A day in the life: Scuba Instructor

Dave Black has been teaching scuba diving for 10 years and doing his own diving for 20. The scuba instructor at Adventure West Scuba, in South Ogden, sheds light on diving in Utah and teaching others how to get their scuba on.

Signpost: Describe your typical certification day.

Dave Black: We have five classes which last about an hour-and-a-half and then we have five pool sessions which are about an hour-and-a-half to two hours. We learn a variety of skills, then we take them out to certification where they have to do two days of diving - four dives. In the last certification on the first day we did navigation and altitude diving. Then we cooked our Dutch-oven dinners and we entertained. Later we had a night dive. Early the next morning we did a deep dive and search and recovery.

SP: Does the certification happen here in South Ogden?

DB: We do all the classroom pool work here and then we take them to Blue Lake or the Crater up at Homestead. There is also a geo-thermal lake in the Tremonton area. Now we are starting to go up to Bear Lake and Flaming Gorge. We'll also do Starvation and Fish Lake, the Channel Islands and Lake Powell.

SP: What is your Favorite part of your job?

DB: The diving and meeting the different people.We have a variety of people that come in and, it doesn't matter if they are truck-drivers, doctors or lawyers. Whatever the profession is, they get along really well because they have something in common. That's diving.

I work with high-risk teens too. In the first class in the pool they've got to learn how to communicate under water. I deal with a lot of gangbangers and some of them really take to it. They have to trust me underwater. It really impacts them.

SP: Where is your favorite place to dive?

DB: Anywhere there is water. It could be a mud hole. Here in Utah it would probably be Flaming Gorge. Out of the country it depends on the time of year and who I am diving with. Bonaire is great, a lot of offshore diving. It just depends on what you are seeking at that time.

SP: What is the difference between diving in Utah and diving in other places?

DB: Every body of water has its differences and uniqueness. At Flaming Gorge there are very unique rock formations. Utah is big on spear fishing. And by capita we are about 8th in the nation for certifying divers. That is unique because we are inland. As a dive community we have geo-thermal lakes and warm water. There is a lot of cold water too and some of us are crazy enough to go do ice-diving and river diving.

SP: What is the worst day you've had as an instructor?

DB: The worst day was with a group of non-english speaking students up at Bear Lake and it was cold. One of the fun divers had an incident where he and his girlfriend did a deep dive and his regulator started free-flowing. They dealt with that well, but as they were coming up, she had drank some soda pop before, it got to the point where she couldn't breathe and passed out at 40 feet. When they came up on the surface and everybody was running around.

SP: Did she make it?

DB: Yeah. She was fine.

SP: Are there many accidents?

DB: In the diving industry we don't generally have many accidents. We teach Padi [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] we are real thorough on our teaching and making sure the skills are good. Anything can be dealt with underwater for the most part. We teach rescue also and that changes people's diving. They start anticipating problems that could happen and start eliminating problems.

SP: Do you have any recommendations for students interested in diving?

DB: We have Discover Scuba that is a quick class session where we get in the pool and teach you how to clear the mask, find their regulator, breath off of it and clear their ears. We go down to 12 feet and if they like it they can do the actual class. The money you paid can be applied toward more classes. And it makes a great date.