Dive Master duties

[TSandM]

I think this fellow was wearing too many hats, but I empathize with him. I would suspect that selling videos is a large part of the income he gets -- in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he goes largely or completely unpaid by the operator except for that income. And, as you said, it would be relatively unusual (or at least one would hope it would be) to have a student in a formal class on such dives, so this may have been an unwelcome thing dropped in his lap by his employer.

Like you, I more or less expect that guides on such dives will help us see cryptic critters we would otherwise miss, and I would have been mildly annoyed if the guide was producing video for sale which interfered with him doing that, unless it was made clear at the outset that he was not really guiding. It's kind of all about expectations. But the student was getting shortchanged, for sure, if he was swimming around videoing the group for a sales tape. AOW can really be a joke if the instructor approaches it that way.

 

[TMHeimer]

I voted no. Not sure if the DM has one of those GoPro things on the mask. That would seem OK, but why would you do that anyway? I've seen the odd student with one of those and it didn't seem to affect anything, but they just wanted a record of their checkout dives. Again, why would a DM who does this all the time want that?

 

[Centrals]

Keep it simple:
Dive guide should only concentrate on guiding.
Instructor should only concentrate on teaching.
Leave the video to someone else.
Totally unacceptable.

 

[bakodiver391]

Think of it as buying the services of a professional for an hour. Would you be happy if you had a session with your lawyer and he spent most of the time on a computer drafting a contract for someone else? With a DM you have purchased his services to guide you the best he knows how, and any distraction or added duties he performs are stealing his services from you. A cameraman should be a separate person.

 

[Freewillow]

It is funny. One person so far was positive and found it TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE. But if I am not mistaken, no reasons were given. it would have been interesting to get his - different - point of view.

 

[Doc]

Vacationers doing warm-water-pretty-fish diving make a huge assumption that the guy in the water with you is a Certified DM and then they take the additional leap an assume he is watching over you 100% and will save you from everything. Many of these customers assume he will be in the role of Instructor.


Many local dive guides are not certified as DMs, but they certainly have the skill set... mostly. Their biggest deficit is limited local knowledge, I have seen this specifically in the Maldives where the DM/Dive Guides seem to be extremely transitory. In other locales, the DM/DG is a good diver but his naturalist knowledge base comes from his prior life of fishing. Not to hip on the cool little stuff.

Every dive is a solo dive.

 

[KeithG]

i did not vote as i considered the question ambiguous.

1) teaching and video is a total NO.

2) DM serving as a dive guide can do anything they want. who cares. they are just another diver in the big pool. they should be free to do anything they want as they really have no duties other than optional tour guide.

3) paid DM needs to do what i asked them to do (within reason)

 

[TMHeimer]

I'll throw in this--There may be a difference if the DM is not involved in assisting with a course--just acting as DM on a charter--a guide, etc. I have read that in some places the DM does "out of water" supervision--that is, staying on the boat. This may be because there are several buddy teams diving, so the DM can't be with all of them anyway. I would think an inexperienced buddy team may be safer with a DM who is with them and using a GoPro on his mask (or not) than having the DM on the boat. Still don't think the DM should be videoing.

 

[Doctorfish]

This is a simple issue of task overload. It is impossible to guide, teach and do video ( apart from head mounted go pro ) at the same time. The students were shortchanged here, The other divers who expected a guide or supervisor, less so. It's nice to have a DM in the water with you on a recreational dive in strange waters. not essential; but at the end of the day, the divers are responsible for their own safety and what they might see.

I've been on dives where a DM was doing video or lion fish hunting and they were totally absorbed in their own activities. Didn't matter to me but could have been a disaster if an inexperienced diver ran into trouble and no one to help them.
Other times, I've been out with a DM who had a camera or video that he/she used intermittently, and pointed out the subjects to the other divers. That was fine IMO.

Many div ops in the tropics advertise guided dives. A DM shooting serious video is not guiding.

 

[Freewillow]

Thanks to most of you guys . We are sharing the same opinion: cannot be good at taking 3 separate tasks at once