Am I mad to try to go from virtually no dive experience to divemaster?

[RonFrank]

Various diving conditions IMO is only key if you are having to deal with that. What I mean is that where we live our various diving conditions include cold water (drysuit), and sometimes close to zero vis.

Being comfortable navigating, and dealing with low vis is a good thing. However if one is not teaching in those conditions, it becomes less critical to be proficient diving those conditions. I find ocean diving easy, or at least the ocean diving I have done. I am completely comfortable with 10' of vis in the Ocean, and I've never seen it much lower than that.

OTOH, experience is key, and I think diving in low vis and cold really makes someone a better diver. The biggest challenge I have observed for divers is low vis. I've seen experienced divers just fall apart in 5'+/- vis.

 

[3000psi]

Ron,

I agree with what you are saying. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I think any diver's confidence improves if he knows he can handle some of the worst case scenarios. Coach Pat Summit of the Lady Vols has her team practice against a mens squad. She does this knowing her team will never have to play one but that it will better prepare them. Same with Tiger Woods wanting to practice in the rain although professional rounds are usually halted in such conditions.

 

[Hank49]

Let me put it this way. If by taking a internship at a dive resort where you get to observe on eighty dives a large cross section of divers from all over the States / World all receiving various levels of training from all kinds of instructors from all the agencies would you think you had a better reference point to evaluate a diver than say a small group of divers from the same shop and instructor who had made two hundred dives together ?

Who would you feel more comfortable with leading a group of divers, someone who had five hundred dives to their credit and had just completed his DM course or someone who had completed a six week course while working in the tropics but during that time had already safely handled three panic stricken divers ?

.

Very well said. Great post.

 

[dpaustex]

Title, experience. Experience, title.

It takes a lot of classwork and 60+ dives to get DiveCon in SSI (other requirements, too). It's all about comfort, knowledge, and application of knowledge.

I had a DiveMaster lose one of my kids in 75 feet of open ocean. The DM was two months out of school, and had zip for experience. However, experience isn't a cure-all, either. I've seen people with thousands of dives that were certifiable, dangerous, idiots. A piece of paper (or card) means little. What's between the ears, and how much savvy is there?

Your call, on the certification. Also your call on whether or not you want to actually be employed - even part time - as one.

 

[Jupiter31]

Yes, it is

 

[matt_w]

Taking open water, Advanced open water, GUE fundamentals, nitrox, advanced nitrox/decompression precedures, and any of the cave classes will teach you more and make you a much better diver than any DM course. Even if you never intend to dive deep taking courses on decompression and nitrox will serve you greatly and even if you dont want to dive caves or wrecks after the classes I promise you will be a master at buoyancy and dive planning far superior to any one who took a 6 week DM class. Spend your money on diving and taking classes that learn you something not on a class that gives you a card.

I will agree with this. I learned more about how I dive and how to make it better in my one week of Cavern/Basic Cave and Adv Nitrox/Deco than any other training I have taken over the past 20 years.

Divemaster is good training for being a Divemaster. If you have no desire to lead dives professionally or work with students/become an instructor, there is better training to spend your money on. There are real recurring costs to being an active Divemaster you will not make back in about 90% of the US.

 

[Doc Harry]

Am I mad to try to go from virtually no dive experience to divemaster?

Yes, absolutely.

It's not about the courses that you've taken or the certifications that you have, it's all about your knowledge and experience. Taking class after class after class and getting your DM certification doesn't mean that you're a Master.

 

[DScytheScuba]

I went to Maui with 10 dives and an Advanced Cert. under my belt in order to take an OWSI course. In 4 - 5 months, I attained my OWSI and performed around 18 certs. for some younger students. If you have the money and time - going to Divemaster from basic certifications really isn't that difficult. Just know that what you may have in knowledge at the end, many of your contemporaries may far outclass your technical diving knowledge in pure experience and knowledge of the surrounding environment. My lack of personal dive experience and group leading certainly caused me problems later on when it came to re-world application of my knowledge. It took some time to build the appropriate skills to perform my OWSI duties to their fullest effect. Cheers.

 

[peterbj7]

I can't remember if I've already said this. I knew a girl who went to a dive certification factory (Prodive in Fort Lauderdale, subsequently closed down) and went through to Instructor from something like AOW and not many dives. Then she came back and started teaching. A few months later she had a potentially serious accident when she lost her weightbelt on a shallow wreck under a busy shipping lane. That made her realise she didn't have the personal diving skills to warrant her teaching others, and she cut up her OWSI card.

I don't agree that you can get all the experience you need from just a few dives, however carefully structured and no matter what rigorous training you may receive, though obviously it helps. There is no substitute for time in the water, so long as you're an "aware" diver.

 

[DiveConcierge]

Nice plug for GUE, northwoods... Agency is irrelevant. We call those programs zero-to-hero. As has been said, DM is just a title. Experience is what makes you a good one. People will expect you to be very experienced when you have your DM, and you will disappoint them when you only have 50 or 100 dives. I went up through instructor in a relatively short time, granted not 6 weeks, but there were times where I felt a bit inadequate because I hadn't come across a similar situation. DM training gives you a good mental approach to diving, but just get wet. I would do OW/Advanced, have no less than 125 solid dives, and then try for it. You will be much more effective as a DM then.