Master Diver specialties

[-JD-]

Core-stuff in my opinion:

• Nitrox -
• Deep - trains you for full Rec depth limit, familiarity with redundant gas sources.
• Navigation - everyone need to know this and practice unless you are always diving with a guide.
• Night - some of my favorite dives are night. It can be off-putting in the beginning, and frankly, does have a higher risk profile than the same dive in the light.

Others

• Where you are - Drysuit if you are diving local.
• Search and Recovery is fun and is good for getting you comfortable with task loading and team skills (Less fun when viz drops below arm-length)
• Wreck - if you want to go on them - Reel skills are good to have. (I am literally one dive from the checkoff on this - I actually aborted part way through because I realized I WOULD get stuck in my twinset - and now my instructor has been out of the water for some issues.)

Small town where ON? - I just met an instructor from Georgetown on my Blackbeard's trip.

 

[Outbound]

Definitely do Deep. Well worth it. I’d also suggest Emergency Oxygen Provider as a companion to your Rescue cert. Navigation and Night can be useful too. Drysuit is an obvious one if you plan on regularly diving cold water.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Can someone tell me more about the Deep specialty?

Deep Specialty for PADI - 4 deep dives (mine were to 103, 105, 127 and 85 - first of which was the AOW deep adventure dive) in addition to the book work and counseling with instructor.

Basic stuff (loss of color demonstration), N^2 narcosis/exposure demonstration if you are in a location that will let you go deep enough (how to recognize effect - I was better at the mental exercise/puzzle at depth than on the surface - and why that sometimes is and why that is transitory before everything goes to **** and you blissfully swim off deeper and deeper thinking "this is great! Wonder why they thought it was dangerous!" just before you hit 200' and no air)), pressure demonstration on semi-inflated object - high school physics kinda stuff), limitation on NDL time, proper ascent... Greatly increased gas consumption if you don't watch it... That you do not want to be that deep without your partner or some other form of alternate gas was something I came away with.

Of course, it is a "get-out-of-jail-free" card if you get in trouble at say, 117' and need insurance to cover some of your medical bill for a barotrauma so they don't play the "oh, but you were only trained in procedure to a depth of 100' for your AOW cert. So sorry but no ticket, no coverage."

I'm sure there are more things that the PADI instructor slate includes, but those were some of the takeaways.

OMMOHY

 

[scubadada]

I qualified for MSD in 2005 and got the cert. I have a combo card for MSD and nitrox, only card I have to show. The only other cert I have is SDI solo from 2013.

 

[TravelGas]

PADI allows fish identification and how to grow coral as part of the 5 specialties. They are very good about charging money to teach you anything.

NAUI required MSD training includes Search & Recovery, Navigation, Night Diving, Deep Diving, Wreck Diving, Rescue, etc. as part of the course and a more worthwhile MSD cert to have.

 

[KatieMac]

PADI allows fish identification and how to grow coral as part of the 5 specialties. They are very good about charging money to teach you anything.

NAUI required MSD training includes Search & Recovery, Navigation, Night Diving, Deep Diving, Wreck Diving, Rescue, etc. as part of the course and a more worthwhile MSD cert to have.

If I get the same certs through PADI ... with a good instructor ... does it really matter which agency it's with? Also, I've done rescue already.

Why would night diving be required for someone who never plans on doing a night dive and doesn't enjoy the idea of it?

 

[KatieMac]

wreck, nav, deep, u/w ph

Sounds like a plan.

Interestingly, nobody tried to sell me hard on the PPB

 

[TravelGas]

If I get the same certs through PADI ... with a good instructor ... does it really matter which agency it's with?

Why would night diving be required for someone who never plans on doing a night dive and doesn't enjoy the idea of it?

Shouldn't a Master Diver be trained on how to dive at night? Again, the PADI MSD is watered down and the fact that you can get a PADI "Master Diver" Cert and never dive at night, should tell you something.

 

[rick00001967]

i would say it depends on your goals.

your profile says you are from canada. do you dive up here? or only warm water?
do you only dive with a guide or do you dive independently? do you already dive a dry suit? have you done ice diving ?

you have nitrox and rescue which are both great certs to have.

personally i think wreck is waste of time unless you plan to pursue it further to an advanced wreck level.

deep is also i great course if taught properly. but it too is a waste of time if you never want to dive past 60 feet or so.

if a student of mine wanted to achieve master diver and already had nitrox and rescue, and wanted to dive in canadian waters, and extend their depth range, i would suggest dry suit, deep, and nav.

 

[100days-a-year]

Discarding value and sticking to the criteria you asked for. Interesting and improve you as a diver. Certainly enjoyment is purely subjective. I enjoy killing and eating animals, some people enjoy navigating difficult wreck or cave penetrations or counting sea shells.

In order of potential improvement for most divers.
Rescue
PPB
Nitrox
Navigator
Boat
Deep
Search and rescue.
I went the dive more vs. specialties route but the only way that really works is with really good mentoring which is a lot more difficult to find to a good instructor.