One more thought.
I feel like my diving skills improved quite a lot through all the training I did on the way to getting MSD. But, my self-evaluation of my skills is that my skills are much weaker NOW than I THOUGHT they were when I started the first bit of training. I think the process of getting to MSD has not just improved my skills but also made me better/safer by raising my awareness of how poor my skills actually are compared to what they could be some day. If I had done 50 dives without any of that formal training along the way, I could easily imagine myself having some unwarranted confidence in my skills. Instead, I feel like I have a more realistic self-assessment - because the training exposed me to a number of training situations that wouldn't normally occur in "fun dives" but that did illustrate to me how weak my skills were/are.
Over the last year, I have met a number of divers. Some of whom are WAY more experienced than I am. One specific gentleman immediately comes to mind. A conversation with him revealed that he has hundreds more dives and years more experience than I do. Yet he dove the San Francisco Maru in Truk with only a single AL80 and exactly zero technical training. He did the dive without doing any explicit dive or gas planning. He felt comfortable doing it based on already diving with his DM for a few days prior and trusting that his DM understood his gas consumption and reassured him that he could do the dive. The DM told him he just needed to follow the stops his (recreational) dive computer prescribed during his ascents. I started asking him questions that culminated with "if you knew you were going to have to do required stops on the ascent, but you didn't work out ahead of time how long those stops would be, how did you KNOW you were carrying enough gas to hold the required stops?" At this point, the guy's eyes got kind of wide and it was clear to me that he had just experienced a small epiphany of how dangerous what he had done was. I think he told me he dropped into a hold on the wreck and hit a max depth of 185'... with only a single AL80... and the DM's word that he would be okay.
I cite this as an example of how I could foresee a lot of people behaving if they have a lot of dives under their belt and no further formal training beyond AOW and Nitrox. An example that I think would be less likely to occur if someone did pursue enough formal training to attain an MSD certification.
An example of having unwarranted confidence by virtue of not knowing what you don't know. Of course there is no guarantee that a person will get any clue of what they don't know by achieving MSD. They could take all the really junk certification courses and learning nothing, even from the courses they do take. But, particularly since Rescue is required, I am inclined to have a little faith that anyone interested enough to do all the work required - even if they are just doing it to earn "the merit badge" - will pick up SOME inkling of "what they don't know" along the way.
And that seems to me to be a Good Thing. If the word "Master" in the title is part of what attracts some people to do it, what's the problem?
I asked before: Does anyone have direct personal experience with someone who has MSD and who has a seriously overinflated opinion of their own skills? I could imagine that it does happen, but I would GUESS that it doesn't happen that often? And probably only to people who are going to be a hazard to themselves, no matter what, MSD or not.
I feel like my diving skills improved quite a lot through all the training I did on the way to getting MSD. But, my self-evaluation of my skills is that my skills are much weaker NOW than I THOUGHT they were when I started the first bit of training. I think the process of getting to MSD has not just improved my skills but also made me better/safer by raising my awareness of how poor my skills actually are compared to what they could be some day. If I had done 50 dives without any of that formal training along the way, I could easily imagine myself having some unwarranted confidence in my skills. Instead, I feel like I have a more realistic self-assessment - because the training exposed me to a number of training situations that wouldn't normally occur in "fun dives" but that did illustrate to me how weak my skills were/are.
Over the last year, I have met a number of divers. Some of whom are WAY more experienced than I am. One specific gentleman immediately comes to mind. A conversation with him revealed that he has hundreds more dives and years more experience than I do. Yet he dove the San Francisco Maru in Truk with only a single AL80 and exactly zero technical training. He did the dive without doing any explicit dive or gas planning. He felt comfortable doing it based on already diving with his DM for a few days prior and trusting that his DM understood his gas consumption and reassured him that he could do the dive. The DM told him he just needed to follow the stops his (recreational) dive computer prescribed during his ascents. I started asking him questions that culminated with "if you knew you were going to have to do required stops on the ascent, but you didn't work out ahead of time how long those stops would be, how did you KNOW you were carrying enough gas to hold the required stops?" At this point, the guy's eyes got kind of wide and it was clear to me that he had just experienced a small epiphany of how dangerous what he had done was. I think he told me he dropped into a hold on the wreck and hit a max depth of 185'... with only a single AL80... and the DM's word that he would be okay.
I cite this as an example of how I could foresee a lot of people behaving if they have a lot of dives under their belt and no further formal training beyond AOW and Nitrox. An example that I think would be less likely to occur if someone did pursue enough formal training to attain an MSD certification.
An example of having unwarranted confidence by virtue of not knowing what you don't know. Of course there is no guarantee that a person will get any clue of what they don't know by achieving MSD. They could take all the really junk certification courses and learning nothing, even from the courses they do take. But, particularly since Rescue is required, I am inclined to have a little faith that anyone interested enough to do all the work required - even if they are just doing it to earn "the merit badge" - will pick up SOME inkling of "what they don't know" along the way.
And that seems to me to be a Good Thing. If the word "Master" in the title is part of what attracts some people to do it, what's the problem?
I asked before: Does anyone have direct personal experience with someone who has MSD and who has a seriously overinflated opinion of their own skills? I could imagine that it does happen, but I would GUESS that it doesn't happen that often? And probably only to people who are going to be a hazard to themselves, no matter what, MSD or not.
