Got my Master Diver

[Kaneda13]

Finished and was awarded the last class I needed for my Master Diver Cert earlier this week. Looking ahead to the spring, planning on getting my Dive Guide and Divemaster. Don't plan on going down the instructor route, but making a left turn and going technical. Have my first sidemount rig coming in the next few days, then starting the sidemount certs. My normal dive buddy is getting her assistant instructor this weekend, and looking down the LONG road (once each of our kids are out of the house), we've toyed with the idea of going abroad to train and guide. I got my first taste of what it would be like to guide earlier this year. Wasn't anything official, just her and I planned a shore evening dive while we where in Roatan, and had a few lesser experienced divers ask to join us, and even picked up a random diver while walking to the shore diving spot. We had dove that shore dive earlier in the week, and had spent the time since then talking about the nurse shark that spent about 15 minutes with us while we where in the area. I SO much enjoyed pointing out the things we found, and we both talked about how much we enjoyed the whole experience. The people from our group we took with us talked us up to both or LDS and the dive guides from the resort, and that's what set us down this path.

 

[Cthippo]

Awesome, congratulations!

 

[Angelo Farina]

Congratulations, and go on with your further training and experiences.
But be aware of the drawbacks of going "pro".
I worked as a professional divemaster and instructor in nice resorts for 5 years, when young (1985-1989). A wonderful life, but a lot of stress and responsibility.
When young and stupid one can take the risk, growing up one realises that for the small money received you are bearing a lot of responsibility, so I gave up and returned to be just a normal recreational diver.
I and my wife did only teach our sons, for whom we were in any case fully responsible.

 

[BlueWaterDiver2]

Congratulations, I also have my master diver certification and just like you have no interest in becoming an instructor. However I believe very strongly that diving often and staying informed and constantly educating yourself through your own self study is a great way to become the most comfortable and safest diver that you can be. This translates into not only benefiting yourself, but also in benefiting those who you will dive along with. Best of luck.

 

[Kaneda13]

Congratulations, and go on with your further training and experiences.
But be aware of the drawbacks of going "pro".
I worked as a professional divemaster and instructor in nice resorts for 5 years, when young (1985-1989). A wonderful life, but a lot of stress and responsibility.
When young and stupid one can take the risk, growing up one realises that for the small money received you are bearing a lot of responsibility, so I gave up and returned to be just a normal recreational diver.
I and my wife did only teach our sons, for whom we were in any case fully responsible.

VERY good points. I'm not going into it for the money, as I'm positioning myself in my current career that I won't have to rely on diving as as a primary source of income. If we/I get to the point where diving is no longer enjoyable, then it's certainly time to step back and not loose something that I enjoy doing so much.

 

[Angelo Farina]

VERY good points. I'm not going into it for the money, as I'm positioning myself in my current career that I won't have to rely on diving as as a primary source of income. If we/I get to the point where diving is no longer enjoyable, then it's certainly time to step back and not loose something that I enjoy doing so much.

The problem is that working as an instructor/divemaster was VERY enjoyable.
In a certain sense, it is much better to guide a dive than being guided.
And teaching to new divers the first tricks is truly rewarding. In an holiday resort, a diving instructor is close to be a god, and you get a lot of reinforcement and social success.
This is part of the problem. Being a wonderful life (actually, those were the 5 best years of my life!), very enjoying and very satisfying, people accept to do it for a very small wage, which is absolutely NOT proportionated to the enormous risks and responsibility.
It did take several years and a couple of serious accidents occurred to divers of whom I was responsible for making me to understand the drawbacks.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Congrats! What shop/instructor(s) are you training with?

I'm originally from Indy, was certified there in 2005, completed divemaster in 2009 and was a DM for a couple of instructors from 2009-2011 who eventually retired. That is when I stopped DMing. I'm no longer active as a DM (inactive status). I've also completed up through TDI Trimix. All of my diving these days is here in South Florida where we moved to in 2016.

One piece of advice I'd share is to make sure you are doing a lot of non-training dives. Nothing beats regular, consistent non-course dives to build comfort and experience. That will serve you well as you progress through your training. Try and dive in as many diverse environments and types of diving as you can over time. Quarries, Great Lakes wrecks, ocean wrecks, kelp forests, reefs, rivers, springs, caverns possibly, shore diving, boat diving, drift diving, night diving, etc, etc.

All the best!

 

[Robert H. Diver]

So do you plan on working as a DM? If so, great..go and get it, but if not just skip it.

 

[Kaneda13]

So do you plan on working as a DM? If so, great..go and get it, but if not just skip it.

Yes, but not for the "I need to do this to live" reason. I'm the kind of person that if i don't have a routine and tasks day to day, I don't stay focused and can go stir crazy (barely made it through 10 days quarantined with COVID early this year). Ideally, I would love to DM at a resort, just as my "retirement". I'm a european automotive technician, and I'm fully aware that I won't be able to do this for my whole life (it's hard on the body). That's part of my reasoning for getting into sidemount now, as I know later in life, standing/walking with twins on my back isn't going to be an option. I'm at a point in my life now where it isn't an issue, but I'm being honest with myself that it won't always be.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Yes, but not for the "I need to do this to live" reason. I'm the kind of person that if i don't have a routine and tasks day to day, I don't stay focused and can go stir crazy (barely made it through 10 days quarantined with COVID early this year). Ideally, I would love to DM at a resort, just as my "retirement". I'm a european automotive technician, and I'm fully aware that I won't be able to do this for my whole life (it's hard on the body). That's part of my reasoning for getting into sidemount now, as I know later in life, standing/walking with twins on my back isn't going to be an option. I'm at a point in my life now where it isn't an issue, but I'm being honest with myself that it won't always be.

Gotcha, go for it man, good luck with everything!