Considering Dive Master

[pasley]

Short answer is, Boulder John nailed it! As he and others have said, DM training is expensive and will not accomplish your objective of being a Stronger, Competent and Confident SCUBA diver. You can achieve your objective for a lot less money by diving, diving, diving, diving and taking courses in areas of need and/or interest. Long version explaining why follows:

... considering becoming a dive master ....I have around 30 dives as ...currently have Open Water and Advanced and have done first aid but not the rescue course.

Divemaster Duties (the workhorse of the dive industry with emphasis on work). The DM hauls gear and lots of it, gets the classroom ready and sets the float anchor and retrieves the float, acts as safety diver during instruction, guides others on dives, reteaches what instructor already taught to someone struggling with it. All for the princely sum of peanuts if you are lucky.

I honestly do not have an interest in actually working in the dive industry,

No reason to be a Dive master then. It will cost you a few thousand dollars to get certified. A lot of money to spend if you don't plan doing it. Dive Master, the first level of a DIVE PROFESSIONAL and as such you are held to a different standard of conduct/liability. You do know your DiveMaster card EXPIRES EVERY YEAR unlike your certification cards. Oh and lets not forget the INSURANCE you have to pay for which is not cheap..

but I would really like to become a stronger and confident diver.

The Dive Master course DOES NOT MAKE YOU A STRONGER AND CONFIDENT DIVER. It only test you to ensure you are a strong and confident SCUBA Diver. The DM course test your competency, water confidence and ability and a teaches you how to teach a course (which interestingly enough only instructors can do) so you can re-teach only subjects the instructor has already taught to someone needing a bit more time hearing it. Put simply the training in SCUBA to be a knowledgeable, confident, strong SCUBA diver takes place during the the prerequisites: BOW, AOW, Rescue, First Aid etc. The DM course only test your competency in confidence in those areas to help someone else in an emergency. Panic is not an option, hesitation is not an option., Graduates of the DM course are then dive professionals and held to a higher standard.

 

[TMHeimer]

Agree with all except cost. My DM course was below $1,000 Canadian--maybe closer to $700-$800 (materials included). Not including membership, insurance yearly of course. That was $125C and $142C (insurance for assisting only)--add another $100 or so for full coverage.

 

[DiverDownD3]

We have about the same amount of dives, so I'll throw in my thoughts. Like others have said keep diving and don't just dive, work on the things you have learned already. I have a mentor at my LDS and he's been a huge help. I'd recommend getting one if you don't have one. I'll go in days to book a charter and we will end up spending an hour just talking about diving. Sometimes if we are on the boat together he will ask if I want to join in with his class. Last time I got to play the panicked/unresponsive diver. Just to be able to work on things like share air ascent and other things like that on a regular basis helps me stay fresh with what I've learned so far. It also gave me a little exposure of what to expect when I take the rescue course.
We have also had several conversations about future training. He recommended to keep diving, diving, diving, but also recommended that when the time is right a real beneficial class to take would be the TDI Intro to Tech. Granted my future goals may be different than you, so that's why I think a mentor is really beneficial. Maybe someone else can tell you whether they think that would be a good course to consider in the future.

 

[TMHeimer]

We have about the same amount of dives, so I'll throw in my thoughts. Like others have said keep diving and don't just dive, work on the things you have learned already. I have a mentor at my LDS and he's been a huge help. I'd recommend getting one if you don't have one. I'll go in days to book a charter and we will end up spending an hour just talking about diving. Sometimes if we are on the boat together he will ask if I want to join in with his class. Last time I got to play the panicked/unresponsive diver. Just to be able to work on things like share air ascent and other things like that on a regular basis helps me stay fresh with what I've learned so far. It also gave me a little exposure of what to expect when I take the rescue course.
We have also had several conversations about future training. He recommended to keep diving, diving, diving, but also recommended that when the time is right a real beneficial class to take would be the TDI Intro to Tech. Granted my future goals may be different than you, so that's why I think a mentor is really beneficial. Maybe someone else can tell you whether they think that would be a good course to consider in the future.

