my diving life

[bringonblink]

well i went on holiday to turkey and did my OW and AOW in a week (with 100% on the exam for OW ) and i want to do the Rescue Diver course with some specilties soon. then that would be the end of a non professional diving career and i can just clock up on dives till im 18 (im 15 now...dont hurt me) when i have cash and can start a profesional diving career.

is this how it goes:

first i do my Divemaster Course then my Assistant Instructor, then Open Water Scuba Instructor, then Specialty Instructor and lastly Master Scuba Diver Trainer.

i cant really find any good information about the courses so could you please explain to me what you have to do etc in each course, and what is the pay like for each one.

i also live in uk but may move to canada before im 18. wheres a good place in both uk and canada to start a divign career?

thanks

roy

 

[mania]

First of all welcome to the Board and I hope you are gonna like this place.
As seeking for advice - honestly I would rather wait wit hthe rescue till you are 18. Meantime keep on diving - because practice is what makes one a good dvier.
Mania

 

[teknitroxdiver]

I also did the Rescue early in my diving, I had something like 50-60 dives at the time. I would go ahead and do the Rescue, it's an awesome class and you learn some very helpful skills. You may wish to do the class again every 5 or so years, because unless you dive with some very scary people you're going to forget most of the stuff. Other than that, maybe Nitrox, that's a good one, and peak performance buoyancy. IMO _most_ of the other specialties are frivilous, you can learn more with a skilled dive buddy.

 

[diversjobs]

"first i do my Divemaster Course then my Assistant Instructor, then Open Water Scuba Instructor, then Specialty Instructor and lastly Master Scuba Diver Trainer"
Ok... first go step by step...

The first thing is to do tons of dives, specially during your DM, DM courses change in cost depending of location.. my advice is that you go and have nice 6 months in the Caribe, S.E Asia, or Red Sea and build your dives.. then when you have between 200 and 300 dives, and have a lot of diving experience (specially as a DM dealing with customers) make the decition if you want to go as a Instructor or not...

Take care...

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Hi Roy,

Welcome to ScubaBoard. Sounds like you've put some thought into your future, which is rarely a bad thing.

The others have given you good advice, for the moment you initially want to gain experience. I want to caution you that one of the most important areas you want to focus on is both being a good buddy, and only diving with good buddies. If the person you are diving with is not paying attention to you, or you to him/her, you must learn to ask yourself 'why', and change that. A very splendid young man from my home area drowned last summer diving with a friend, when they were temporarily separated, and he was only a bit older than you. Being careful is not an instinctual habit we're born with - it is a skill that must be learned and developed. Like most worthwhile skills, it isn't easy and it demands practice. In my humble opinion, the most important thing you need to learn first is how to dive carefully. The rest will come later.

In terms of your professional diving, you might want to at least consider diving with the Royal Navy or the Canadian Navy. They will offer you education and pay while you are learning, as well as experience it will be difficult to acquire otherwise. It would be worth your while to at least discuss the matter with someone you trust. You have plenty of time to ponder your future, and change your mind after trying out one thing then another.

Congratulations to you for having found something you enjoy and for thinking about your future. Many younger guys your age do not.

Read all the books you can and study hard in school, especially in science. Above all else, you should not be afraid underwater, but respect it and be cautious. Think three times before you do things. It is an environment that rarely tolerates mistakes.

I hope you enjoy diving and ScubaBoard, and wish you the best.

Doc

 

[bringonblink]

ok i did a bit more researching and have been thinkingthat im gonna do my Rescue Diver course and then solid Divemaster diving logging dives and experience. what about specialty dives though? i havent done any and im not sure when to plan to. i want to do my Rescue diving course probably when im 16, and then leave the clocking up the dives and dive master course till im 18. should i leave my specialty dives till after completion of divemaster, or do say 5 speciality dives before i start the divemaster course?

and lastly about the Divemaster. CAN you have 6 month DM courses? that seems a little long to me... on this site the DM intership course runs over 1 month

http://www.europeandiving.co.uk/marmaris/courses.asp?1=73&action=Search

im thinking of doing that, would it be ok? after the course though can i still work on a boat as a paid assistant or something (obviously not tons, just for experience)? or would i just have to bomb out loads of normal dives.

thanks

 

[discrepancy]

I also did the Rescue early in my diving...it's an awesome class and you learn some very helpful skills. You may wish to do the class again every 5 or so years

I second everything teknitroxdiver says above. BUT, add two things:

- Dive as often as you can in as many different situations as you can - warm water, cold water, tropical, bad viz, open ocean, quiet lake etc etc. It's all good fun and there's something to enjoy and learn from every style.

- I wouldn't wait 5 years to do the rescue course again. I'd do it every year. OK, maybe not the whole theory thing again, but certainly volunteer yourself as a crash test dummy for other rescue divers to practise on as often as you can. This course will take you out of your comfort zone, and you can learn as much by observing your fellow students as you can from the approved PADI manual.

 

[AndyNZ]

my LDS runs what they call diving "tertiary education courses".... basically zero to hero courses. a lot of enquiries come from teenagers asking basically the same kind of thing, i.e. how do they get to be a diving professional, what can they do and how do they do it.

i get really annoyed as the staff encourage teenagers to sign up for the course, even though here in new zealand there just aren't enough jobs around for professional divers and the ones that are around are very poorly paid.

bringonblink - i'd give you the same advice i try to give to those people who enrol on my LDS tertiary courses, which is:

1. don't try and grow up too fast - just get out and dive, dive safely and enjoy it.
2. get an education - you might think school sucks, but if you decide to leave before finishing your A-levels then you are restricting so much of what you could potentially do in life.
3. don't make diving the entirity of your life at an early age - what do you do if circumstance takes your one love away from you?

and also realise that most professional diving jobs are very poorly paid. the well paid ones tend to be commercial (for which you don't need to be an instructor) and have a lot of risks associated with them - try underwater welding if you don't beleive me!

i'd recommend the PADI rescue course and some specialties to improve your confidence in the water. and, as others have said, get diving in different conditions and get a breadth of experience. not sure where you are in the UK, but get yourself to stoney cove and compare it to diving in turkey! if you base your decision to be a dive professional on turkey - then both the UK and canada will likely disappoint unless you cope with the cold and the dark.....!

 

[bringonblink]

ok NOW ive decided what im gonna do. when im 18 im gonna do my rescue and efr course somewhere in UK to get a feel for UK diving. if i find i can cope with it i'm gonna then do 5 specilties in UK and do some experience diving round UK till i get the master scuba diver rank. by then i will have around 50-75 logged dives and will know well the dive experience in uk. if i find it does not put me off i will go to turkey and complete my divemaster course, doing more diving on top of that to get me to the 150-250 logged dive range or more. then ill just dive for fun with mates in uk or canada or anywhere else i fancy. thanks for all the help

 

[ScubaSarus]

Rescue is a great course to get under your belt. Your training will come together nicely in rescue. I wouldn't object to rescue being part of AOW.