Does it make sense to enroll in a Divemaster course with no intention to work with?

[NorCalDM]

Take the money and going diving in as many environments as you can, get a real world education. Learning comes in many ways and not all have to be in classes.

 

[grf88]

You might want to consider joining a local dive club. Most club environments provide plenty of opportunities to dive in addition to mentoring. It sounds like your shop has good instructors but not everything has to be a course and much of what you learn on a course can be gained just by diving which after all is the main objective.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I have a better idea. Go to a shelter. Get about 8 cats. Now try to herd all those cats together. VIsualize doing that underwater with scuba divers and there is a DM. That's the reality. If you want to imagine what it would be like in the tropics, get a bunch of AL80s, load them on and off a cart all day.

There you have the reality of being a DM.

Save your money, don't pay into the scuba Ponzi scheme. Take some good classes, like GUE fundies. With regards to "living the dream", you have to be asleep to believe it. Seriously.

 

[grf88]

I have a better idea. Go to a shelter. Get about 8 cats. Now try to herd all those cats together. VIsualize doing that underwater with scuba divers and there is a DM. That's the reality. If you want to imagine what it would be like in the tropics, get a bunch of AL80s, load them on and off a cart all day.

There you have the reality of being a DM.

Save your money, don't pay into the scuba Ponzi scheme. Take some good classes, like GUE fundies. With regards to "living the dream", you have to be asleep to believe it. Seriously.

Did you read the OP's first post on this thread?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Did you read the OP's first post on this thread?

Yes. And I just added for anyone considering the DM pro path.

 

[Marie13]

I have a better idea. Go to a shelter. Get about 8 cats. Now try to herd all those cats together. VIsualize doing that underwater with scuba divers and there is a DM. That's the reality. If you want to imagine what it would be like in the tropics, get a bunch of AL80s, load them on and off a cart all day.

There you have the reality of being a DM.

Save your money, don't pay into the scuba Ponzi scheme. Take some good classes, like GUE fundies. With regards to "living the dream", you have to be asleep to believe it. Seriously.

I call DMing “cat herding” myself.

 

[theminidiver]

I have a better idea. Go to a shelter. Get about 8 cats. Now try to herd all those cats together. VIsualize doing that underwater with scuba divers and there is a DM. That's the reality. If you want to imagine what it would be like in the tropics, get a bunch of AL80s, load them on and off a cart all day.

There you have the reality of being a DM.

That's why I don't want to work as a DM
Neither be one of the 8 cats, just want to be a good diver

 

[tursiops]

Being a DM and helping with classes and guiding dives can be a very satisfying occupation, but not one that brings in lots of money. Many experienced DMs are quite good divers....but mainly because they dive a lot, not because of the DM training. I initially became a DM so I could dive more cheaply (free admission, free gas) with opportunities to dive more often (didn't have to find a buddy). It was, however, a slippery slope. I concur: it is not the DM training that makes you a better diver; but it might be the diving that you get to do once you are a DM that makes you a better diver.

 

[broncobowsher]

You don't want to take that path, don't take it.
The typical (I'll put the PADI joke here) dive shop is to get a couple of the customers to keep paying in and get them into the DM and instructor rolls. Hopefully they can teach the select couple of students the same thing before they burn out or move along.

I chose to have NOTHING to do with teaching students. Took several years and worked my way through some tech stuff and enjoy that.

 

[Wibble]

Thank you all. Helped me a lot

At the moment I'm want to be pretty good as rec diver. I still have less than a hundred dives. I plan to take the Tec 40 to learn more about deco dives, but it is not my goal for now.

The majority of the instructor in this dive shop are frequent tec divers (by PADI) and some of them are also trained and certified by a GUE reference instructor. They sell only PADI courses because that "PADI 5 star" thing, but the instructors are not "pure PADI".

I don't know about other agencies, but I found the OW, AOW and Nitrox courses very good. Maybe not because PADI but because well trained and experienced instructors.

Technical diving isn’t all about depth nor decompression. It’s an attitude for self improvement beyond the limitations of recreational diving.

This starts with great core skills upon which every other skill and technique depends. Long decompression stops in mid water without moving, check. Laying a line in a cave, check. Switching gasses doing the no-tox protocol, check. Not being flustered if (when) something goes wrong, check…

• Practice your buoyancy until it’s second nature, especially during ascents.
• Be flat in the water; it’s streamlined.
• Finning; learn how to frog kick, do helicopter turns, backfinning— finning backwards which takes some practice.
• The hardest of all skills is to be stationary in the water

None of the above need a course as such but it’s so much easier if you’ve a mentor to show you those skills. All of them make you a better diver whether or not you go down the technical diving path.