Personally, I had over 100 dives in several different environments and locations before I became a DM.
There's a lot of good advice and comment here. But what really matters is someone's attitude to their diving and to their DM responsibilities. There's a real need to recognise limitations and understand that being a DM (or any other dive professional) has everything to do with serving other divers - and nothing to do with ticking personal boxes or keeping score on dive magnificence.
And let's not forget (as someone indicated) undergoing DM training doesn't have to take you into professional commitment. It can be an excellent way of improving your personal dive knowledge and enriching your whole personal dive experience. The only catch with this one, if you don't get insurance cover and maintain PADI membership, you must be very careful that friendly advice imparted to other divers is not misconstrued as instruction.
There's a lot of good advice and comment here. But what really matters is someone's attitude to their diving and to their DM responsibilities. There's a real need to recognise limitations and understand that being a DM (or any other dive professional) has everything to do with serving other divers - and nothing to do with ticking personal boxes or keeping score on dive magnificence.
And let's not forget (as someone indicated) undergoing DM training doesn't have to take you into professional commitment. It can be an excellent way of improving your personal dive knowledge and enriching your whole personal dive experience. The only catch with this one, if you don't get insurance cover and maintain PADI membership, you must be very careful that friendly advice imparted to other divers is not misconstrued as instruction.