For the NAUI MSD, in the course I took, it covered just about all the skills required from the DM course I took, plus there was a bunch of apnea work, general skills work in the pool, rescue scenarios, search and recovery scenarios, limited visibility work, a good deal of navigation, plus a boatload of classroom stuff. I had a great and demanding instructor, not to say that I didn't have an equally great instructor for DM too, but I just felt the NAUI MSD was a more demanding program all around.
The whole issue of having demonstration quality skills for DM is that they are teaching elements and are exaggerated, the expectation is that the a DM candidate has the basic skills down pat and then some, so learning how to exaggerate a skill for demonstration purposes may make some better at demoing a skill but it does not make one a better diver overall. All the "skills" a PADI DM is required to master to demonstration quality are all skills relevant to teaching basic open water students...one should expect that a DM candidate has these skills in their arsenal and can properly execute them, the DM course should only teach and reinforce how to explain and demonstrate them to students.
Perhaps it is just my opinion but when someone signs up for a DM course, they are stating they are ready to be a professional...they are stating that they believe their skill set is of high enough caliber that they should be considered as a candidate for this training course....the focus of the course is not about developing the candidates skills as a diver, it is designed to teach how to manage things above and below the surface. The course tests a bunch of stuff and if a candidate is deficient in an area they should go dive more and work on brushing up on those things that they had issues with. For instance, navigation is an important skill for DM to have, but the DM course is not where you learn navigation, it is where your navigation skills are put to the test. If one has issues with navigating in various conditions underwater then that candidate needs to go work on that to improve and comeback to their DM instructor to be challenged/tested again. PADI offers a navigation specialty certification course, the DM candidate is expected to know and understand and be able to execute the basic skills taught in that course and then go work on them to refine and build on that experience BEFORE they raise their hand and say they are ready to be a divemaster....the DM course should then evaluate their skill/acumen and provide feedback on where they are deficient, then the candidate should be able to take that feedback and digest it and apply while working outside the context of the DM course to raise their skill level to a professional caliber. Otherwise a DM course is just pumping out monkeys that have mediocre diving skills but can demonstrate stuff really well. There are plenty of monkeys in the water already.
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