Part One of a Two Part Series on How to Be A Better Instructor
by Jeff McNutt, Chief Operating Officer/Owner of Dive BVI
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THERE ARE PLENTY of ways to become a scuba professional. You can collect certifications, log hundreds of dives, learn to tie knots that look suspiciously like spaghetti, and master the ancient art of convincing a nervous diver that, yes, the regulator really is supposed to make that noise.
But becoming a better dive professional requires more than qualifications. The best instructors, divemasters, guides, captains, and dive center staff bring something to the job that cannot be printed on a certification card: character. I have been told many times that I am a character, but this is a different kind. I still take it as a compliment!
Great dive professionals make people feel safe, welcome, inspired, and occasionally amused while wearing enough equipment to make a NASA engineer nod approvingly. They understand that diving is serious business, but it does not have to be serious all the time.
Here are the first five qualities that can turn you from a dive professional into the kind of professional people remember for all the right reasons.
1. Passion: Passion is contagious. If you genuinely love diving, people notice it when you describe a favorite reef or wreck, point out a strange little nudibranch, or become suspiciously excited about a good patch of sand. Passion makes the experience feel authentic rather than transactional.
You do not have to pretend every dive is the greatest dive of your life. Sometimes the visibility is terrible, the current is doing its best impression of a washing machine, and the only interesting animal you see is a fish that appears to have a personal grudge against you. That is diving.
What matters is maintaining your curiosity and enthusiasm. Share what excites you, tell stories, point out the tiny things, and encourage divers to look beyond the obvious. Continue diving for yourself, too. If the ocean becomes nothing more than the place where you work, you are in trouble. Your customers do not need you to be excited about everything, but they need to see that you still care.
2. Humility: Nobody likes the dive professional who behaves as though they personally invented buoyancy.
Experience, expertise, and confidence matter, but humility may be even more important. A humble professional understands that there is always more to learn. The ocean has a particularly effective way of reminding us of that. You can have thousands of dives and still encounter a situation, animal, environment, or equipment problem that teaches you something new.
Humility also means admitting when you do not know something. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” is infinitely better than confidently explaining marine biology with information you invented during the descent.
Good professionals listen to other divers, respect local knowledge, and learn from their colleagues. They understand that the newest divemaster on the boat might notice something the most experienced instructor overlooked. The ocean does not care about your ego. Neither should you.
3. Fitness for Diving: You do not need to look like an Olympic swimmer to be a good dive professional. In fact, some of the world’s most capable divers probably could not win a synchronized swimming competition unless the rules were changed dramatically.
You do, however, need to be fit for the diving you perform. That means having the strength, cardiovascular fitness, mobility, and endurance necessary to manage yourself and assist others when conditions are not ideal.
Can you handle your equipment comfortably, climb a boat ladder after a challenging dive, tow a tired diver, or perform an emergency response without discovering that your lungs have recently resigned?
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Fitness is not about appearance. It is about capability. A dive professional’s physical condition is part of their professional responsibility. Train for the environments and conditions in which you work, and remember that fitness is not something you achieve once and frame on the wall. It is an ongoing investment.
4. Relatability: People may not remember every fact you taught them, but they will remember how you made them feel.
A great dive professional can communicate with a first-time diver, technical diver, marine biologist, nervous vacationer, or the person who bought a complete equipment package yesterday because an Instagram video convinced them they needed it.
Relatability means meeting people where they are. Do not talk down to beginners, overwhelm them with jargon, or assume everyone shares the same experience, goals, fears, or sense of adventure. Sometimes the best professional communication is simply saying, “I get it. I was nervous the first time, too.”
Being relatable does not mean pretending to be inexperienced. It means being approachable enough that people feel comfortable asking questions and admitting when they are confused. A diver who feels comfortable telling you, “Something doesn’t feel right,” is much safer than one who is too embarrassed to speak up.
5. A Sense of Humor: Scuba diving is inherently ridiculous. We put giant metal tanks on our backs, strap rubber to our faces, shuffle around like penguins, and descend underwater to communicate primarily through hand gestures. Humor clearly has a place in diving.
A well-timed joke can reduce anxiety, build relationships, and turn an ordinary dive into a memorable experience. But humor requires judgment. Never use it to dismiss genuine fear, safety concerns, or someone’s lack of experience. Remember that not everyone shares your sense of humor, particularly at 100 feet.
At 129 feet, all of my jokes get funnier. Scientifically, that may be true, but we should probably focus more on breathing gas than laughing at that depth!
The best professionals know when to joke and when to be serious. If you can make people laugh without making them feel foolish, you are doing it right.
Customers may not be able to judge every professional qualification, but they quickly recognize enthusiasm, humility, capability, and someone who makes them feel comfortable. Those qualities build trust, and trust brings divers back.
In Part 2, we will look beyond individual customer interactions to the qualities that strengthen a dive operation, its community, and the industry around it.
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