Why did you go pro?

[Randy43068]

I did it to get the girls.

I really like diving and I want to be part of the effort to bring new divers into the sport/hobby/obsession or whatever we call it.

For me, helping people become divers is a really fun and satisfying thing to do.

 

[j yaeger]

...needed good dive buddies....
sometimes,it's just easier to do things yourself!!!!!

have fun
yaeg

 

[RTee]

I basically did it for a couple of reasons. First one, my friends kept assigning me inexperienced folks to buddy with because they thought I was very well organized, safe and methodical diver. In fact they thought I had a much higher rating than I really had at the time (only OW) and they had significantly more dives than I did. The I decided to go after courses to enable me to support the type of diving I was after...deep, EAN to dive on deep recreational wrecks. RD became the next logical choice and then somebody suggested if I was already there, then I should consider DM...which I finaly did with over 200 dives under my belt. My next step will be to assist instructors friends for a while and then see. Meanwhile I elected to start pursuing the technical side with Adv EAN/Deco and will prob look at extended range, wrecks and Cavern before deciding if I ever one to take the stride to become an instructor.

 

[Thalassamania]

It seemed like a good idea, at the time. It likely was. Today, I doubt that I'd bother.

 

[Quero]

I did it after a long career in education. I got certified on a whim and over the next several years did courses through Rescue and a whole lot of dive travel since I was living in SE Asia--where we have amazing diving. One of my instructors, who was running a dive center where I'd go for weekend diving kept telling me that as I was already a successful teacher, and he felt a skillful diver, the transition to teaching scuba would be easy. I eventually burned out in my longtime career (I had been working at a Ministry of Education and writing books and running conferences and sitting on boards of directors, etc.) and decided to focus on scuba, became a DM and about 6 months later an instructor. I started my own small independent dive school, eased out of my education career, and so far so good!

 

[turnerjd]

For me it was an issue of independence.

The OW, AOW and rescue levels teach you very much how to behave in the water and successfully perform any given dive, and at the same time take care of any incidents that happen. But you are still in many ways dependent upon somebody telling you where and when to dive, getting you there, and looking after you to a greater or lesser extent.

For me the DM level was about taking that next step. It was a training in how to go out and manage a dive myself. From starting with a guidebook, deciding where to dive, then the emergency action plan, then arriving at the site and organizing how to do the dive, and finally doing the actual dive in safety without anybody else helping / supervising.

Now, 11 years after I qualified as a DM I don't do classes or anything (although they were good fun). I just go off and dive with friends, knowing we can do it safely.

HTH

Jon

 

[Teller]

I thought all divers go pro after 50 dives?

 

[turnerjd]

I thought all divers go pro after 50 dives?

Most divers have just about learned the difference between their arse and their elbow after 50 dives..................

There is no way that any diver can have seen and properly experienced a wide enough range of conditions and dive sites in only 50 dives to be successfully leading divers - although I think that PADI and I differ on this opinion!

Jon

 

[Randy43068]

Pssst. It was humor.. you know, funny? Joke?

Most divers have just about learned the difference between their arse and their elbow after 50 dives..................

There is no way that any diver can have seen and properly experienced a wide enough range of conditions and dive sites in only 50 dives to be successfully leading divers - although I think that PADI and I differ on this opinion!

Jon

 

[turnerjd]

Yeah I know, but there wasn't and arse and elbow smiley, or one being vageuly lost, that I could use after that sentence

Jon