Both PADI Divemaster and Instructor candidates alike become hugely familiar with the PADI grading system consisting of numbers 1 (Unable to perform the skill), through to 5 (Skill performed adequately and with ease). This scale is, even now, still my hypothetical benchmark for almost all areas of scuba instruction.
Scuba students are expected to perform skills in a ‘reasonably comfortable, fluid and repeatable manner’ so that they achieve skill mastery. As his dad, I simply wanted James to be a representation of everything in diving which I have worked incredibly hard to achieve, passing on vital knowledge, skills and years of experience the best way I could. The single most precious resource when instructing student divers is undoubtedly time, and luckily James and I had all the time we needed to prepare for his Junior Open Water Course.
The usual questions from anyone who spoke to me about James’s PADI course were always the same: “did you go easy on him?” or “did you make him work extra hard for it? The truth is, and if I’m being completely honest, the passing standard for James was expectedly always going to be set much higher. As parents, we aim to mould our children in our image and one day, James will most certainly be a much better diver than I could ever wish to be.
