Master Scuba Diver Course

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Please make sure your selected five specialty courses(PADI) have anything to do with diving.
The five that I had chosen: Deep, Drift, Multi-level, Nitrox and finally Search & Recovery. The rating of MSD was FREE then.

Not sure why you think the specialties you chose are so special. Nitrox is a good cert to have because it permits one to obtain nitrox fills but does not require any diving, just pass the written exam along with an exercise on analyzing a couple of tanks and filling out logs and tank stickers. Not sure how this cert contributes to one being a better diver.

Multi-level? if you have a computer you are probably diving multi-level to some degree already. Not sure what skill is imparted that would make you a better diver in the course other than an increased awareness of no-deco time and to avoid bounce pattern dive profiles.

Search and Recovery seems like a good skill to have, but what is taught that you didn't pick up in Search and Rescue? Sounds like a course where you pay to practice a skill one already needs for the master diver recognition card to begin with.

I can understand how a drift cert may make a diver more well rounded if learning to properly launch and manage a dsmb is included along with managing buoyancy properly while doing so is taught. How to deal with currents and surfacing and surface safety are good things to be aware of if taught as well.

While you might not find something like fish identification as a specialty to have anything to do with diving, it requires more diving than nitrox. so on can do nitrox cert as a specialty and be crappy diver using nitrox.

The reality is that the PADI MSD recognition is just that a BS recognition card that proves little and is not really highly regarded outside of PADI ad copy...it isn't even a requirement for any of PADI's professional level training. Not sure why anyone would pay the extra admin fee for this card unless having the card somehow satisfies their ego.

Experience is what counts. I dive in a club that has a bunch of divemasters. Among us there is a wide range when it comes to the developed/undeveloped skill sets each has. There are instructors and assistant instructors hat I have seen that make me shake head and wonder how they got certified to teach. Having a card in your wallet or dive log does not make one a good diver. A big part of what makes a good diver is experience, but the major part of being a good diver is knowing one's limits and acknowledging the areas where one can improve and then setting out to improve those areas. One doesn't need a collection of plastic cards to be experienced.

I am sure there are some great instructors out there that offer lots of good knowledge in the PADI specialty courses they teach, but one must realize that PADI makes money through selling education material and charging administrative fees. An organization who's profits are structured as such will wrap just about anything under the guise of "training and certification" and market it to make folks think it is something they need or want.

-Z
 
The reality is that the PADI MSD recognition is just that a BS recognition card that proves little and is not really highly regarded outside of PADI ad copy...it isn't even a requirement for any of PADI's professional level training. Not sure why anyone would pay the extra admin fee for this card unless having the card somehow satisfies their ego.

Experience is what counts. I dive in a club that has a bunch of divemasters. Among us there is a wide range when it comes to the developed/undeveloped skill sets each has. There are instructors and assistant instructors hat I have seen that make me shake head and wonder how they got certified to teach. Having a card in your wallet or dive log does not make one a good diver.

While I agree broadly with what you are saying, I do have understanding as to why people chase certain cards.
Where I used to live - there was two main boat charter providers. And if you wanted to do a dive with them, you had to have the appropriate card.
Want to do a night dive? Had to have the night-dive card.
Want to get on the boat to get dropped on a wreck dive? Guess what card
Want some voodoo gas? Well that card makes some sense.

Stupidly they never insisted you had a rescue card or one that actually gave you some decent skills.
So that's basically how I ended up with the SSI master rating. Do enough cards and they give you one for free.
 
Yeah I agree with the last 2 posts. Perhaps I've participated in one of these threads in the past..... Well, what Zef said is all true. But hey, maybe that's been said occasionally before on the big Board.... I STILL wear my PADI MSD cap (with the patch) when in the campground in N.Y and people are STILL in awe. If I wear my DM cap they think I instruct diving board divers. Oh, as a MAY have posted before, the PADI DM course seems to mimick the NAUI MSD course, so I guess I am equivalent to a NAUI MSD? Who cares. Zef is right. Back to T.V.
 
the PADI DM course seems to mimick the NAUI MSD course

Not at all, not even close. They are totally different certifications and the PADI MSD isn't a course at all. NAUI's MSD is a serious and a challenging course with high level of knowledge and skill development and expectations. When you come out of the NAUI MSD course/program, you are going to have NAUI instructor level knowledge and skills but without the teaching theory knowledge or credentials. The NAUI DM is far more advanced than the PADI DM course. NAUI's DM is a higher status with more qualifications than the AI level in contrast to the PADI DM and AI levels.
 
Back to 1997 PADI Nitrox class required TWO dives.
Back in 1997 not many divers have computers so multi-level planning was very useful. I was on a LoB in Queensland and did not have a computer. The diving supervisor insisted that I would be limited to 18m. However, when I demonstrated that I could plan a deep dive by using "The Wheel", he changed his mind!

The Wheel might be obsolete but how many divers can actually plan a multi-level dive without any electronic device?

PADI MSD was FREE back in 1997.
 
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how many divers can actually plan a multi-level dive without any electronic device?

And why???
 
Back in 1997 not many divers have computers so multi-level planning was very useful.

This is just so untrue!! MOST divers had dive computers then especially the vacation divers. There were many choices then and they were reasonably priced. Nitrox wasn't widely available then especially since PADI fought the use of nitrox for MANY years and considered it as "devil's" gas only to have a 180 degree turn in attitude few years later when it finally saw the opportunity it represented for its business.
 
Just like the use of slide rule

And the abacus? Do you have electricity in your cave or just all natural?
 
This is just so untrue!! MOST divers had dive computers then especially the vacation divers. There were many choices then and they were reasonably priced. Nitrox wasn't widely available then especially since PADI fought the use of nitrox for MANY years and considered it as "devil's" gas only to have a 180 degree turn in attitude few years later when it finally saw the opportunity it represented for its business.
Are you suggesting that back in 1997 computer was widely available? I still met divers who did not possess one two wks ago!
 

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