What makes a master diver?

[Curt Bowen]

Certification cards don’t mean crap. I know excellent openwater divers with a boatload full of experience that I would be happy diving with and I know dive instructors that I would not set in a hot tub with who still cannot dive to save their own butts.

Certification in today’s dive world carries zero weight; in fact I consider it just the opposite.

 

[fisheyeview]

If it is a PadI Master Diver, a credit card is all that is needed.

If it is otherwise meant to be meaningful then it would require hundreds of dives in many different diving environments and perhaps pier recommendations.

N

Why would you need a recommendation from a dock?

 

[ClayJar]

PADI Master Diver? Taking some specialties and paying a fee.

NAUI Master Scuba Diver? Taking a whole course which may not be as in-depth as a college for-credit course but which is certainly packed with knowledge compared to others. I don't think, for example, that there's a PADI Physics specialty (that information is reserved for PADI Divemaster), but diving physics is certainly a significant portion of NAUI MSD (physiology is another doozie). Also, my shop won't allow you in the NAUI MSD course until you have at least 50 dives, as you need experience in order to understand and participate in the discussions which made up the most significant portion of the course.

A true master diver? Having all the basic knowledge you'd get from NAUI Master Scuba Diver, PADI Divemaster, or equivalent, plus all the additional knowledge you deem relevant to add to those basics. Additionally, having the in-water skills you'd have wanted your instructors to have (whether they were exemplary displays of such or rather thorough counterexamples). So, basically, having the education, training, and experience to have an innate sense of diving, a comprehensive understanding of the science of diving, and jealousy-inspiring skills proficiency (such as that which is able to make new and old divers alike drool through their regulators and think, "I want to be like that, someday").

 

[diver 85]

With 40 dives over 2 yrs I still consider myself a new diver. Recently I decided to get my AOW, thru my local dive shop.This is mandatory for some of the dives I want to do. On 2 seperate occasions I have been buddied up, by the instructor, with people going for their master diver cards. I should mention that I dive in N.J. where wreck diving can be disorienting with bad viz. Both times my buddies had a minimal number of dives and none in the Atlantic. Should it be this easy to be able to call yourself a master diver? My local shop advises people to do their AOW and master diver at the same time. One of the guys had only ever dived in a quarry before being my buddy.

a few bucks out of one pocket & into an other pocket.......Don't think there's much to it, in reality.....

 

[crpntr133]

Post Deleted

 

[Paco II]

Ultimately any level of certification doesn't mean that much. Experience and frequency of diving is what matters.

 

[markfm]

With PADI, you also need a minimum of 50 logged dives, along with the 5 specialties and Rescue.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

You honestly think that just being NAUI makes a difference? You know you can find lousy NAUI instructors just like you can find lousy PADI instructors and you can find great PADI instructors as you can with NAUI. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's a PADI vs. NAUI deal.

I don't think cards mean squat. But if you find good instructors to get the training you need to do the diving you want to do and if that instruction has a card that comes with it, so be it. But just switching to NAUI isn't going to solve all your problems.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I think it's funny that when Master Diver comes up everyone jumps on PADI. The SSI and SDI Master Diver programs are exactly like PADI's. NAUI's is a bit different, but you can get it with alot fewer dives. So which is better? I think they all overstate the accomplishment. I'd prefer that they all change their Master Diver name to Advanced Diver and changed Advanced to Intermediate.

In my mind Master Diver would involve a third party assessment of both number of dives and diversity of diving experiences. I don't think 500 dives in Grand Cayman can compare to 500 made up of both warm and cold, fresh and salt, shallow and deep, current and no current, low viz and high viz, boat and shore, etc.

I'm not sure what the cut-off would be, but I know that I personally listen a bit more attentively to those divers I know have 500+ dives in many types of conditions over many years of continuous diving. I guess that would be the closest I can come to my definition of a Master Diver.

 

[emcbride81]

I agree hoosier...it more important to be a good student and have a good teacher than to be PADI/NAUI or whatever.