A different take on Master Scuba Diver

[Celt]

There is certianly truth to this - but I also respect that I am not a professional diver. I have no goals that include being a professional diver. As such there are conditions or locations that a professional diver would be capable of diving at (with varying degrees of caution) that I have no business attempting to dive in to begin with. I also have no desire to dive in conditions like this, since I only dive for fun.

Am I able to research a beach reef dive location and then plan a dive and dive a plan? Most likely yes. West Maui is a good example of this. While I have not dove every location on west Maui, I believe I could research, plan, and dive most.

The exception here is breakneck beach. Makena beach is well known for a serious shore break that has inured and killed several people. I would not try to dive there without a local guide.

Can I plan a dive among the glaciers in Iceland? Nope. But I’m okay with that.

I haven’t done any blue water dives, or wall dives yet. At the moment my dive partner won’t allow those as she’s a jr OWD, so I may reevaluate those as she ages. So far I’ve been very happy with shallow reefs.

This is similar to my habits as a pilot. I am a sport pilot and I fly for fun. I never fly because I have to; I fly because I want to. I don’t fly at night. I don’t fly if it’s windy. I don’t fly if it’s cloudy. I don’t fly into class B airspace.

Am I less of a pilot because I won’t fly in storms or very congested airspace? I argue no I am not. To your first statement, yes my crosswind tolerance has increased the more I fly, and i can land in shorter distances than when i started training, but i am not an IFR pilot. I am not a bad weather pilot. I just understand and accept my limitations because my “needs” are met.

I understand what you're saying and I'm certainly not saying people should recklessly dive beyond what their comfortable with. What needs to be done in order to advance your experiences and skills is to be serious about your hobby and take on new responsibilities slowly instead of leaving others lead the way. Try new things and not sit back and leave others make decisions for you. Even if your diving with others learn to cope in the chance you find yourself alone. A good example would be the beach you mentioned. Go down at high and low water if it's tidal and learn the layout, check for good entries and exits if you found yourself alone. I would make a simple tryout dive there at high water and for the first dive I would only go to the low water mark where I've already checked out and then gradually survey it deeper. We all want to stay safe and enjoy our sport but the more you learn the more you relax, and being self reliant is a huge confidence builder.

 

[Leatherboot69]

I understand what you're saying and I'm certainly not saying people should recklessly dive beyond what their comfortable with. What needs to be done in order to advance your experiences and skills is to be serious about your hobby and take on new responsibilities slowly instead of leaving others lead the way. Try new things and not sit back and leave others make decisions for you. Even if your diving with others learn to cope in the chance you find yourself alone. A good example would be the beach you mentioned. Go down at high and low water if it's tidal and learn the layout, check for good entries and exits if you found yourself alone. I would make a simple tryout dive there at high water and for the first dive I would only go to the low water mark where I've already checked out and then gradually survey it deeper. We all want to stay safe and enjoy our sport but the more you learn the more you relax, and being self reliant is a huge confidence builder.

I think something I’ve learned is that there needs to be space, scope and relevant training for the (possible majority of) divers who don’t want to progress or expand their range of experiences like you and I do. For whom Diving is largely a passive or ‘led’ hobby - which is certainly all of my current friends who dive.

 

[Leatherboot69]

If only there was a course that taught open water diving in a range of conditions, rescue and first aid, had optional electives to be tailored to diver needs, a minimum benchmark number of dives, and regular instruction, assessment, theory and review, leading to a certification indicating a standardised level of training and experience.

Oh wait…

 

[sandanbob]

If I were to create a training and experience trajectory to guide a diver to achieve his or her own version of what a Master Scuba Diver might be, solely at the recreational level, it would be the following:

Certification Courses:

1. Watermanship: The gold standard would be passing a surf lifeguard course with a USLA-certified beach patrol, earning an EMT license, and working part-time or full-time for a couple of seasons as a surf lifeguard so rescues and assists become just another day at the office. The time and fitness standards might only be possible for younger divers who don't have family responsibilities. A silver medal would go to taking the American Red Cross Lifeguard Training course with the Waterfront add-on. Most rescues will find their way to the surface so having the swimming skills to make rescues is a must to be considered a Master Scuba Diver. An engineer friend of mine who was a PADI course director took my advice and went through a lifeguard class at the age of 50. He said I was right about the value. It changed the way he viewed safety in diving.

