TRAINING
Leadership Training – A Dive Store’s Most Underutilized Resource? – by Al Hornsby, owner, Al Hornsby Productions, Singapore Al is regarded as one of the industry’s most experienced risk management litigation executives.
Like in most industries, in diving, similar activities and opportunities exist among the businesses involved, but often with very different outcomes and results. In dive stores that aren’t re- ally focused on developing and utiliz- ing leadership programs, they may
bes.” I’d suggest we have our staff always consciously on the lookout for such people coming through our training programs. It may be as simple as identifying them, acknowl- edging their further interests, and creating clear pathways for them to take from open water diver to AOW, rescue, first aid, divemaster, assistant instructor, and instructor - and im- parting to them the potential opportunities this move up the ladder can provide. At each step, their training and equipment needs expand, as well as their abilities and formal opportunities to be in- volved with dive activities. For divers with such training and
tend to train a fair number of open water divers, with some portion of those going on to an “advanced” program. But without a specific focus, the numbers who reach rescue, di- vemaster, and assistant instructor can be quite different –
often because the students simply may not have been provided an un- derstanding of their ultimate value and how they can be achieved. It’s unfortunate when capable, motivated divers with a desire to proceed further are not shown all
skills, their presence/involvement (such as serving as general ob- servers, equipment handlers, safety divers, etc.) can also provide logisti- cal, safety, and other assistance to
the instructors in- volved. And for stores
that may be available to them. For the stores that are very good at creating awareness and clear pathways, the benefits are many… not only in terms of increased training and equipment revenues, but also in creating a closely-knit clientele that can add to the general safety and effec- tiveness of the store’s diving and instructional activities. Simply stated, more customers trained to advanced, res- cue, and first aid levels - besides being profitable - tends to generally reduce accident potentials and increases the likelihood of assistance being available when needed. And there have been occasions when the presence of a well-trained rescue/EFR/etc. diver could have possi- bly made all the difference. In one of diving’s serious lawsuits some years ago, an instructor for an open water class was conducting the swim evaluation in a quiet lake. While, of course, only the instructor could carry out the evaluations, rescue-trained divers (DMs, etc.) could have been placed along the route as spotters/respon- ders. In this case, the faster swimmers quickly outpaced the pack, with the instructor watching over the less- strong swimmers at the rear. Unfortunately, one of the lead swimmers had a medical event and drowned with- out assistance. Sadly, the simple use of divers trained in rescue, posted along the way, may have allowed inter- vention. Perhaps we should change this paradigm, specifically always watching for highly motivated customers who, rather than perhaps being considered “wanna-bes” (as too often may happen), we should consider as “oughta-
that offer instructor training, these folks be- come an obvious customer pool for future pro- grams.
email Al
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