I am now a Master Scuba Diver (Wow! Impressive!)

[Gilldiver]

Just Remember

A Master Diver in:

PADI = A Congratulations (well PADI does call it a rating). If you have the required number of courses, pay your money and get a card

NAUI = A Certification. You actually have to take an additional course and show some skills.

US NAVY = A Qualification. A very hard one to achieve and will take you many years to do it.

Don’t ever say you are a “Master Diver” around any Navy Divers, they will either know/do any of the following:
Know you are a jerk
Laugh you out of the bar
Make you buy a very expensive round at the bar and then laugh you out of it.

 

[jrc]

Should have saved your money and gone diving

 

[drydiver]

Just Remember

A Master Diver in:

PADI = A Congratulations (well PADI does call it a rating). If you have the required number of courses, pay your money and get a card

NAUI = A Certification. You actually have to take an additional course and show some skills.

US NAVY = A Qualification. A very hard one to achieve and will take you many years to do it.

Don’t ever say you are a “Master Diver” around any Navy Divers, they will either know/do any of the following:
Know you are a jerk
Laugh you out of the bar
Make you buy a very expensive round at the bar and then laugh you out of it.

First, Congratulations on your MD!!

Second, LOL, this guy is right

Personally, I have enough "observed under instructor" dives to qualify for MD under PADI, but never filed the paperwork. I have experienced both excellent specialty instructors and "paperwork only" instructors for my specialties. Both have greatly inspired and educated me in my dive experience, even if somehow disqualifying by PADI standards.

I can appreciate "land locked" divers and their quest to become better divers given their geographic/income/vacation time limitations.

I also appreciate the liability/insta-buddy sentiments relayed here. Although locally, I would mentor a new diver, as an insta-buddy outside my local dive community, I would probably not relay my skills beyond AOW, on vacation, regardless of my cert level at that time.

Happy Diving,
Donna

 

[r4e]

I think the term Master Scuba Diver could be misleading as you can get this handle with less than a years experience and less than a 100 dives.

Certainly would not think of myself as a Master Scuba Diver with 5 years experience and over 300 dives along with my tech certs, certainly a long way to go before I become a Master of anything related to diving, but them maybe I'm a slow learner ;-)

I fully agree with this. The further I get (280 dives in 3 years and now finishing Normoxic Trimix), the more I feel am still at "Learning to Dive" level. Hopefully I will some day reach "Average Diver" level. There are so many skills to perfect that I feel being a proper "Master Diver" is faraway in the future.

That is why I have intentionally postponed, now for 2 years, my last PADI PAID course in order to avoid accidentally becoming a MSD. My original target was to become a MSD in one year, but, then I realized there is much more to diving than this. Perhaps I should remove the "PAID" remark, because I have paid and expect to pay serious money on the more demanding courses by other diving organisations. And the course costs are just peanuts compared to other costs of this some-might-say expensive hobby...

 

[sabbath999]

Whoa, Night Of The Living Thread... this came in my "weekly update post email" thing I get every Sunday, and I was thinking to myself "I don't recall posting on somebody's master scuba diver thread recently..." I checked back and I found it was mine from a year and a half ago.

How fun.

OK, here's an update. They did send more stuff, a patch and a bunch more "go pro" stuff and a mesh bag which I actually use to store my spare hoses and gauges in. Exciting, eh?

I tend to cary the "Master Scuba Diver" card because people look at it and then don't generally ask me to do "skills tests" when on dives like they do for people who don't dive much if the dive is guided (which I try to avoid).

When and if I ever get my Full Cave card, you can bet your life that THAT is the one I am going to show people... except, perhaps, in tropical locations where I may use my "Ice Diver" specialty card just to watch them shiver