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A divemaster should certainly be able to advise a diver how to do an appropriate weight check and understand the variables around it.
Qualifications of a DM
- Thread starter Raphus
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I believe it's been said above, but there are divers who have taken the DM course and gotten a c-card that says "divemaster" but are not employed as dive guides and then there are actual professional DMs who guide others for a living. Divers of the former type are inconsequential. It should not matter to any of us how good or poor their training was. In contrast, the professional DMs who are actually competent at leading dives and otherwise providing a safe, efficient and enjoyable diver experience can generally be found employed by reputable dive ops. A DM whose employer receives multiple complaints will probably not last long. Nowadays, online reviews make it relatively easy to judge DM quality. It doesn't matter to me what kind of c-card a good dive guide holds. I wouldn't be surprised to learn some of the dive guides I have had in Asia didn't have cards that said "divemaster" or something similar, yet some of them have appeared to me to be better at leading dives than DMs I have had in Florida.
Card collector is never an issue. However it does reflect the general low standard of the course.
DG is NOT DM.
They have my most respect after 25 yrs diving around SE Asia. They earn peanut but always a smile in their faces and had never complaint except telling"funny stories" on incompetent divers if you had gotten their trust. And they have to deal with them day in and out.
DG is a respectable job for the local and a good one seldom quit. They are in demand.
When I first started diving most DG are foreigners but now most of them are local.
They get real "training" nearly everyday if not every dive.
And they carried extra couple of kg as well because some of their clients need it.
There is NO better substitute for "experience" than theory.
I really do not understand the reason to BS ones own ability in diving. Scuba diving can be very unforgiving.
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We fairly often read on SB about DMs who are terrible. My guess is the vast majority are at least pretty good, as I found to be the case with teachers.
But of course, good news doesn't sell newspapers (well, you know what I mean...). When's the last time anyone's posted about their great experience with a DM?
But of course, good news doesn't sell newspapers (well, you know what I mean...). When's the last time anyone's posted about their great experience with a DM?
If you look at the Divemaster Duties listed in the PADI Divemaster Manual, you'll see that divemaster is truly an entry level position.
The list of duties spells out what functions a divemaster can perform at which stages of which training programs with what ratios and what level of supervision from an instructor. For example: "Accompany Open Water Diver students under the instructor's indirect supervision during surface swims to and from the entry/exit point and during navigational exercises; as well as supervising remaining students when the instructor conducts a skill."
As this example shows, the general tone of the job description is that divemasters are not expected to be all-knowing, all-seeing experts ready to manage any contingency. Rather, they are at the very beginning of their professional journey, on the first rung of the ladder, trusted to do some things under close supervision, other things under indirect supervision, and a small number of things independently.
This description of a professional still using training wheels is often at odds with expectations held by customers on dive boats.
On the boats I work, I begin my dive brief by stating my expectation that, based on the credentials and information they provided, the customers are certified divers capable of planning and executing a recreational dive using the buddy system, navigating their way back to the boat, staying within no decompression limits, ascending at a safe rate, performing a safety stop and managing their air so they return to the boat with at least 500 psi.
If customers can do the things certified divers should be able to do, the role of the divemaster is fairly straightforward.
However, when customers come aboard charter boats without the skills or experience to manage their own dives, they sometimes expect divemasters to provide a higher level of independent supervision to a larger number of people in real world dives than divemasters are expected to provide in controlled training environments. It would not be surprising if some recently minted DMs are not able to meet this heightened expectation.
Maybe the problem is not just the qualifications of DMs, but also the qualifications of OW and AOW divers.
The list of duties spells out what functions a divemaster can perform at which stages of which training programs with what ratios and what level of supervision from an instructor. For example: "Accompany Open Water Diver students under the instructor's indirect supervision during surface swims to and from the entry/exit point and during navigational exercises; as well as supervising remaining students when the instructor conducts a skill."
As this example shows, the general tone of the job description is that divemasters are not expected to be all-knowing, all-seeing experts ready to manage any contingency. Rather, they are at the very beginning of their professional journey, on the first rung of the ladder, trusted to do some things under close supervision, other things under indirect supervision, and a small number of things independently.
This description of a professional still using training wheels is often at odds with expectations held by customers on dive boats.
On the boats I work, I begin my dive brief by stating my expectation that, based on the credentials and information they provided, the customers are certified divers capable of planning and executing a recreational dive using the buddy system, navigating their way back to the boat, staying within no decompression limits, ascending at a safe rate, performing a safety stop and managing their air so they return to the boat with at least 500 psi.
If customers can do the things certified divers should be able to do, the role of the divemaster is fairly straightforward.
