How to Get Enough Dives For Divemaster and Beyond

[heftysmurf]

You asked the "How" and this is MY "How". Granted you live in Connecticut and I lived in Florida.

• I found a shop I meshed with. Just found a great group of people and we gelled really well.
• Be a hang around! "Hey shop, do you have any OW classes I can join and practice my skills? I'll carry the flag!
• Show you want to learn. I wasn't making a career change but I loved learning.
• Help out! Gear out folks when you're hanging around, if the shop invites you on a dive, help load the truck, help clean when you're back, etc.
• Next thing you know, you're integrated so I began my DM pusuit.
• Dive different dives! Shore, boat, reef, wreck, night, etc. Especially if your shop sweetins the deal -- "This will count towards your dives/cert and we'll cover the trip if you help us gear out the group."
• Don't rush. For DM with SDI, you need 5 specialties. I did my night specialty and could've gotten my cert but I told my buddy/instructor that I'm not comfy night diving so we did it until I was.
• 40 dives didn't make me feel like I was ready for DM so don't focus on the minimum.

Lastly, know your reason for doing it. I'm different I suppose in that I'm not doing it for a "career". And, most of the instructors at the shop had other jobs too so this wasn't sunshine and rainbows. The shop I got my DM from has a veterans non-profit and I got my OW through their non-profit. I fell in love with diving and the therapeutic benefits and wanted to do my part to help other vets discover diving so my plan was to never make it a career. I got orders to Germany after completing my rescue and thought I'd throw in the towel but my shop encoraged me to see it through. I'm glad I did if nothing else as a personal achievement.

For what it's worth, it took me 11 months of diving multiple times/week, multiple dives/day (when I had the free time)

 

[TMHeimer]

Well that"s too bad!

Another win for California --constitutional right to access beach below high tide line and an aggressive Coastal Commission that enforces existing public rights of way.

Yeah, that's needed out East for sure.

 

[34109411]

between you and me this person

You asked the "How" and this is MY "How". Granted you live in Connecticut and I lived in Florida.

• I found a shop I meshed with. Just found a great group of people and we gelled really well.
• Be a hang around! "Hey shop, do you have any OW classes I can join and practice my skills? I'll carry the flag!
• Show you want to learn. I wasn't making a career change but I loved learning.
• Help out! Gear out folks when you're hanging around, if the shop invites you on a dive, help load the truck, help clean when you're back, etc.
• Next thing you know, you're integrated so I began my DM pusuit.
• Dive different dives! Shore, boat, reef, wreck, night, etc. Especially if your shop sweetins the deal -- "This will count towards your dives/cert and we'll cover the trip if you help us gear out the group."
• Don't rush. For DM with SDI, you need 5 specialties. I did my night specialty and could've gotten my cert but I told my buddy/instructor that I'm not comfy night diving so we did it until I was.
• 40 dives didn't make me feel like I was ready for DM so don't focus on the minimum.

Lastly, know your reason for doing it. I'm different I suppose in that I'm not doing it for a "career". And, most of the instructors at the shop had other jobs too so this wasn't sunshine and rainbows. The shop I got my DM from has a veterans non-profit and I got my OW through their non-profit. I fell in love with diving and the therapeutic benefits and wanted to do my part to help other vets discover diving so my plan was to never make it a career. I got orders to Germany after completing my rescue and thought I'd throw in the towel but my shop encoraged me to see it through. I'm glad I did if nothing else as a personal achievement.

For what it's worth, it took me 11 months of diving multiple times/week, multiple dives/day (when I had the free time)

 

[34109411]

i wish him all the best, i will suggest him to join is path to be divemaster with a university programm like marine biology or something.

Be safe

 

[Nick_Radov]

If all else fails, you can also look at booking a liveaboard, which some of them (there is one in particular that I know of which launches out of the Bahamas) can get you 15-25 dives over the course of 7 days for under $1500.

I wouldn't necessarily pick a liveaboard boat based on low price. It's hard to come up with reliable safety data but the industry sure seems to have had a lot of fires, groundings, and sinkings lately. The budget operations might have excellent safety practices but check before signing up. Like do the passenger accommodations have a working emergency exit and smoke detectors, and does the crew really do a roving fire watch at night? Safety is expensive and it's easy to save money by cutting corners in ways that inexperienced divers don't notice.

The cheapest way to build experience, as others have suggested, is to join a local dive club and do a bunch of shallow shore dives. If you own your gear then you only pay for tank fills and transportation.

 

[Nick_Radov]

I live in Connecticut. I'm not sure where I plan to make a career in diving, I'm mostly focused on getting certified to have that option. I think the dive industry can benefit from better dive instructors and the only way to become one would be to start as a new one.

The state has a convenient list of parks that allow scuba diving. Some of them are freshwater lakes so maybe not very interesting, but good enough for skills practice.

Scuba Diving

portal.ct.gov

 

[TMHeimer]

The state has a convenient list of parks that allow scuba diving. Some of them are freshwater lakes so maybe not very interesting, but good enough for skills practice.

Scuba Diving

portal.ct.gov

There is an OK site at Candlewood Lake near Brookfield (Danbury area). 20 feet with a thermocline. You need to get a free permit online -- Dike Point Light or something.