Should I get DM cert (for fun), or something else?

[Marie13]

Can a DM class be fun? Sure. Will you learn some new skills? Probably not directly. You'll work on core recreational skills so you can do those to demonstration quality... You can spend your time in the water working on things like trim and positioning, but you'll learn far more from a properly taught cavern course.

I'd be suspicious of anyone who would let you take a cavern course in a single tank though. A single tank is within standards for most agencies, but if an instructor is willing to teach in a single tank, that probably isn't the best instructor for a cavern course.

OP is a recreational diver. If he doesn’t want to go tech, yet improve his skills, a single tank cavern course is a good option. Forcing someone to go doubles or sidemount just to get advanced training is stupid, when they wouldn’t be diving that configuration at all in the future.

Bill Ostreich (sp?), a long time FL cave instructor, teaches cavern single tank. I know people who’ve taken it with him. My Mexican full cave instructor teaches cavern single tank to recreational divers with no wish to go tech.

People can take Fundies single tank, don’t forget that.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

I’ll parrot what others have said, take a cavern course. IMO it will be more fun and rewarding than a DM course.

 

[VikingDives]

OP is a recreational diver. If he doesn’t want to go tech, yet improve his skills, a single tank cavern course is a good option. Forcing someone to go doubles or sidemount just to get advanced training is stupid, when they wouldn’t be diving that configuration at all in the future.

Bill Ostreich (sp?), a long time FL cave instructor, teaches cavern single tank. I know people who’ve taken it with him. My Mexican full cave instructor teaches cavern single tank to recreational divers with no wish to go tech.

People can take Fundies single tank, don’t forget that.

Of course there have to be some good instructors who would teach with single tanks, but as a rule, I'd say (and I did), that one should be suspicious of an instructor who would do so.

You can go from uncertified to full cave diver in 41 dives having taken cavern in a single tank, with a yoke reg/recreational hoses. It doesn't make it a good idea.

The OP wanted to improve his skills and talked about mastery. He's much more likely to find someone who's going to get him there by going above and beyond the minimum standards.

I have seen a whole lot of asshattery in caverns in Mexico and without fail, it's a bunch of single tank divers going places they shouldn't or doing things they shouldn't while following an instructor who's fully cave certified.

There's far less stupidity amongst the two tank crowd... If I recall correctly, as a PADI instructor, I can self-certify to teach cavern as long as I'm full cave trained. That's not so for TDI and other agencies, so again, I'd say a good rule of thumb would be, avoid PADI cavern classes. Not because there aren't good PADI instructors, but because the odds of finding a bad one are higher, as are the odds of finding a bad one if your instructor will let you take cavern with a single tank.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

I would recommend learning about rebreathers, gradient factors and physiology technical and deep diving in general. I don't dive a rebreather, nor do I do deep dives, but I found those subjects super fascinating to learn. Even if you don't do any tech diving in your life, I think you will enjoy having a deeper fundamental understand of scuba diving compared to a regular recreational diver.

As a great start, you can search on youtube videos by Simon Mitchell and go from there.

Edit: go thru old threads in the SB rebreather forum, there is so much interesting stuff in there

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

You can take a cavern course in back mount single tank. But if you have any interest in cave diving then plan for back mount doubles or sidemount. I am cave trained from Protec Tulum. They are a first class shop with XDeep gear. Understand that taking a cavern course in single tank and then deciding that Intro to Cave, Cave are of interest to, then some of the skills, drills you would normally learn in Cavern will need to be taught. Don't go purchase a sidemount rig and regs etc until you have been in an overhead environment and KNOW you like. My first experience in that kind of environment was a PADI Ice cert. Then in Mexico at Dos Ojos. I knew immediately when I was in Dos Ojos that this was something for me. Protec will have gear that you can try sidemount and take you out for a day.

 

[boulderjohn]

Any introductory technical diving class (including cavern) from any agency will vastly improve your skills and open you to possibilities that you can then explore in any direction you want.

You may also want to ask around at different shops. Many technical dive instructors offer specialty classes designed to introduce those skills to recreational divers without having them go fully into a tech program.

 

[Angelo Farina]

I would recommend learning about rebreathers, gradient factors and physiology technical and deep diving in general. I don't dive a rebreather, nor do I do deep dives, but I found those subjects super fascinating to learn. Even if you don't do any tech diving in your life, I think you will enjoy having a deeper fundamental understand of scuba diving compared to a regular recreational diver.

As a great start, you can search on youtube videos by Simon Mitchell and go from there.

Edit: go thru old threads in the SB rebreather forum, there is so much interesting stuff in there

I agree entirely. All these topics were part of the program of my first OW course in 1975, and they were very useful for further improvements. Particularly the training done with CC rebreathers was very useful, even if thereafter I almost never used rebreathers for real diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

I agree entirely. All these topics were part of the program of my first OW course in 1975

You learned about gradient factors in your OW class in 1975? That certainly was an advanced class, in more ways than one!

 

[Shafqat Ahmed]

Wow thank you everyone for all the great responses! I have a bunch of options to research now!

 

[Subcooled]

Mate just go do the DM for both fun and for something else

A DM status also comes with a yearly membership fee and, in the U.S., insurance costs.
You might consider CMAS ***
or perhaps the rather decent Start the fascinating SSI Science of Diving Specialty – Get certified with SSI