October marks the beginning of Blue Grotto’s busy season. As the weather turns colder up north, instructors flock to the Grotto to conduct the open-water training they can no longer do locally.
Earlier this year, we published an article entitled Become a Superhero Instructor. In it, we outline several steps you can take to make our lives easier, which in turn helps us make your life easier as well. If you have not read this article, you should do so before bringing your next group to Blue Grotto. And, if you have read it, it wouldn’t hurt to review it before our busy season gets underway.
In this article, we’ll outline some additional steps you can take that will help make everyone’s experience more enjoyable.
Don’t be a ghost
On weekends during our busy season, our nine teaching pavilions are usually reserved well in advance. It’s disappointing then when we see a previously reserved pavilion sitting empty. Meanwhile, instructors who couldn’t reserve a pavilion are forced to teach using a picnic table or the back of their truck.
If you’ve reserved a pavilion but have your class canceled, you must let us know right away. That way, we can give the pavilion to someone else.
This has become enough of a problem that we’ve had to introduce a new policy. Unless you call and let us know you will arrive late, we will only hold your pavilion reservation until 10:00 am. If you have not shown up by then, we will give your pavilion to someone else.
No “zoom-zoom”
There are some teaching activities that, while not prohibited, are restricted. For example, if you want to teach a freediving class, you can only do so on weekdays.
Another restricted activity is teaching DPV courses or courses in which students will use DPVs. DPVs in the hands of students pose a risk to other divers. They can also adversely impact visibility.
If you want to teach or use DPVs at the Grotto, you must make arrangements to do so after our normal operating hours when you can have the site to yourself. Contact us for more information on this.
Get it together before you arrive
Here are some things we’ve covered before, but as we are going into our busy season, they bear repeating.
When bringing students to the Grotto:
- Before arriving, have your students visit the Blue Grotto website, watch the orientation video, and then download and complete the waiver in Adobe Acrobat. Have them bring the completed and signed waivers with them.
- When your students arrive at the Grotto, have them meet you either at your reserved pavilion or, if you do not have a pavilion reserved, next to the dive center.
- Collect all the student waivers, double-check them for completeness, and then turn them in together. Remember that you cannot take students in the water until you have turned in the waivers and every diver has a wrist band.
- You will save even more time if you collect all of your students’ admission fees upfront (or build them into your course fee) and then pay for them at one time. Some instructors do this when they turn in waivers; others keep an open tab in case they need air fills.
If you do not have current instructor paperwork on file for us:
- Visit the Blue Grotto website and download the instructor waiver. This is identical to the regular waiver, with the addition of spaces for two dates at the top. The first date is when you will next arrive at the Grotto; the second date is when your professional liability insurance expires.
- Complete the waiver in Adobe Acrobat, then print and sign it. Bring the signed waiver with you along with a copy of your current professional liability insurance showing Blue Grotto as an additional insured.
- When we get your waiver and insurance, we will issue you a Blue Grotto Instructor ID card. You can show this to the staff on future visits, thus avoiding the need to constantly fill out a new set of paperwork.
As we said going in, anything you can do to make our life easier will also help us make your life easier.