Skip PADI Master Diver and go for Rescue then DM?

[Simon-]

You need rescue for either Master Diver or Divemaster, and you should do that regardless.

Master Diver isn't useful for anything, divemaster is only useful if you want to teach. Neither will do anything to make you a better diver.

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It sounds like you didn't think too highly of your tech training, which is too bad. Well trained tech divers make better recreational divers than well trained recreational divers. Period. There is more thorough behaviors and more rigid protocols that, when committed to muscle memory, make your diving - regardless of the depth or profile - safer.

Suggesting that a recreational diver couldn't benefit from learning technical protocols is borderline irresponsible as an instructor.

I think a lot of my tec training, but I did it to be able to tec dive, not for improvement in recreational diving. I haven't suggested anywhere that someone wouldn't learn from a tec course, what I have said is taking the course purely for the sake of the course is not ideal.

If someone wants to learn to tec dive, yes the training will transcend across to their recreational diving, but again, not to do a course just for a courses sake. If that is irresponsible, then so be it.

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If I wanted to be a better car driver I would not learn to drive a tank. But I would take a professional racing course even if I never intended to race on the track at all.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Hmm, toe and heel techniques for automatic vehicles on the road??? Bit of an over-kill.

Personally, I took an advanced driving course and the advanced driving test in the UK.

 

[mdax]

Rescue is a good course, you should definitely take it.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Well long term my interests are wreck and cave diving. From what I have seen and heard, tech diving skills are beneficial for wreck and cave diving. My next step is to take the Rescue Dive training and then a wreck dive class and intro cave class. Figure then I can take the basic tech dive courses from GUE or TDI. PADI has some like TEC45 but not sure how good these are compared to GUE/TDI. I am patient and not in a mad rush or anything. I try to dive weekends and do some trips each year that helps a lot. I learned a lot in Bonaire on improving my buoyancy skills and navigation.

 

[Simon-]

If you are interested in tec diving, then yes, without a doubt take the training. It will benefit you (despite what others think I said).

Good luck in whichever path you take

 

[MegaBMan25]

IMHO i would go to rescue then decide what you want. I got rescue certified and i am working on my MSD. You can do the extra specialties without getting the MSD rating. I felt going for MSD and doing the specialties gives me more dives in specific types of dives gives me more training and experience in those specialties which can translate to DM. After i do my MSD i will probably do DM in a year or so. It all depends on what you want out of it. Personally i want to have a solid skill base in the types of dives i normally do and i feel i don't have the chops for teaching( advancing beyond DM) and want more experience before i advance. Plus I want to still have fun and not teach classes while i am on vacation. Again my opinion.

 

[Dive the World]

I completed AOW and 2 specialty courses (Nitrox+Digital Photographer) and have 40 dives under my belt. Would it be better to go for Rescue Diver and get another 40-50 dives then go for DM training and skip the other 3 specialty courses? I have done 15+ deep dives and several night dives so I really don't see the value in paying $500+ to PADI to get the Master Scuba Diver rating. Rather, get another 30+ dives in, Rescue Diver and Dive Master would open more doors for me as a diver. Thoughts?

its clear you don't want to do MD - and your logic is sound for not doing it.

Go for rescue - it will add to your diving skill set and many way

 

[TSandM]

Ben, I'm glad you're thinking about continuing your training. Anything you do where you learn something is valuable!

I agree with everybody who has said that Rescue is a great class. It doesn't really do anything for your personal diving skills, but it starts the process of looking at a dive a bit differently, in terms of what the hazards are and what your resources are in that place. It can also be an eye-opener to see how shaky some of your basic emergency skills are, if you haven't practiced them since open water.

The PADI Master Diver card is not a class, but merely a card that sums up the fact that you have done a certain amount of training. I was eligible for it, but couldn't figure out why I would spend the money on a card, when I could just show someone the other cards that added up to the same thing.

As everyone else has said, DM is a class you take to prepare you for working with students or guiding divers. It ALSO does not address your personal diving skills, although the internship part of the class certainly starts to hone your situational awareness, at least in some areas. Some people will say that DM made them polish their skills, but all too often, what that really means is that they got EXTREMELY good at going through a skill very slowly and methodically, with exaggeration, when planted firmly on the bottom of the pool. To me, that's not skills improvement.

If I remember correctly, you are in the Bay Area. In that case, you have very easy access to some extremely well-trained divers. I would highly suggest getting in touch with either Don Chennavasin (ae3753 here on SB -- I'm not sure how much Don is diving these days) or Rob Lee (rhlee here on SB) and see if you can set up a day of Monterey diving with one of them. I'm quite sure you would find it interesting and instructive. If your goal is cave diving, there is no time like right now to begin building good skills and good habits. Unlike Simon, I feel there is a LOT in technical diving instruction that is applicable to, and improves recreational diving -- but there is no need to learn those things in doubles. More rigorous dive planning, better team communication, stronger buoyancy skills and better tolerance of task loading, and increased situational awareness are extremely useful to the recreational diver. You can work on those things in a Fundamentals or Essentials class in a way that may be difficult to find in other curricula.

 

[Simon-]

What part of "don't do a tec course for the sake of the course" are people not getting?

Once the OP had expressed an interest in tec, I said great, the skills will transcend.

Why spend money on a course if you are not interested in pursuing that avenue of diving?

At present, I have no desire to do CCR. Does that mean I should do a CCR course to see the difference in buoyancy control, planning, logistics etc? No, if the time comes when I want to go down that route, then I'll do the training.

If someone is tec trained, there will be benefits to their diving, goes without saying, but to suggest that tec training is the optimum route before knowing the type of diving the OP wanted to do is jumping the gun.

 

[k ellis]

Just to touch on my earlier comment and a few that followed. I took the MSD course and despite so many negative reviews of it found it really worth while. Now to pay money just to get a rating handed to you did seem like a bad idea but I relished the fact that I could show people I was serious about diving and hand them only one card rather then go for the 8 pieces of plastic I would otherwise have to show.

Now when I went Divemaster it was for my own personal reasons but mostly because I could not swim prior to becoming a divemaster and I wanted to push myself to my very limits so I could say that I could overcome any obsticle if I could learn how to swim.

My Diveshop owner was amazing and so was the instructor working with me as I was not the most friendliest I had ever been because I had to push fear and I had to push stamina in ways that I never even attempted and I had to push them both at the same time. They are still some of my best friends and some of the best people I know and we even still cut up all the time together. It made me a better person in life I think and have no doubt it was my best decision I have ever made coming to diving.

Now is it an increased liability just being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Some one dies who was not diving with you as a buddy but on the same boat as an example) Yes because a good lawyer will see you carry insurance and try to say you should have been more attentive despite having no real obligation to do anything more then just enjoy the dive (This example is simply your on vacation and not working) Will they win? In America no one can ever say.

Diving can be a source of a little money and for a retired or wealthy person it can be a wonderful way to just enjoy life and make a little cheese but remember diving is a recreation and meant to be fun. So make your choices about where you go based on what you want to do and not what everyone else thinks.

 

[mathauck0814]

I relished the fact that I could show people I was serious about diving and hand them only one card rather then go for the 8 pieces of plastic I would otherwise have to show.

Does the Master Diver card indicate what the specialties are that you completed? Otherwise you're still going to have to carry the cards. No charter I know of will accept a Master Diver card when a EANx card is required.