However, when customers come aboard charter boats without the skills or experience to manage their own dives, they sometimes expect divemasters to provide a higher level of independent supervision to a larger number of people in real world dives than divemasters are expected to provide in controlled training environments. It would not be surprising if some recently minted DMs are not able to meet this heightened expectation.
Maybe the problem is not just the qualifications of DMs, but also the qualifications of OW and AOW divers.
I already expressed my opinion. Although in most agencies a DM si considered LESS than an instructor, and just above a recreational diver, I think that a DM should be the highest grade in the ladder. And this corresponds to my personal experience.
I started diving at 16 y.o., and at 20 y.o. I was already a certified instructor, and started holding courses and releasing certifications. 2 years later I became a 2-stars instructor, and other 2 years later, at 24, I became a full 3-stars instructor, and promoted to be the director of the diving school of my town (Parma).
But still I was NOT a DM, and I was not ready for conducting a group of divers in a real deep dive in the sea.
And only after other 2 years of experience, at 26, I started working in touristic resorts as a dive master, and only after being introduced to this job through an accelerated on-site course done at the first resort where I worked, under the guidance of the lead DM working there, the mythical Uako.
And, despite this very long training before becoming a DM, I am sure I was only an "average" one. In fact I made a number of errors when doing that work, luckily all without sever consequences. But in the end I gave up after 5 years, because the responsibility is really overwhelming, and being a good DM is really, really hard.
In conclusion, I think that finding a good DM is not so easy, as in most case this is a job done for too little wage by people who simply love diving and cannot afford to spend months doing holidays.
On the other side, as a recreational diver (a customer, let's say) one should not expect too much. In practice, better to being trained to be fully self-reliant, and to consider the DM just as another fellow diver who simply knows the diving site better than you, so you follow him or her just for your convenience, and not for your safety. Your safety should be entirely in your hands, and never reliant on other one's skillness, over which you cannot count on.
I started diving at 16 y.o., and at 20 y.o. I was already a certified instructor, and started holding courses and releasing certifications. 2 years later I became a 2-stars instructor, and other 2 years later, at 24, I became a full 3-stars instructor, and promoted to be the director of the diving school of my town (Parma).
But still I was NOT a DM, and I was not ready for conducting a group of divers in a real deep dive in the sea.
And only after other 2 years of experience, at 26, I started working in touristic resorts as a dive master, and only after being introduced to this job through an accelerated on-site course done at the first resort where I worked, under the guidance of the lead DM working there, the mythical Uako.
And, despite this very long training before becoming a DM, I am sure I was only an "average" one. In fact I made a number of errors when doing that work, luckily all without sever consequences. But in the end I gave up after 5 years, because the responsibility is really overwhelming, and being a good DM is really, really hard.
In conclusion, I think that finding a good DM is not so easy, as in most case this is a job done for too little wage by people who simply love diving and cannot afford to spend months doing holidays.
On the other side, as a recreational diver (a customer, let's say) one should not expect too much. In practice, better to being trained to be fully self-reliant, and to consider the DM just as another fellow diver who simply knows the diving site better than you, so you follow him or her just for your convenience, and not for your safety. Your safety should be entirely in your hands, and never reliant on other one's skillness, over which you cannot count on.
Blackcrusader
Contributor
I dive in South East Asia and Taiwan. I have found local guides to be quite excellent divers mostly. A lot of them have 10,000 - 15,000 dives. The DM's in SEA I have found not so good as those people who came on their Asian Sojourn and decided to try diving. Then then go on with getting to DM and instructor in the shortest possible time without buildup of years of experience who are in fact not very good divers. They have the bling but very little experience.
IMHO, the qualifications of all DM's are a direct result of the Instructor whom signed their card.
I feel the standards are fine across most organizations in diving. What isn't fine, is the quality of instruction and the level at which those standards are held. If we as a collective community want to make any change we can start by holding those involved to the standard as it is written.
Someone being a DM, AI, or an Instructor bears no weight to me. You are judged on your skill set alone. With that being said. All of the issues discussed so far in this thread would be solved if Instructor Trainers held all of their students to the highest practical standard (instructors). Inversely, if all Instructors then held their students to that same high standard, we could remedy a large majority of issues. That isn't however what happens in reality.
I feel the standards are fine across most organizations in diving. What isn't fine, is the quality of instruction and the level at which those standards are held. If we as a collective community want to make any change we can start by holding those involved to the standard as it is written.
Someone being a DM, AI, or an Instructor bears no weight to me. You are judged on your skill set alone. With that being said. All of the issues discussed so far in this thread would be solved if Instructor Trainers held all of their students to the highest practical standard (instructors). Inversely, if all Instructors then held their students to that same high standard, we could remedy a large majority of issues. That isn't however what happens in reality.
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