What one thing did your scuba instructor do to make taking your first scuba class a memorable experience?

It's been about 15 years since my initial cert so I don't remember much of the instructor. I do remember our final dive though, we did a boat dive off Catalina. I remember the massive kelp and all the sealife which inhabited it, I saw sea lion and my buddy found a small octopus. My first experience in a world which seemed so alien at the time I'll never forget.

Thank you! It's been about 26 years since my first dive class. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is the Wolf Eel that swam out from under the old barge at Titlow Beach, Tacoma. At the time we all thought we'd just seen the Loch Ness Monster and we were OUTTA there. Turns out he was about as tame a creature as you've ever met underwater. We all felt pretty silly after that one.

Our instructor was very enthusiastic, and we decided to cheer along with her every time that she said "YAY!"
We told her that the hawaiian Shaka hand sign would mean YAY underwater. She really liked that. We dove off of La Jolla Shores. We saw a butterfly ray which is apparently rare. We had fun!