Doing your DM in a 5 star IDC, is it better than a regular dive shop ?

[Black/Beard]

Hi everyone,

I intend to do my DM in a few months and am in the process of choosing a dive shop to do so.
I will do it abroad during a 6 weeks timeframe, so visiting the shops beforehand isn't an option unfortunately.

Objectives of the DM is for me to improve my skills as a diver, and to get to know the teaching and business aspects of working in the dive industry. OWSI is not an objective right now, it may be in the future but at the moment I am just looking for a quality internship where I could improve my skills as much as possible.

So, I know that basically any dive shop can teach up to DM level. As I am trying to figure out a short list, I was wondering if choosing a 5 star IDC would bring more guarantees of having a quality instruction. Having a course director working for/with the shop, I thought that maybe the risk of having a disappointing internship quality-wise would be much lower.

Now this is just a thought, as obviously I am trying to find a way to narrow down the number of dive shops to consider. Obviously, never having done a DM, I am not sure this reasoning makes sense or not, and I am looking for feedback from people that actually know the industry.

What is your thoughts and experience about the guarantees that brings a 5 star IDC in terms of instruction standards ?

 

[oly5050user]

No guarantees. Depends on instructor.
That said, if you take dm course at 5 star IDC center chances are it may not be done by a a course director. Could be a owsi or IDC staff instructor.
Do not go into a dm course thinking it will improve you dive skills. Your personal skills should be very good before entering program. Speciality courses such as peak performance buoyancy, wreck night, even uw photo MIGHT improve skills and increase your level of awareness of what is going on during a dive.
If you choose not to spend $$$ on specialities then next best thing is to actually going diving. You have barely enough dives to enter the course at 50-100 dives, need bare minimum of 40 to enter course and 60 to exit.
Why not get at least 100 dives or more under different conditions then think about this course?
Teaching aspects a are not really taught in dm course, that's what a asst instr course and IDC is for.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yeah, exactly what oly says. I was lucky in that I had a good Instructor at a top notch 5 Star shop. Is there a "4 Star" shop anywhere?

 

[Black/Beard]

No guarantees. Depends on instructor.
That said, if you take dm course at 5 star IDC center chances are it may not be done by a a course director. Could be a owsi or IDC staff instructor.
Do not go into a dm course thinking it will improve you dive skills. Your personal skills should be very good before entering program. Speciality courses such as peak performance buoyancy, wreck night, even uw photo MIGHT improve skills and increase your level of awareness of what is going on during a dive.
If you choose not to spend $$$ on specialities then next best thing is to actually going diving. You have barely enough dives to enter the course at 50-100 dives, need bare minimum of 40 to enter course and 60 to exit.
Why not get at least 100 dives or more under different conditions then think about this course?
Teaching aspects a are not really taught in dm course, that's what a asst instr course and IDC is for.

Actually it's not really a matter of having the course director doing the DM. The issue is more about avoiding a really bad instructor that would do a bad DM, or a shameless LDS owner that will use you to carry tanks all day long, and maybe since you have to comply to certain standards for getting the 5 star IDC label, you're less likely to end up with a slave-labor kind of DM ?

Regarding my diving history, I dive approximately 5 times a month home in the mediterreanean during summer season, but can't do much more because it's a costly hobby, even though I have my own gear. The cost per dive of a 4-6 weeks DM internship would actually be cheaper than fun diving here in Europe. I also feel that I would probably improve my skills much more by diving continuously for a few weeks, than by doing a few dives every now and then. But maybe I'm wrong about that

 

[TMHeimer]

Actually it's not really a matter of having the course director doing the DM. The issue is more about avoiding a really bad instructor that would do a bad DM, or a shameless LDS owner that will use you to carry tanks all day long, and maybe since you have to comply to certain standards for getting the 5 star IDC label, you're less likely to end up with a slave-labor kind of DM ?

Regarding my diving history, I dive approximately 5 times a month home in the mediterreanean during summer season, but can't do much more because it's a costly hobby, even though I have my own gear. The cost per dive of a 4-6 weeks DM internship would actually be cheaper than fun diving here in Europe. I also feel that I would probably improve my skills much more by diving continuously for a few weeks, than by doing a few dives every now and then. But maybe I'm wrong about that

There's some logic here. Other than in your case giving you more diving, the two things the course can do is 1. Obviously improve your safety and awareness of other divers--especially if they're not even certified and probably a lot more prone to panic. 2. Getting your basic skills to "demonstration" level. I would guess you could just practise them on your own without a course and improve them to excellent quality. Other than those, the course has a lot of theory (less than the "old" course), much of which is very educational and interesting, but not vital for being an excellent safe diver. Bottom line is you have to want to get into teaching/assisting because that is of interest to you. Otherwise not much point in doing the course.

Addendum-- It's been said 100 times that the minimum required no. of dives to start DM (and IDC) is way too low. I started with 158 and felt barely ready. I guess there are rare exceptions.

 

[RJP]

FYI - a DM program is unlikely to "improve your diving skills."

 

[DMDavid]

Objectives of the DM is for me to improve my skills as a diver, and to get to know the teaching and business aspects of working in the dive industry. OWSI is not an objective right now, it may be in the future but at the moment I am just looking for a quality internship where I could improve my skills as much as possible.

The dive master course is not intended to make you a better diver, the primary purpose is the business end of being a proper dive guide/assistant in a commercial sense.

What is your thoughts and experience about the guarantees that brings a 5 star IDC in terms of instruction standards ?

As someone else has already pointed out, is there such a thing as a 4 star?
Don't get all caught up in the marketing of the dive master programs, concentrate on finding an instructor with a great reputation for helping you become a good dive master with the proper tools.

I often consider the dive master certification as having a commercial license to operate in a business environment and nothing more.

 

[TMHeimer]

FYI - a DM program is unlikely to "improve your diving skills."

I don't disagree Ray, but it depends on what you refer to as diving skills. If you mean excellent buoyancy, superb finning techniques, making successful difficult entries/exits, and a number of other aspects of diving , I agree. If you mean smoothly doffing and donning your unit, or perfectly performing an OOA share air ascent or any of the other "20 (or whatever number now) pool skills", I disagree.