Sounds like a good mentor, but he is at risk (legally and with the agency) having a non pro partake in his courses. Tagging along on course dives is one thing. Assisting with them, such as playing the panicked diver is another. Don't know where you would stand legally on that as well.

 

[Bob DBF]

Sounds like a good mentor, but he is at risk (legally and with the agency) having a non pro partake in his courses. Tagging along on course dives is one thing. Assisting with them, such as playing the panicked diver is another. Don't know where you would stand legally on that as well.

I have tagged along with an instructor's classes, usually as a buddy for a student that does not have one. I have never been asked to perform any DM function in a class. If asked, I would probably start a discussion of it's impropriety as I am not, nor do I want to be, a SCUBA professional. Of course I'm old and been diving for decades so I may have a clearer view of the distinction between diver and professional than a new diver, or possibly a new instructor, would.

The only blurring of the line is that I am included in the critique of the class that the instructor(s) and DM(s) have after the class, and I buddy with the DM when he puts up and takes down the equipment for the classes. The latter reinforces the buddy diving rule, which is ironic since most of my dives outside of his classes are solo.


Bob

 

[boulderjohn]

Tagging along on course dives is one thing. Assisting with them, such as playing the panicked diver is another. Don't know where you would stand legally on that as well.

I have tagged along with an instructor's classes, usually as a buddy for a student that does not have one.

If you tag along with a class, you are technically considered to be a student in the class, and you count in the class numbers for the purpose of meeting the standards.

I think things are murky as far as any potential liability if the student with whom you were buddying had an accident, and I won't venture an opinion there. (I have never heard of that happening, in other words.)

 

[TMHeimer]

Bob, well of course that makes sense.
John, When I was a DMC we were the "panicked divers" for a Rescue Course. I assume PADI looks at it as the instructor is really teaching 2 classes at once. I haven't heard that this is against standards--am I right?

 

[boulderjohn]

Bob, well of course that makes sense.
John, When I was a DMC we were the "panicked divers" for a Rescue Course. I assume PADI looks at it as the instructor is really teaching 2 classes at once. I haven't heard that this is against standards--am I right?

A DMC in your class is considered a student and counts against the total number of students for that class. You can't teach two classes at once and consider the two numbers as separate. Yes, DMCs assist in classes, but they count against the numbers for that class. You can add to the numbers with a DM assisting you, but not a DMC.

 

[boulderjohn]

Add to the above....

There was a case in Mexico a number of years ago in which an instructor had a class of 8 students. A DM who worked for the shop assumed he would be assigned to assist because that is the maximum number allowed, and you really need help with that many students. The shop said, no, they would have the assisting done by a DMC (whom they would, of course, not have to pay). That meant that the instructor was over the maximum allowed number of students. They descended, and one of the students had a problem that led to the instructor taking the student to the surface, leaving the remaining students below with the DMC. That is another violation--you can't leave students alone without a professional, and a DMC is not yet a professional. Another student had a problem, and the DMC tended to it. He was just finishing when the instructor came back down. It was then that they discovered that one of the other students had died while the DMC was helping that other student out.

That turned out to be big trouble, as you would guess. With two major standards violations, things were not good. If the DMC had been a DM, they would have been in much better shape, even if that student had still died. Even if the DM had not done anything differently from what the DMC did, there would not have been a standards violation.

(PS--the DM the shop told to stay away to save money is the one who told me the story.)

 

[TMHeimer]

John, I thought that was the case. But if the instructor is teaching a Rescue course and having DMCs act as panicked, would that really be two courses the instructor is teaching at once (even though the instructor is responsible for the total number of students)? Splitting hairs, I know, and how else is the DMC to get the required experience with a continuing ed. course? As a DMC I was once in charge of helping an OW student gear up, get fins on in water, etc.--that would seem to be acting as a certified assistant. Does PADI just make an exception in this case?