I have been a DM for years. I believe it only takes 60 dives to be a DM. At 60 dives in my opinion you can barely take care of your experieinced buddy let alone an inexperieinced paniced student. If one of my kids wanted to take diving and I found out the DM went from zero to hero in 4 weeks, you would not see my kid in that class.
In general I would agree with you that 60 dives doesn't seem like that many to be a divemaster, but there are always going to be exceptions. That's why it's a "minimum" (and not only) standard. Nothing says that the instructor has to certify someone before they think the individual is ready
The OP isn't a new diver. He doesn't say on his profile how many dives he has, but he's been certified for over 3 years. Just because the rules allow you to be certified at 60 dives doesn't mean everyone does it that quick.
I've got a friend with over 3000 dives who never went above OW which gives him a certain "breadth" of experience
If he decided he wanted to be a divemaster now and did a course that fullfilled all the requirements but the course only took 4 weeks you would say he's not a competent divemaster? No of course not because your problem seems to be with people getting certified as divemasters at only 60 dives
If someone did it in 4 weeks and only had 60 dives "at the time", but has since gotten more experience, then what difference would it make if they only had 60 dives then, but have 500 dives now? Again, no I doubt you would have a problem with them either, because they've since gained experience
If someone did 60 dives in a month do you think they would be more or less comfortable in the water than someone who did a 100 dives spread out over 10 years?
Everyone is different. People gain knowledge and skill at different rates. Since you've been a divemaster for so long I'm sure you've seen people who were naturals in the water, good under pressure, and seemed to just absorb all the material as quick as it was given to them (by osmosis maybe
). Then there are other people who may have over a 100 dives (minimum for instructor) but still need their hand held
Thats why it's a "minimum" standard. It's up to the instructor to decide if the individual is competent to be a divemaster or not. Sorry, I think the person meeting standards is more important than an arbitrary number. If you want to raise the standard, then why don't you become an instructor? Then you can make people do 500 dives before they become a divemaster if you like
My last point... your kid isn't learning to scuba dive from a Divemaster.... I'd be more concerned about the instructors background than the Divemaster, but it's your kid so if you don't want him in a class where an assistant is a new divemaster trying to get more experience who only has 60 dives, then you can put them in any class you like
