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I suspect you are absolutely right! The MSD designation is a personal milestone as much as anything. It gives a diver an interim gauge of their development. One of the things our shop does is put the MSD certificates (of those willing to part with them) in frames and hang them high on the shop wall in a horizontal line. It was encouraging for me as a new diver to see this (expanding) row of certificates, and to meet many of the 'holders' over time at scuba club meetings, including shop instructional staff. And, now, it is a pleasure for me to see the names of divers that I have worked with, in OW, in AOW, in Rescue, on certificates hanging on the wall. And, we are moving to a second row, having just about made a complete circuit of the walls.
You never know. I (finally) finished DM at 57, Instructor at 58, so you are in the same ballpark. If not, there is a lot of diving, and learning, for you out there.
Some great advice for the less chronologically gifted members of SB! I felt the same way, and tell OW students that very thing as well.
Not necessarily, Junior. If you are healthy, interested, and sufficiently experienced, try it. At our shop, we have a diver in his seventies about to complete his DM course, and doing very well. He started diving five years ago, in his 60s. At 65, I am the third oldest active instructor in our shop (the older two are both 66). Sometimes age and cunning trumps youth and inexperience (or however that expression goes). In the meantime, bask for a while in your MSD accomplishment. Bravo.
