Going DM or Tech?

[travisfull]

But still the majority of technical divers do it without a fundamentals course. I am not against it, but it is also not the holy grail.

Thats true; however, as far as I know, even those agencies that does not require a fundy as a mandatory pre-course, when you do the tec course the first part of it is basically a fundamental course: before working on deco procedures or gas switches you spend a lot of time working on the fundamentals.

 

[Lorenzoid]

when I speak about natural progression I mean increasing my skills and knowledge.

The belief that the Divemaster course is the best and most common next step to improving one's skills and knowledge may be outdated, predating the explosion in popularity of tech diving. There is no reason to utilize the Divemaster course for this nowadays, when tech training is relatively easy to find.

I do not necessarily plan to work in the dive industry, but I do plan to move in a country where diving is an option on a daily basis in the next two years and if an opportunity to guide would present itself I would give it a shot.

In many places in the world, being a divemaster requires significant local knowledge. In some places, foreigners are not even eligible to be hired. Keep your expectations realistic.