May I add safety and enforcement of proper dive procedures. When I was an open water diver I went to Larry's garden twice with a group that had a local dive guide and before back rolling the guide asked "sir magpapa deco ba tayo?" then 2 of the more experienced divers said "yeah!!" and he obliged, of the 6 divers only the 2 of them enjoyed it. the other 3 got traumatized by how deep that darn garden is they never wanted to dive beyond 60ft again.
Now to boracay, me and a friend go diving with a spanish instructor. we backroll and my cowboy friend starts descending like a rock down to 120 ft, does the instructor follow him with the other divers? NO, he lets him be and takes the other divers for a nice dive to the reef at about 90 ft. After the dive we get a scolding from the instructor (I got a headache from trying to be macho and following him down like as jag would say, a harpooned cow) and asks as to transfer to another dive operator.
Divemastering is more than just giving ok signals, lifting tanks and pointing interesting creatures. its also about figuring out who among the 12 divers on the boat your guiding will most likely to tell you his air is ok even if its not just because he doesn't want to be the first one up. Its about knowing who among them will say nothing even if the group decides to check out the shark at 150ft. Its about talking to the girlfriend/wife/younger sister that its alright that she is scared of sharks and that you can take her to the 30 foot reef with lots of "nemos" after the dive of the group. Its about putting a smile to a sad diver who just broke his mask strap when you hand him an extra strap in your tool kit. Divemasters are not measured with their diving skills only but with their organization skills, people skills and prudent judgement.
The divemaster who talks a lot about what he has done, where he has dived, the shark that he held under his arms, the current that he swam in for 5 kms, the 200 foot dive he made on a pony bottle is the divemaster that will show of his skills to you and will probably get you bent.
But if you think your skilled enough to not need a DM that is ok and good but I also suggest that you take stock of the people your diving with and what they are capable of. My friend who had an accident in Dumaguete was just a rescue diver and a lot of people blamed him of his buddy's death because he was the more experience of the two.
Very well said Jai. Couldnt have said it better.
