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A divemaster should certainly be able to advise a diver how to do an appropriate weight check and understand the variables around it.
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Card collector is never an issue. However it does reflect the general low standard of the course.I believe it's been said above, but there are divers who have taken the DM course and gotten a c-card that says "divemaster" but are not employed as dive guides and then there are actual professional DMs who guide others for a living. Divers of the former type are inconsequential. It should not matter to any of us how good or poor their training was. In contrast, the professional DMs who are actually competent at leading dives and otherwise providing a safe, efficient and enjoyable diver experience can generally be found employed by reputable dive ops. A DM whose employer receives multiple complaints will probably not last long. Nowadays, online reviews make it relatively easy to judge DM quality. It doesn't matter to me what kind of c-card a good dive guide holds. I wouldn't be surprised to learn some of the dive guides I have had in Asia didn't have cards that said "divemaster" or something similar, yet some of them have appeared to me to be better at leading dives than DMs I have had in Florida.
Card collector is never an issue. However it does reflect the general low standard of the course.
DG is NOT DM.
They have my most respect after 25 yrs diving around SE Asia. They earn peanut but always a smile in their faces and had never complaint except telling"funny stories" on incompetent divers if you had gotten their trust. And they have to deal with them day in and out.
DG is a respectable job for the local and a good one seldom quit. They are in demand.
When I first started diving most DG are foreigners but now most of them are local.
They get real "training" nearly everyday if not every dive.And most of them are very skilled in their environment, with buoyancy and trim like fish! I also suspect they could help their clients with all kinds of common difficulties, even if some of them did not learn how from a formal course.