Need help to buy new BCD

[ams511]

He's not talking about working for a shop, he's talking about taking a DM course. Employment at a shop, for pay, is an entirely different situation. Using DM students for sales-demos is an unfortunate practice by some dive shops, and as such those shops should be avoided, IMO.

Getting a discount on gear you don't really want is not such a good deal, is it?

I know he is taking the course. However, that is the first step to being a dive professional, is it not? When working for a dive shop they usually want you to wear gear they sell, don't they? As I mentioned I am not a DM, so I don't know if shops want you to be a living mannequin for their goods, if they do then RJP gave the best advice to use the shop's gear.

I agree that being forced to purchase unwanted gear is a bad deal. However, purchasing wanted gear only to have to sell the gear to buy what shop you work for wants you to wear is also a bad deal.

 

[halocline]

I know he is taking the course. However, that is the first step to being a dive professional, is it not? When working for a dive shop they usually want you to wear gear they sell, don't they? As I mentioned I am not a DM, so I don't know if shops want you to be a living mannequin for their goods, if they do then RJP gave the best advice to use the shop's gear.

I agree that being forced to purchase unwanted gear is a bad deal. However, purchasing wanted gear only to have to sell the gear to buy what shop you work for wants you to wear is also a bad deal.

For the majority of people taking the DM course, it is not the first step towards becoming a professional, at least in the sense of earning a living. It might be intended as such, but the market for paying jobs in the recreational dive industry is pretty bleak.

There's a big difference between taking a class at a shop and working there as an employee. Part, not all, of the DM course is an internship in which students are required to assist in OW classes. For some of those pool sessions (actually for me it wasn't a pool for confined water) I did wear a jacket BC while demonstrating the 20 skills. In most cases I think a retail shop with a big fleet of rental gear would gladly provide those items to a DMT for the pool sessions. But that's only part of the class. Another part of the internship aspect for me was guiding dives that had a mixture of OW certified divers, other DMTs, and instructors observing us guiding. For those situations I always used my BP/W and long hose. A good instructor would never require a DMT to be geared up like a student in those situations.