Teach Try Scuba

Try diving, or try scuba, is something you will do very often when working in a diving center. This is where people come who just want to find out what it’s like underwater – and some who want to learn to dive.
Take some time to watch your colleagues when they have try divers in the water. Listen to briefings, give a little support, see how they behave on land and in the water with the new divers – and check out everything you like.
Read your ITC manual, the student material, the Try Scuba instructor manual and look at the standards. And take a look at this page – maybe it will help you prepare for your try dives
Try diving is often ridiculed and unfortunately all too often carried out without much enthusiasm. Yet it is perhaps the most important dive of a diver’s life: the first time underwater, an experience that you will remember forever. That’s why it’s important to take special care with these dives and really do everything you can to make it an all-round successful, enjoyable experience. What you do here can determine whether this person never wants to get back into the water or finds a new, wonderful hobby for years or decades to come.

How does a trial dive work?

Before you go into the water with a new diver, some paperwork needs to be done. This is often done by the dive center, but you need to be sure that the participants have completed an application and – very important! – have completed a health questionnaire.
And you need to be sure that you have all the equipment you need for your diver.
If these conditions are right, you’re ready to go.

Let’s do a Try Dive!

Briefing

Before the dive, you explain how everything will work – the introductory dive briefing. You have to explain the equipment, the exercises you are going to do, the dive, and also all the signs and how it all works. That’s quite a lot, but you shouldn’t need much longer than 20 minutes, otherwise no one will be able to listen anyway.

At the bottom of this page you will find a tool that you can use to prepare your briefing.

Immersion – On the surface

You now have people in the water with you who have never been in the water with so much heavy equipment. Before you can really dive, you need a little preparation on the surface.

The first few breaths are the most important. Let your students put on the mask and put the regulator in their mouth, and then just let them breathe a little on the surface. As a diving instructor, you also have your head under water. You look to see whether they are breathing calmly and relaxed or rather frantically, and above all – are they breathing out at all? Sometimes someone keeps lifting their head out of the water to exhale – you should explain something…

And sometimes people think they’re not getting enough air. You can see very short exhalation phases, they breathe quickly and shallowly and feel a little tight. This is usually not due to the regulator, but to the fact that they are so excited that they simply don’t exhale well. The CO2 collects – and they think they can’t breathe. Breathe out, breathe out deeply – and continue breathing in a relaxed manner….

If everyone breathes calmly and feels comfortable, you can dive down together in a controlled manner. Sounds simple, but….

Dive down

The descent is usually the most chaotic moment of the whole dive. Depending on how many students there are per instructor and to what depth, different strategies can be used.
Before we present a few options here, sit back and think: What have you seen in the process? Have you assisted on trial dives and how did they do it? What did you like about it, what didn’t? How would you prefer it to be organized?

What we don’t do:
More lead – only if someone really needs more. Is the jacket empty? Are you sure?
Head under water until they breathe – never, ever. That needs no explanation.
“On your knee, bastard!” – makes it difficult to dive relaxed afterwards.

Diving around

How deep? 5m is enough!
Show fish

SLOW! Really, even slower!

Watch out!

Surfacing

Good company out of the water
We want to see you again!

What is the best way?

During your training, you will accompany different diving instructors when they give courses. You will see different styles and can decide for yourself what you want to adopt. Take every opportunity to be out and about with experienced instructors, develop into a good assistant – and develop your own style!

How do YOU want to do it? How do YOU want to train skills? What is the best way to teach – for YOU, YOUR students and YOUR conditions?

Find out – try it out. Don’t get stuck on just one method.
See something you like? Copy it, try it out – and see if it works better for you and your students than your previous approach.