Here's my story:
Several years ago, I decided that I wanted to become a dive master. To be honest, part of the reason was to try to get some “free” dive trips but I also wanted to prepare for a fun job to do after an eventual early retirement from my office job. The plan, in the not-to-distant future, was to get out from behind the desk as soon as my son graduated from university.
The physical tests, drills and internship of the dive master program were fairly tough but not extremely difficult. The classroom lessons took a lot of studying but, again, the work was manageable. The problem was that also working a very busy full-time job during the week. Also, I am so competitive that I hate it when anyone else in the class does better than me on a test or a drill. Therefore I was working twice as hard as I might have needed to work. After one arduous week, everything seemed to be getting tougher – then the light bulb went off in my head. Here is my story about that epiphany which I wrote at the time:
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It’s 8:30 on Monday morning and I’m riding the lift up to my office. I’m damned tired and I’m not looking forward to the week. Last week, I was really busy at work but I still had to do the pool sessions on Wednesday and Thursday nights until 10:00pm to help Open Water students practice their drills. When I got home on Thursday night, I had to pack for a dive trip to Tioman on a live-aboard out of Mersing. As part of my dive master training, I, of course, had to lug gear all around and help both students and advanced divers as well as the boat boys with all kinds of things that would have worn me out even 20 years ago. As I got on the lift on that Monday morning, I was thinking to myself that, at 45, I may just be too old to be a dive master student.
There are five other people on the lift. The two going to the 32nd floor are obviously colleagues of each other and the remaining three, who are going up to the 41st floor, must also work together. They are all asking each other what they did over the weekend. The first woman admits that she and her husband “did nothing” all weekend. Her colleague says he watched the Arsenal / Chelsea match on TV. Another guy says he just slept late into the afternoon on both days. One person did some window shopping while the last person actually said “I just read the newspapers”.
What did I do over the weekend? I had a lot of fun. I also helped eleven people have a very enjoyable diving weekend. I helped one woman regain some confidence on her first dives after recovering from a bad decompression injury. I led another diver, on her last dive trip in Asia, to her first sightings of sharks (three at Renggis!) and a turtle (in fact, we saw five including one small Hawksbill with the tail of a fish still sticking out of his mouth at breakfast time). I helped educate some divers about the egg laying habits of cuttlefish.. I also helped make sure all the divers were safe and that they made it back to Singapore so they could tell exaggerated stories to their friends about the size of the sharks that we saw.
I also helped get some very apprehensive students to relax at 12 meters on their first open water dive. I helped make sure they were doing their drills properly so they could gain the confidence to dive. I gave advice to a newly certified diver on how she can make the most of her upcoming trip to the Maldives. I advised students on what equipment they each might need to buy first and how to make sure they were getting their money’s worth.
Suddenly, I started feeling a hell of a lot better on the lift. I remember the exuberance of the happy chatter I heard upon surfacing after one really great dive. I remember the awe I saw in the eyes of the students when they saw a “rock” swim away and change colors and texture (actually, it was a very well camouflaged cuttlefish). I remember the joy on everyone’s face when the last student hit bottom after 20 minutes of battling ear problems. I’m not so tired anymore. I’m now looking forward to the week because I have another pool session this week. I can’t wait.
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What has happened since that elevator ride? I did manage to pass the dive master class and I have since worked one or two weekends every month since then on dive trips to Malaysia. I also earned my Instructor’s card too. I still get goose bumps when I see the reaction of new divers after they see their first turtle, shark or even batfish. I also led a group of divers to the Maldives for a week. My goose bumps were considerably larger after seeing the reaction of seasoned divers seeing their first mantas (twenty at one cleaning station), whale sharks, octopi, dolphins, schools of eagle rays, intimately close encounters with Napoleon Wrasses, etc.
I feel that I have helped educate hundreds of divers about marine life as well as helping improve their diving skills. I have also helped ensure that they have had safe and enjoyable dive trips. Hopefully, that can be partially attributed to identifying risks and dealing with them before they are accidents although I know that luck is also part of the equation too.
I have greatly improved my own diving skills but that is not really something that they teach in the dive master course. I have improved by being constantly reminded that several divers are watching almost every move I make and they will likely try to imitate me. For example, I once knocked a crown-of-thorns off the reef with my pointer. During the next dive, another diver who had earlier seen me do this tried to move a different crown-of-thorns – bare-handed! Needless to say, I learned my lesson then that I better be doing everything by the book.
So, do I still enjoy the work? Without a doubt. It’s the best job in the world. I can’t wait to do it full-time. Is it for you? Maybe. If you want to do it just because you love diving as much as I do, save your money, don’t take the course and dive more often. If you really get a kick out of serving, educating and protecting fellow divers, being a dive master can’t be beat. You can tell by the smile on my face after every dive.
But seriously, as has been mentioned, if all one wants is to improve their diving skills, there are better routes then the DM/DiveCon one.