2. The next course would be a freediving course. Quality snorkeling and breath-hold diving education would create more confidence and teach the diver how to breathe better, relax, slow down, and become efficient in the water. The diver would also have the ability to dive deep without SCUBA to perform quick tasks such as recovering objects dropped over the side of a boat or make quick rescues without needing to gear up. Buy freediving gear! It will open up a whole unique world.

3. The third course would be a traditional open water course such NAUI, SSI, or PADI. This would put the diver on the same page as most entry-level divers in the world. Their materials are also easy to understand and learning is not that difficult. Don't buy gear. Just a mask with a better field of vision than a freediving mask and Jet style fins.

4. Time for nitrox! The best nitrox course will kill two birds with one stone. Take a GUE-F course and dial in your trim, buoyancy, and propulsion skills. Buy your gear and start breathing a better gas.

5. Now, you can pursue advanced open water. The most important part of advanced diving is navigation. You can practice in the woods with your dive compass before class. If you get good at the compass courses Eagle Scouts often install in state parks as projects, you'll be on your way. Learn to swim straight lines and to navigate while swimming at 15 feet (safety stop depth) while keeping your team together. Squares and triangles are built on straight lines. The goal is to be able to locate a vertical line rather than a large object. Quarries are excellent for this. Choose an AOW instructor who has a cave or DIR background so you'll learn to use lights at night like a cave diver. You'll need search & recovery to be a Master Scuba Diver. A public safety diving instructor is often very good at rigging heavy anchors and such because they can raise cars. Equipment repair and maintenance are also a must. You need to be able to fix your wetsuit or drysuit. Stay wet for now. Don't combine AOW with drysuit. Bad things can happen. Add another elective that interests you.

6. Do 5 specialties. If you live where it is cold you might want a drysuit at this point. SDI Solo with a TDI cave instructor might be fun, cavern, wreck diving, ice diving, drift diving, or anything that directly applies to your interests or where you will be diving most.

7. Last class: Rescue diver! Find the toughest instructor you can find who will make it as physically demanding as possible.

Experience:

There are two types of expert divers. The first is the diver who makes his or her home waters more or less the whole world. They may not have the ability, desire, or means to travel but they know every coral head, kelp frond, or blue gill in their backyard.

The second type of expert is the one who racks up dives in lakes, rivers, quarries, and the ocean in both temperate and tropical waters around the world. They can pretty much go anywhere and they feel at home and at ease everywhere they go. They may know everyone on 5 continents.

Once you find yourself in such a diving routine that it might even feel like a rut, but you don't know what else to do with yourself, and everyone (even the instructors) are the ones asking you questions about how deep the wreck is at the prop, how do you fix a nylon float, and where you are going to eat, you are almost a Master Scuba Diver.

When you look around after all of that and realize you are the one having the most fun, you nailed it! Give yourself a card. Make it fancy.

Mr. Malinowski- a very well thought out plan. Very rigorous.

 

[Leatherboot69]

If it gets folks out diving and learning useful skills I can see the value in it.

It is my belief that MSD should have required classes to include rescue, deep, nitrox, search and recovery, drysuit, self reliant, navigation. night and altitude with 200 minimum logged dives. As it is now PADI simply requires Rescue plus five specialty classes. So photographer, videographer, mermaid, boat (seems like it should be part of OW), naturalist, and DSMB (again, should be part of OW) with 50 logged dives gets you MSD. It’s like they don’t really care about the overall skills a diver has, just that he’s buying c-cards.

Sure, I grant you that someone ‘could’ do something like equipment care, emergency oxygen, enriched air, mermaid and fish recognition to get an MSD in the easiest way possible, but do any MSDs actually do that, paying out all that cash and time just to get a (apparently worthless) card?

 

[Searcaigh]

That’s amazing, although it seems that it is rated only up to 40m ?

You can pay and upload a tech app for deeper dives ......... joking

 

[Thunder Struck]

but do any MSDs actually do that, paying out all that cash and time just to get a (apparently worthless) card?

I’d wager they are out there. For them it’s not about the value of what went into getting the card but simply having the card and the “title.”

 

[scubadada]

You can pay and upload a tech app for deeper dives ......... joking

Kind of like Ratio computers...Pro, Deep, Tech+

 

[Leatherboot69]

I’d wager they are out there. For them it’s not about the value of what went into getting the card but simply having the card and the “title.”

Ok. But you don’t know they’re out there? Like all the MSDs who are reputed on SB to flash their cards and sew MSD badges on their jackets?

 

[Ukmc]

I’d wager they are out there. For them it’s not about the value of what went into getting the card but simply having the card and the “title.”

Possibly, but have you ever seen one yourself???