We want to reveal here some tricks on how to become more friendly and precise in your predive safety briefing.
Years ago in Spain, an accident occurred during a dive. The outcome of which was tremendous. As in any tragic situation, there were clearly various contributing causes to the accident. Among which one of those included the pre-dive briefing. The guide had made a fairly incomplete briefing and some important details were omitted (such as the depth and especially he never clearly explained the organization of the group. This post does not want to wish anyone to find themselves in such situations, we don’t want neither explain here the 10 famous fundamental points that are part of any PADI briefing for PADI. In fact, we want to reveal here some tricks on how to become more friendly and precise during your predive briefing.
1 Use the slates, PADI Dm slates or any slates with some notes. Having them in your hand doesn’t look less professional, on the contrary, it gives more value to what you are doing and prevents you from forgetting some important points
2 Be friendly and conversative (also smile sometimes, have fun) the briefing is not sterile monologue. It must be actually the moment in which you meet your divers, discover their tastes and their dive objective. Don’t force them to accept yours, instead discuss with them on best practices to meet everyone’s satisfaction and achieve their targets.
3 Instead of declaring depth and time, ask your divers which depths they would like to go to, topography permitting, and what are the dive times that they eventually expected to do. Informe theml if there is a maximum time stated by the dive center policy or whether these are generally an expression of the entire will of the diving group
4 Find out their goals. If there are photographers, for example, they might need a slower pace for this dive and you would probably need some assistants to delegate their supervision as well as assistants become helpful if there are students taking courses
5 Show them a book with photos of a fish chart. You will be amazed to see their smiles while looking at some fish pictures, that’s why they are here, nithing else is left but showing them again underwater. Half of the job is done for you.
6 Show a dive site map if there is one. If there are no maps available draw the underwater path you intend to take on a whiteboard, on a white paper but be visual enough. DIvers, especially if unexperienced, feel much more confident if they already see what they are going to explore.
7 Observe their faces/eyes during the briefing and tries to understand any objections or concerns. If the divers are belong to different nationalities, use translators to help you during the brieifing. If they look worried during your explanations, try to get closer to those divers at the end of the briefing and try to understand their mood, away from the crowd. Divers are like mirrors, you can see thorough them how good is the job you are doing.
8 If you have divers of different levels, you can possibly consider separating them during a part of the briefing so that no one feels out of place.
9 Briefing needs to remain brief and it is only the beginning of a day of diving. It is the beginning of a continuos dialoque that is already born, between you and them. After every dive don’t forget to ask them if they enjoyed the dive if your pace was optimal, if they saw enough marine life and if they liked your way of guiding them. By doing so you are nor minimize your role, you are actually deeping your relationship with them. Being humble will be surely highly appreciated by them.
10 Remember that if there were any problems during the dive you can always remediate on the next one, only, if you know what you did wrong. Making yourself empathetic is the best way to avoid unpleasant future situations and fully enjoy the dive!
Briefing is just one of the most common Divemaster Tasks, find out how to become a better Divemaster!
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