PADI Master Scuba Diver - what does it give you?

[diverrex]

And there are bad mechanics, teachers, restaurants, lawyers, doctors, etc. Do your research and find god instructors whatever agency.

 

[nimoh]

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...

---------- Post Merged at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:40 PM ----------



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..

I will agree that the Master Scuba Diver rating doesn't get you anything (other than a personal feeling of accomplishment). Incidentally, with respect to PADI, Master Scuba Diver is not a course, it is merely a rating that you can apply for after completing the requirements.

I'm sorry your experience with PADI courses has been so negative, I don't know much about NAUI, but my opinion is that they have good programs too, so best of luck with that. I will also complement you on pursuing GUE classes as well. I will be taking Fundamentals in a little over a month, and really looking forward to it.

 

[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. 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

And since you brought it up.......out of 25 specialty courses you found 8 that were useful.....? That's 32%.......ok...I rest my case....

 

[Pullmyfinger]

These types of threads can sometimes be informative.

Usually they become futile......Because if anyone posts an opinion that isn't very favorable toward PADI, the PADI Pros start trying to smack every one of those opinions down.

The fact is, many divers out there have formed unfavorable opinions about aspects of PADI for very valid reasons.

I realize the flip side of that coin is PADI bashing.....but it seems like the PADI Pro group responses to valid, unfavorable posts get to be too much at times.

-Mitch

 

[vcblklion]

I will be taking Fundamentals in a little over a month, and really looking forward to it.

good luck to you also....Hopefully we will meet up on a dive boat somewhere and we can swap war stories...! LOL

 

[nimoh]

And since you brought it up.......out of 25 specialty courses you found 8 that were useful.....? That's 32%.......ok...I rest my case....

well, come on now, you indicated in an earlier post that you found underwater photography to be useful. My point is that different divers will find different specialties beneficial.

I personally have no use for Project Aware Fish Identification, and as a result, I didn't take it. However, I won't call the specialty useless, since there are probably some divers that would enjoy it. As you put it, PADI is in it for the money, so why would PADI continue to offer these specialties if people weren't taking them?

 

[diverrex]

These types of threads can sometimes be informative.

Usually the become futile......Because if anyone posts an opinion that isn't very favorable toward PADI, the PADI Pros start trying to smack every one of those opinions down.

The fact is, many divers out there have formed unfavorable opinions about aspects of PADI for very valid reasons.

I realize the flip side of that coin is PADI bashing.....but it seems like the PADI Pro group responses to valid, unfavorable posts get to be too much at times.

-Mitch

This thread has become futile but I disagree with your assessment of which side argues more. I am not a PADi pro or have any real allegiance to them. I've taken PADI courses and I've taken a NAUI course, that's my only connection to this issue. But it seems to me that there are many more PADI bashers than supporters. Yeah it's a business, they make money so what? Divers ate not diving left and right, it's a relatively safe sport for the hostile (underwater) environment in which it takes place. I really don't think PADI is killing peole.

 

[vcblklion]

well, come on now, you indicated in an earlier post that you found underwater photography to be useful. My point is that different divers will find different specialties beneficial.

No..Fish-R-Man is the guy that so cleverly suggested that I had "cert card envy" because I felt the way I do......and I'm just making the point, out of 25 specialty courses he only found 8 that he could present to me as useful....that kind of sums up my argument...but what do I know? I'm just jealous I don't "qualify" for PADI Master Diver certification.

Yes, Underwater Photography can be a useful course...IF you have a good instructor. I have found that even the instructors that some people recommend are good aren't necessarily so. I hate having to gamble with something that is so expensive and could potentially involve your life.

 

[Fish-R-Man]

Seriously... I have only taken a couple PADI courses. Fortunately I had a good instructor for them. I also have taken classes from the YMCA, LA County Lifeguards, SSI, TDI and IANTD. I also commerical dived abalone for a number of years and was trained by a much more experienced diver that did it for years and he never had a formal cert card. In the early 70's I worked at Marineland of the Pacific in Palos Verdes when it was still in operation as a volunteer diver and had some training there with hard hat diving. This September I have classes scheduled to take my Advanced Nitrox and Intro to Tech with TDI (hopefully in sidemount), so that early next year I can finish my IANTD full cave class with stages and in sidemount gear. I am not spefically attached to any one agency. I prefer to seek out the best instructors for the next phase of diving I want to do. I could care less if they worked for the AAA.... Just as long as they know their stuff...

If you look at my profile, you will see a long break with no training. I was perfectly content with the certs I had and enjoyed the diving I was doing. Once I started to travel and the issues with required certs from various dive ops and their liability issues prevented me from doing the diving I wanted to do, I started taking additional classes. Then I did my first cavern dive in Dos Ojos and got the cave bug. I plan on finishing with Technical Cave, what agency that will be with will depend on who the instructor is that I chose to take the course with.

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience with PADI instructors. There are good and bad in all of the agency's, I am sure. I just happen to know some very good ones that I have had the pleasure of diving with.....

 

[vcblklion]

I prefer to seek out the best instructors for the next phase of diving I want to do. I could care less if they worked for the AAA.... Just as long as they know their stuff........

you and I have a lot more in common than you gave me credit for. My pet peeve is an agency that has a model that appears to care about your diving but really doesn't. If the instructor is using the PADI model they represent PADI and as such have a duty to give top notch instruction. If PADI has people out teaching their program it should be a curriculum that will prepare the diver to be a solid, well informed diver. If they are selling certification cards, the cards should be useful and substantive. As a diver, I don't think that's too much to ask.