I completed Master Scuba Diver requirements just under one year from getting my OW certification. I looked at is a goal. Since I was paying for the speciality courses anyway, the additional cost was to complete Rescue Diver, which is good to have anyway.
Right after completing MSD, I signed up for DM with a local dive shop. I thought it would be fun and give me the opportunity to lead trips and get free accomodation/meals. Ha! I completed all the classroom work and passed the written tests, but I knew I would have to work really hard to get good enough scores on the swim tests to pass. There is NO sliding scale for being female or older (I was 57 at the time), the times are the same. If I had known this at the beginning, I probably would not have paid the $400+ course fee and the additional several hundred dollars for course books and the e-dive planner. I arranged to do the internship and complete the swim tests with a dive shop in Kaui, since I planned to be there for 3 weeks. I did about a week of the internship with one instructor before the instructor who had originally certified me returned from leave. He asked me why I wanted to be a DM, and when I said for something to do in retirement, he pointed out that washing pee out of wetsuits and hauling tanks was not what he wanted to do in retirement. Also, that if you're only doing it part time, you'll just be doing the scut work for the instructors. Another instructor mentioned the annual cost to renew and insurance. Unless you're doing it full time (or, at least, on a regular basis), you won't recoup your costs. So I dropped out and spent the rest of my vacation enjoying my dives. Yes, the education was helpful, but as others have pointed out, you could just read the books and do the exercises. I've returned to the same dive shop every year since, and appreciate how hard the DMs work on the boat, loading gear, setting up, changing tanks, etc., not to mention the challenge of herding cats in the water. I can just relax on my dives, but I'm more aware of the possibilities for things to go wrong, conscious of what other divers are doing (especially when they're not following dive procedures or dive etiquette), but I also got a lot of this from the rescue diver training. In sum, I wouldn't do DM unless you plan to become and professional and use it to get to instructor training. I don't think MSD is a waste, but a certificate of accomplishment.
Right after completing MSD, I signed up for DM with a local dive shop. I thought it would be fun and give me the opportunity to lead trips and get free accomodation/meals. Ha! I completed all the classroom work and passed the written tests, but I knew I would have to work really hard to get good enough scores on the swim tests to pass. There is NO sliding scale for being female or older (I was 57 at the time), the times are the same. If I had known this at the beginning, I probably would not have paid the $400+ course fee and the additional several hundred dollars for course books and the e-dive planner. I arranged to do the internship and complete the swim tests with a dive shop in Kaui, since I planned to be there for 3 weeks. I did about a week of the internship with one instructor before the instructor who had originally certified me returned from leave. He asked me why I wanted to be a DM, and when I said for something to do in retirement, he pointed out that washing pee out of wetsuits and hauling tanks was not what he wanted to do in retirement. Also, that if you're only doing it part time, you'll just be doing the scut work for the instructors. Another instructor mentioned the annual cost to renew and insurance. Unless you're doing it full time (or, at least, on a regular basis), you won't recoup your costs. So I dropped out and spent the rest of my vacation enjoying my dives. Yes, the education was helpful, but as others have pointed out, you could just read the books and do the exercises. I've returned to the same dive shop every year since, and appreciate how hard the DMs work on the boat, loading gear, setting up, changing tanks, etc., not to mention the challenge of herding cats in the water. I can just relax on my dives, but I'm more aware of the possibilities for things to go wrong, conscious of what other divers are doing (especially when they're not following dive procedures or dive etiquette), but I also got a lot of this from the rescue diver training. In sum, I wouldn't do DM unless you plan to become and professional and use it to get to instructor training. I don't think MSD is a waste, but a certificate of accomplishment.
