Want to Learn Great Buoyancy Control?

By Duane Johnson | Feature Posts, Training

Slow Things Down for Buoyancy Control

I get asked all the time, “How can I improve my buoyancy control?”. Many people think that there is a silver bullet that will allow them to have precision buoyancy control. You want to know the truth? There is none. If you want to gain awesome buoyancy control, all you need to do is slow yourself down. If you can slow down your mind, you’ll start to think like an expert diver. If you can think like an expert diver, you’ll start to preform like an expert diver. Then your divers will be exponentially more enjoyable. You’ll be surprised how your mind can cause you to become a better diver. [Read more...]

Scuba Courtesy: What’s Wrong with Scuba Instructors?

By Duane Johnson | Training

Just a little warning before you read further, this post isn’t for the faint of heart. This post can be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. You may find the following contents offensive.

Recently, I was teaching a class at my local quarry. Our quarry has a bunch of platforms installed so students, supposedly, won’t get into the muck during their training dives. One rule of the quarry is that training platforms are on a first come, first served basis with no reserving them. Basically if another class or group of divers is on a platform, then others need to find a new platform, wait until the platform is free, or possibly share the platform such that you are not interfering with each other. For the second time this year, some ~~douche bag~~ diving instructor decided it was smart to drop his class of open water students on top of my class. He had about eight or more students compared to my three. This isn’t some random occurrence. This regularly happens to me at least two or more times each year. [Read more...]

Confessions of the Scuba Anti-Hero: Part 1

By Duane Johnson | Knowledge Base

Your Scuba Anti-Hero

Many people haven’t been able to get to know the real me. Many have accused me of being egotistical and other nonsense. Unless you’ve been around me for quite some time, you may not know a few truths about my diving and views on diving. In this series, I want to give a few “confessions” to help people get to know me a little more better. Check back often for more of my confessions. [Read more...]

Going Above the Standards: The Fallacy

By Duane Johnson | Feature Posts, Training

Like many people, I like to waste my non-diving time by going on various scuba on-line forums and reading scuba diving blogs. As I try to evolve as a scuba diving instructor, I like to read about what other instructors are doing. You never know, someone may have some good ideas about how to run specific drills or how to handle students in a particular way. When I read through a lot of this, much of what people advertise about their classes is that they go above and beyond what the training agency standards say. Heck, I’ve even said this about my own classes and I’m sure it’s written somewhere on my web site. As I’ve grown as an instructor, one thing has become obviously clear, going above the training standards just isn’t enough. [Read more...]