OWSI or MSDT? Is it worth the extra money?

[Quero]

If there's no market for specialties where you're going to teach, it's hard to justify the expenditure. One alternative is to self-certify as MSDT once you've certified 25 students, assuming you have experience in the specialties you plan to certify for. In other words if you are a dry-suit diver and have 20 dry suit dives and have certified 25 students, you can apply to PADI as a Dry Suit Specialty Instructor. This holds true for most of the specialties. As Andy/DevonDiver says, you will most likely pursue Specialty Instructor Status in the five specialties you find most useful and interesting. If your shop doesn't market MSD training, maybe once you're an MSDT you can change that to bring more business to your shop and earn more yourself by teaching this courses.

 

[Hawkwood]

Regarding 'Speciality Instructor' certifications...

They should reflect your experience, interests and passions. If you genuinely love a certain aspect of diving, then you will have a passion for teaching it...and this will be evident to your potential students. Your enthusiasm in the subject will be contagious and this will lead to people signing up on courses with you. You will teach those courses very well, from the basis of your own experience, rather than just regurgitating the core materials.

I invested in a wide range of spec inst certifications when I first qualified. Unsurprisingly, the ones that I have taught are also the ones that I love to teach.

You worded that much better than I tried! I have two left that I want to teach - Navigation and Ice. I have done enough ice diving and assisted as a DM with a number of courses. Now that I am an Instructor, the goal was to be able to team teach this coming year with the ice classes. Our two month trip to the Pacific in February and March put an end to that unfortunately!

 

[Peter Guy]

For what it's worth (and that probably isn't much!), here is my take on the Specialties/MSDT thing.

I'm a relatively new instructor (20 months now?) and decided to get the MSDT rating as quickly as I could (there is a thread somewhere about the tricks used to do this and the pros/cons of how it was done). It was my belief that I would do the 25 certs and then self-certify the various specialties because of my experience -- and I still believe it was a very reasonable decision.

By the time I did my OWSI I had obtained my Full Cave, Advanced Nitrox/Decompression and Heliox Cards in addition to having worked as a DM for a couple of years (and 500+ dives). So I figured self-certifying for teaching Deep, Dry Suit (400+ dives dry), UW Navigation, etc. was reasonable. I had also taken the Nitrox Specialty Course from the shop's CD and decided it really didn't prepare me to teach Nitrox any more than the other training I had. (I really can read a course outline all by myself!)

To me the key wasn't to get the certs but to have the experience. If you have it, teach it -- if you don't have the experience, taking a one day class won't give it to you.

 

[Quero]

To me the key wasn't to get the certs but to have the experience. If you have it, teach it -- if you don't have the experience, taking a one day class won't give it to you.

Absolutely right, at least as far as diving skills specialties go. However, I have gained some Specialty Instructor ratings through study. I did the DAN O2 Provider Instructor cert in a classroom because it's not something I'm able to pick up from experience (thankfully) and just added on the PADI rating, and the same for Equipment for which I have ScubaPro Technician status as a background and then added on the rating, and even for Underwater Digital Photo for which I did an in-depth photo clinic with Mike Veitch before I made my PADI application (even though I'd already done tons of dives with a camera in my hand).

 

[scubamarketing]

I wish there was a "con-Ed sales specialty" I blitzed from OWSI to MSDT as fast as I could (I know can offer more than 20 specialties including ones I could never teach locally), I've also certified for each one. I know there's a joke about how PADI instructors are incessant salespeople, but that is part of our job. Teaching OW? Aside from Advanced, sell enriched air, ppb or photography. Teaching advanced? Sell them all five specialties you're including, even if they only take one, their knowledge and skills grow and so does your paycheck. When I was teaching actively, if I didn't have two or three people per class weekend asking me to setup another specialty ASAP, it was because I was lazy.

 

[Divedoggie]

If it is a money issue, just go for OWSI for now. If you feel that you are missing some teaching opportunities, then upgrade to teach the specialties that you have interest and experience in. The benefit is that you can wait awhile before you have to come up with more $ to upgrade to MSDT.
I found that I had a number of students go through initial OW certification with me and as they became more and more enthused about diving they started inquiring about specialties, especially drysuit and nitrox. This was the key motivation for me to upgrade, and it has since paid for itself many times over.

 

[String]

Hello all

I'm off to become an instructor in April, and am wondering whether the MSDT is worth doing, as opposed to the cheaper option of OWSI (inc Nitrox instructor).

A few people have said that some dive operations are asking for MSDTs more and more. But I don't know of any instructor in places I've dived that have actually taught any specialties.

So is there a point? Can't an OWSI teach Advanced/ Rescue/ DM courses anyway? It seems a lot of cash to be shelling out on top, for the sake of being able to "teach" UW photography, Deep, Fish ID, DPV skills et al.

Any advice would be welcome.

It really does depend where in the world you want to teach and the type of diving in an area.
A speciality instructor with 5 specs can teach exactly the same as an MSDT. All MSDT means is that its someone that can teach 5 specs *but has 25 or more certs* meaning they have some teaching experience (albeit not a lot but some)

Where MSDT comes in useful is in some places to get work. People want MSDT to ensure they're not getting someone with no certs and no experience so it can come in handy when applying for jobs or looking for work.

Some places you'll never teach a speciality course and spend your entire life doing DSDs with the odd OW and AOW thrown in so in those areas maybe even speciality instructor isnt worth it. I worked in places for 3 years and never taught a single speciality - it was all core courses. Then i went elsewhere and its a fairly even split right through the courses.

You could in theory have a speciality instructor with 5 specs and 50 certs who just hasnt paid for MSDT up against a 25 cert MSDT for the same job. Thats where it gets more complicated so its not automatic than an MSDT is more experienced although its normally the case.

If you do go for specs remember that nitrox and digital phot are the most popular 2 requested specs world wide so its probably worth having those regardless of doing MSDT prep.

 

[mattoau]

As a MSDT you can teach the Specialties you are certified to teach (at least 5 of them) and certify Master Scuba Diver.

......

There are two things I get from being a MSDT. The first is that I can certify Master Scuba Divers (not worth anything at my shop) and it goes towards becoming a Tec Instructor. The shop I'm at does TecRec courses. MSDT is a requirement for becoming a Tec Instructor or Tec Deep Instructor.

As an OWSI with 5 specs I certified an MSD on one occasion. I didn't apply to become an MSDT as soon as I could because I wanted more experience and it would have been an outlay with no immediate return. Anyway I taught somebody the EANx course who already had 4 other specs and rescue, they asked if I could certify them as an MSD. I couldn't find any issue with this in the manual so I processed them and never heard of any problem from PADI afterwards.

I have since become an MSDT as I believe it helps with looking for a job.

 

[DevonDiver]

As a golden rule of thumb, try to ensure that you would be more knowledgeable and experienced in a specialist diving area than your potential customers if you are going to apply to teach that subject.

This especially applies to pursuits such as wreck diving or photography.

 

[old8oy]

Thanks for all the responses. They reinforce what I was thinking: better to make OWSI with Nitrox for now. I'm mainly into wrecks, so later on will maybe take Deep, DPV, Wreck and anything else related. I'll be doing some Tec Wreck courses with Tech Asia next time I'm out in the Philippines, too.

One week until I head for Mexico, and 3 months until the IDC. Can't wait!