat about twenty times faster in water than air, so you’ll need to wear some kind of exposure protection to keep warm. The good news is, Koh Tao diving has very warm water – usually about 30C. That means during the Padi open water course we usually wear a 2.5mm neoprene ‘shorty’ wetsuit , which keeps us comfortable during the dives.

The bad news is that neoprene is buoyant (as is body fat),  so to be able to descend underwater we have to carry some lead weights. The easiest way to do this (adopted by most Koh Tao dive schools) is to attach the lead to a weight belt which you secure around your waist prior to each dive.

Your eyes can’t focus in water, so you need to wear a mask to be able to see when diving. If you have a little spare cash and plan to invest in piece of scuba diving gear of your own, make sure you buy a mask. A good diving mask makes all the difference to your Koh Tao diving experience – if you can see properly you’ll have a much better time!

With all this gear, it becomes a bit tricky getting around underwater. To make life easier we wear large, rigid diving fins which take all the effort out of swimming, allowing us to maintain our air supply and explore the Koh Tao dive sites with ease.

For more info, visit the Simple Life website [http://www.simplelifedivers.com], and don’t miss part two of our series of lessons from the Koh Tao Padi open water course, where we examine some realities and myths of dangerous aquatic life!