How many dives should your really do b4 you start a course?

[dazle]

Howdy

You can do your aow with 4 dives, your rescue anytime, start your DM on 20 and INST with 60 (that 1 might differ).

Now there's a lot in this, but let's stick with DM. The reason for my curiosity on this subject is that I was chatting to a girl last night that's done her OW, AOW, EFR and Rescue in the past 2 weeks. In 2 days she wants to go pro and is starting the DM. She's only got 14 logged dives and is gonna rack 6 up to make the start official.

Now, it's great for people to study and educate themselves in diving but the number of dives and the time between becoming cert seems a bit dodgy to me for pro level.

What do you think??? I know this thread ideally relates to DM/INST's but chip in your penny's worth if you can be arsed.

Vote on the poll if you think that 20 dives is ok/not ok for starting a DM course

 

[dan813]

I could be wrong, but I believe to complete DM, you need at least 60 dives. Obviously with 60 dives, you have spent some time in the water.

 

[Nemo-the-Fish]

Well now, 20 dives, I don't think so. I can see it now, she's got 14 dives, I think I'll rescue myself if it arises. I'm all for people gaining lots of skills in their own diving, and in rescue, to again help themselves and others, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Maybe I'm slow learning, but it wasn't into the 30's of dives that i was started to sort of get comfortable, and the 50-60's that buoyancy actually meant something to me. Makes you sort of question why people are diving. Wanting to teach people is a great thing, but someone who is that serious about doing so, and being very responsible for students, hopefully they would accept that to properly do so would require a lot more experience in water as well as diving knowledge, I believe a good teacher in anything must understand this point. But this is more important in diving. I've had college trachers who could barely read of printed notes in lecture, stuttering, but having little skill and responsible for people's lives...We've all heard bad stories of where that goes. When I did my OW/AOW reather quickly down south (Bahamas), this was the approach taken to some extent, go up through the system. Coming back and diving the St. Lawrence showed me how little I knew about diving, and even how much worse my skills were, it was a real eye-opener which was a really good thing, making me appreciate the meaning of "taking it slow", get out and dive, and have fun, but take your time.
Eric

 

[RichLockyer]

Depending on your view of DMs... I'll listen to the briefing, but beyond that, what they do doesn't have much of an effect on my dive.

Of course, a lot of that attitude is from exactly what you related about one being able to begin DM training with 20 dives.

I might have a little more respect for them if they required 100 to begin training for DM, and I honestly feel that 200 should be the minimum for Inst.... with allowances made for dive conditions.
A candidate with 200 dives in the tropics is nowhere near as qualified as a candidate with 75 dives in the PNW or the guy with 100 dives in SoCal.

 

[ElectricZombie]

20 dives is not enough. If you are a DM or Instructor, all your skills should be absolutely perfect. I don't think your average person could reach this level of skill in only 20 dives.

 

[paulwlee]

I agree that 20 is way below what would qualify someone as a DM, but since the requirement for certification is 60 dives, I think it could be reasonable if done right.

The DMC, during the training will get additional training and experience until he/she reaches 60 dives.

Of course, some people won't be ready even at 200 dives, but this is only a minimum requirement. The instructor has to make sure that the candidate satisfies other requirements before passing him/her.

The only problem I see here is that by concentrating on the number of dives, the candidate doesn't get the necessary experience under varying conditions, but does 40 dives (maybe in a week?) at the local quarry to 30ft, at 20minutes each!

 

[Throw Back]

If I am not mistaken the rule for PADI is 20 dives to start and 60 dives to complete the course and to become a card carring DM. I also don't believe that the course requires 40 OW dives, so they expect that you wil, be diving alot during the course. I think that this regulation allows for some people who take to diving very naturally to go pro earlier than some others. Ultimatly someone must sign off on a DM's cert and if a true blue dive professional is willing to stake their rep on that person than so be it. But I agree that this policy opens up the possibility that some DM's will be certified simply because they, "Put Another Dolar In", the blame in that case lies with folks who will cert a DM for sake of the rule and not because that candidate is an exception to that rule.

 

[the_dumper]

PADI Standards state that you need to have logged, 20 dives before starting the rescue diver course and 100 dives before an IDC (instructor course).

 

[nessum]

Well, I have my Rescue Course completed & 25 dive under my belt (soon to be 27).
I will go on to my divemaster course, but it will likely wait until I have almost all 60 you need in order to complete it. I feel I have a lot to work on as far as my skills go before I go into that sort of endeavor. Plus, I would like to take a Nitrox & perhaps a Nav course prior to my DM, which will bump me up.
I think it should be about quality, not quantity. I have 25 dives, so that means I have 11 fun dives & 14 course dives. I find that I am still learning just as much on my fun dives as I was in the beginning. My bouyancy is pretty good once I get going, but I am still getting accustomed to my drysuit (& rental gear).
Some of the guys I did my Rescue Course with jumped right into the DM course with approximately the same amount of dives as me. From what I hear they're finding it a little trying. I'm sure they're capable, & probably more confident than I am, but I'm sure if they had just gotten to 30 dives before beginning the course it would've been even easier.
Night dives used to stress me out (perhaps it's because my first one was pretty lousy) & I've now done a ton of night dives. Descending into blackness isn't too bad anymore. I got to ride on an awesome drift dive a couple weeks ago. Hopefully I'll be going crabbing soon, if sa certain diver ever gets some free time. Yet, the sites I've dove are quite limited (*sigh* Whytecliff, again?). Variety is probably also something to consider for DM. Whether or not you'll be diving diverse environmants as a professional I think it can only help make you a more well-rounded diver.
So do I think 20 dives is enough to begin a DM course? No. Perhaps double it. If you love diving, that shouldn't be a big deal anyhow. 20 fun dives, oh no, what a shame!

 

[paulwlee]

I think a reasonable point to enter DM training is when you are comfortable planning and safely diving in most recreational diving conditions. If you are stressed out doing boat dives into 100ft, then you are not ready. Same for night dives, etc.