Should I strive for divemaster?

[topflowerrubberforever]

Hey all

I am thinking of spending 3 weeks to do my EFR Rescue and Divemaster course.. or at least as much as possible of them. What would the responsibilites of a DM be? I plan to do a lot of diving in the next year and the best way to do that for free is by doing a DM internship with my LDS. I'm not just thinking of doing the course for the free dives but for the experience I can recieve.. Should I go for it? Is 3 weeks enough to do those if I am diving almost everyday?

Thanks a lot

Jalal

 

[subaquaman]

Jalal,

I'd definately recommend doing the three courses if you have the right approach to them, and by your post, you seem to have just that. By doing the Divemaster, you need to be prepared to help other divers, likely more inexperienced and less well trained than you, but you should, with the right attitude see this as a learning experience for yourself and enjoy assisting other divers as much as you enjoy diving. It definitely is the best way to dive straight for a year, in a professional capacity and also provides you with a wealth of experience for the rest of your diving career. If you are open to assisting other divers and learning new ways, then definitely go for it.... you will enjoy it!

Best of luck in whatever you choose!

 

[Ian T]

I just finished my DM. I didn't rush it - didn't set a time limit. The more experience you have - the better you will feel supervising/helping divers. Remember that the (more inexperienced) divers will look at you to solve all - ALL - their problems.
Best of luck - it's fun...

 

[Diver0001]

Hey all

I am thinking of spending 3 weeks to do my EFR Rescue and Divemaster course.. or at least as much as possible of them. What would the responsibilites of a DM be? I plan to do a lot of diving in the next year and the best way to do that for free is by doing a DM internship with my LDS. I'm not just thinking of doing the course for the free dives but for the experience I can recieve.. Should I go for it? Is 3 weeks enough to do those if I am diving almost everyday?

Thanks a lot

Jalal

It took me about three months to do my DM. The maping project alone took us something like 12 dives and 8 hours to put in in writing. If you have clear water you can do it faster. Studying for the tests (IIRC there were 4 of them) will take another week if you work at a steady tempo on it. I don't remember how many pool and theory sessions we had but I had a good count on the number of tiles on the bottom of the pool before we were done. I think we did something like 10 or 15 pool sessions. After that we did some scenarios that took 4 more whole weekends. At that point we were able to assist with real groups and then the real learning starts.

R..

 

[c-monkey]

Diving everyday for 3 weeks would probably be enough to finish up all the water work, the question would be whether you would have time to study for the exams and complete your mapping project at the same time.
Being a Divemaster for my LDS is extremely rewarding (much more so than I anticipated), it has really expanded my knowledge and experience level, and even makes those 'old' dive sites more interesting. We have great instructors to work with and there are enough of them (and students) to keep us plenty busy. Each instructor will have different expectations of the DM, it can be hard work but it's a blast and always educational!

 

[perpet1]

It seems like you have a reason to do it that goes beyond "I want the card because it is cool". Too many people do it for just that reason not understanding that there is a liability associated with it as well as additional responsibility.

If you have a good reason to do it then go for it. If you are just doing it for a status thing or for the card then don't bother because it really means little as far as status goes. It is that simple.