PADI Master Scuba Diver - what does it give you?

[vcblklion]

It would therefore be very appropriate to say something along the lines of "As a relatively new diver, I took some specialties that were not helpful to me, and I feel my instructors did not give me my money's worth. I should have checked more carefully, and I recommend that you do the same."

LOL...so now I need to take lessons from you on how to express myself...?

Instead, you in effect said something like this: "As a new diver with not too many dives and only a year of experience in my local area, I pronounce all the instructors throughout the world from this one agency to be incompetent, and even though I have no experience whatsoever with any of the other 100 or so agencies around the world, I proclaim them to be superior." I don't think you can support such a statement.

That's NOT what I said..that's YOUR interpretation of what I said but.....who am I to argue with you? Because obviously your experince is superior to mine......

 

[boulderjohn]

LOL...so now I need to take lessons from you on how to express myself...?

That's NOT what I said..that's YOUR interpretation of what I said but.....who am I to argue with you? Because obviously your experince is superior to mine......

Yes, it was my interpretation of what you said. I did add some embellishments that you did not add, but were clearly implied by your willingness to single PADI out without any experience with other agencies, all of which do pretty much exactly the same thing.

If I was inaccurate, please correct my errors.

 

[vcblklion]

sorry, it sounded to me like you were trying to say that PADI is marketing useless c-cards, while other agencies are not.

I didn't suggest other agencies don't do specialty courses. I specifically said I believe that the courses NAUI (for example) offered were more relevant to advanced diving. You even quoted me saying that.

"I gathered this from your statement:"

These are the NAUI "specialty" courses...​

NAUI Specialty Courses

They are much more relevant IMO to advanced diving..."
​

I don't understand where all of this animosity towards PADI is coming from.

It comes from personal experience, experience of freinds and following the stories and experiences of other divers I've encountered during my 2 years of diving.

Based on your profile, you are a new diver, and can only guess that you had a bad experience with PADI during OW or AOW.

My profile here would be a pretty weak thing to judge me by....since I don't spend a lot of time updating it...

However, you seem to be pulling facts out of thin air such as suggesting that PADI doesn't supervise their instructors. Complaints made to PADI about instructors are investigated and appropriate action is taken, what more can PADI do?

Me suggesting PADI doesn't supervise their instructors isn't a "fact"....it's my opinion.....which is, as I stated earlier, based on personal experience, experience of freinds and following the stories and experiences of other divers I've encountered during my 2 years of diving. I have strong opinions...sue me...


What I don't understand is......why this is so personal for you...? I'm not attacking YOU personally.....just a business model.

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If I was inaccurate, please correct my errors.

I've made several posts clarifying what I was getting at....it's starting to become redudant....

 

[diverrex]

I seriously have trouble with why so many people get so negative about PADI and specialty courses. If you don't want to take those courses just don't take them. Some people actually like taking them. What's the big deal? I really don't like strawberry ice cream but I have no problem with it existing nor any problem with anyone who likes it.

Is PADI the best agency around, probably not. Have they done a lot to promote the sport and train divers, yes. Could they do things differently and better, sure.

 

[vcblklion]

I seriously have trouble with why so many people get so negative about PADI and specialty courses..

My problem is that there are way too many examples of divers who should have been well trained according to PADI standards and they are not. Too many stories of divers going through PADI training and not knowing what to do in an emergency situation. And too many stories of PADI instructors barely doing what they need to do to get you through the course at the same time suggesting you take the next one. They sound like PADI salesmen.....IMHO.....

 

[Jaydubya]

Unfortunately Master Diver cannot always be used in place of AOW. There are a lot of idiots out there and some of them work in dive shops.

I once got denied a seat on a boat to a 110 ft wreck because I didn't have an Advanced Open water card with me. I had showed them a decompression procedures card which said on the card I was qualified to dive to 150 ft. I asked about that and the lady said our insurance company wants to see something with the word advanced on it. So I pulled out my advanced nitrox card and was good to go.

I doubt a master diver card would have worked in this case because it didn't have the word advanced on it. Maybe PADI should invent a new ranking.

Advanced Master Scuba Diver? It could require 8 or 10 specialties and 100 dives, with at least one dive outside of class. There could be two flavors- with Nitrox and without Nitrox printed right on the card so you only have to carry one.

Of course I'm being facetious

 

[nimoh]

I didn't suggest other agencies don't do specialty courses. I specifically said I believe that the courses NAUI (for example) offered were more relevant to advanced diving. You even quoted me saying that.

"I gathered this from your statement:"

These are the NAUI "specialty" courses...​

NAUI Specialty Courses

They are much more relevant IMO to advanced diving..."
​

I am not taking it personally, this has been an interesting exchange.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but it still sounds like you are saying that PADI offers useless specialties while other agencies are offering useful specialties. I am not very familiar with NAUI, but the specialty course you linked to look very similar PADI specialties. What differentiates the NAUI specialties from the PADI specialties? In other words, what makes them "much more relevant" than PADI specialties?

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I seriously have trouble with why so many people get so negative about PADI and specialty courses. If you don't want to take those courses just don't take them. Some people actually like taking them. What's the big deal? I really don't like strawberry ice cream but I have no problem with it existing nor any problem with anyone who likes it.

Is PADI the best agency around, probably not. Have they done a lot to promote the sport and train divers, yes. Could they do things differently and better, sure.

I think the ones negative about PADI specialties are those that decided after they took the course that they weren't worth it, and subsequently feel ripped off. However, people in this category, should really only ever have taken one course since if that is the feeling after the course, why take another?

I personally have enjoyed the PADI specialties I have taken, they were a lot of fun, but I have the benefit of having great instructors around me.

 

[vcblklion]

I am not taking it personally, this has been an interesting exchange.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but it still sounds like you are saying that PADI offers useless specialties while other agencies are offering useful specialties. I am not very familiar with NAUI, but the specialty course you linked to look very similar PADI specialties.?

ok...let me try and put it in mathematical terms....the title of this thread is about the PADI Master Diver cert which the OP was inquring what does it do for you? My comments were in reference to that...Master Diver is a pretty useless certification (which even those that disagree with my tone agreed with in fact). I believe there are other PADI specialty courses which are pretty useless also such as boat diver, drift diver, National Geographic diver, Fish ID...just to name a few...most of these courses should and need to be covered as part of Advanced training. If you take PADI's Master Diver course, there is not structure as to the courses you take so in order to get their totally useless certification, you spend the $1500 + you've already spent for instruction, books, boat fees, etc to get to Rescue (as well as the cost to reach 50 dives) then you spend another $300-$400 a pop for each of the 5 "specialty" courses required for PADI's Master Diver cert and have nothing to show for it when completed...If the Master Diver required you to take specifically Nitrox, Drysuit, Wreck, Navigation, PPB to qualify for the certification....I would have MUCH less of a problem with that...

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I think the ones negative about PADI specialties are those that decided after they took the course that they weren't worth it, and subsequently feel ripped off. However, people in this category, should really only ever have taken one course since if that is the feeling after the course, why take another?.

BTW, I qualify for Master Diver, I have just chosen not to take it. My goal is to complete Dive Master by next year. There are some personal goals I am working on before starting training. I will be going the NAUI/GUE route. I chose not to take PADI's Master Diver course for all the reasons I've stated earlier, but I've managed to learn most of these specialties regardless...including quite a bit about underwater photography.

My personal experience with PADI includes being left alone, at night, at the surface for 15 minutes during my AOW training by my PADI instructor and then being ridiculed by him because I didn't know where he was and swam back in to shore on my own....something that should never happen to ANY student. My animosity is further enhanced by the stories shared by other PADI trained divers that show a recurrent theme of unprofessionalism and inattention......yes, there are some good PADI instructors...and I suspect those are the ones that take issue with my tone..

 

[Fish-R-Man]

The point I thought I made was I object to PADI marketing USELESS C-cards. Which I believe even homeboy who is suggesting I'm a liar and idiot admitted the Master Diver C-card was. It's pretty useless and so are a lot of PADI's specialty courses. I don't object to them being in business as long as their business is substantive and they supervise their instructors to give quality instruction. Both of which I feel PADI lacks. But it's ok. I don't know what I'm talking about obviously....

Here is a list of PADI specialty courses for O/W divers. The ones marked in red I know I have been asked for by different dive shops before I booked a trip or rented gear from them while traveling. The two I marked in green are ones that I feel that most vacationing divers could use to improve their performance on most dives. Are any of these classes USELESS? Possibly... With the right instructor can they benefit an idividual. Probably... Courses like Fish ID and Photography, will they make you a better diver or will they just make your diving more enjoyable.... It will all depend on why you want to take the course and what you are willing to learn from it. As far as the whole Dive Master issue, if you had a Rescue cert and five of the courses I highlighted or from the AOW list, had a good instructor and worked at learning and practising the skills taught in those classes, I would have to say that you would more than likely be a pretty good diver. If I were a beginning diver, I would be proud to have that card....

1) Aware- Fish ID
2) Boat Diver
3) Digital Underwater Photography
4) DPV diver
5) Drift diver
6) Drysuit diver
7) Emergency O2 Provider
8) Nitrox
9) Equipment Specialist
10) Multilevel diver
11) National Geographic diver
12) Night Diver
13) Peak Performance Bouyancy
14) Sidemount
15) Underwater Naturalist
16) Underwater Navigator
17) Underwater Photgrapher
18) Underwater Videographer

Here is the list for Adventure or AOW:
1) Deep Diver
2) Wreck diver
3) Cavern Diver
4) Ice Diver
5) Search and recovery
6) Semi closed rebreather
7) Tec sidemount

 

[vcblklion]

Here is a list of PADI specialty courses for O/W divers. The ones marked in red I know I have been asked for by different dive shops before I booked a trip or rented gear from them while traveling. The two I marked in green are ones that I feel that most vacationing divers could use to improve their performance on most dives.

Seriously bro...you really need to take your personal love of PADI out the equation and learn to READ what was written.....