Advancing diver...

[Oceangirl94]

Hey!

So I got my open water certification earlier this year. I LOVE diving and when I got my open water certification I talked to my instructor and he said that he would work with me through graduation and help me get to master diver status or further. I know that to become advanced you have to take four or five specialties but am unsure of which ones I should get. What do you guys recommend? Are there specific ones that I HAVE to get? Thanks for the help!

Sorry I forgot to specify that I am SDI certified!

 

[00wabbit]

Hi Oceangirl


I was like you, and I still am! 2 years later.

There are a lot of various classes to take and there are some that are better than other. The best thing you can do is dive,dive, dive. Take what you have learned so far and go practice. Once you feel really solid, then you can look at taking another class, then practice, etc. Master Diver is just recognition that you've taken a certain number of courses through a specific agency. It doesn't really mean that you've mastered diving.

Taking AOW is a good next step because some boats want you to have it for deeper or more advanced dives. Rescue is a great class to take too.
The truth is though the only way to get better at diving is to do it. Try to find divers that are better than you, that you can dive with. Ask questions, watch how they dive, etc. If they seem like jack a$$es then they probably are and go find some others. The regional forums here can help. Local dive clubs can be good too. The best I have found is facebook. Most areas have facebook groups of divers that may not be affiliated with shops. This can be a good way to find divers and get unbiased opinions on shops and instruction.

Welcome to the addiction.

 

[victorzamora]

This is all assuming you're talking about PADI:

To become Advanced Open Water, you don't have to take five specialties.....you have to take the first dive of five different specialties. To get Master Diver, you have to complete 5 specialty courses all the way through, plus AOW and Rescue. To get your AOW, you HAVE to do a "Deep" dive and a "Navigation" dive. The only one I'd suggest to everyone is Peak Performance Buoyancy. The other ones are up to you. Drysuit, night, wreck, cavern, drift, altitude, multilevel.....those can all be SUPER useful, or super useless. It all depends on your instructor.

 

[drrich2]

The 'Master Scuba Diver' cert. means different things coming from different agencies. From what I understand, from NAUI it's an actual course originally designed to impart instructor level knowledge & skill minus that relevant to teaching, but from PADI, SSI & SDI it's more like a 'degree' - you complete pre-requisite courses and you can get it.

Under the PADI system, I'd recommend Deep Diver, Underwater Navigator & Nitrox as useful, and perhaps Wreck Diver to get a brief info. to penetration diving (though if you actually want to do penetration diving you ought to train further from what I've read). And I'd recommend doing a lot of reading about deep diving on the forum, since the PADI course manual isn't exactly in-depth, and there's a lot that would be good to know.

Sooner or later, in Bonaire or on a live-aboard or at a deep dive destination, you will likely want to dive nitrox. And you'll need the cert. to get it.

Richard.

 

[CptTightPants21]

It doesn't really matter which ones because if you really serious about diving you will end up taking more than he minimum.
Which agency are you certified with? Some let you choose your courses, other have a few set programs.

Night/Navigation
Nitrox
Stress Rescue
Search & Recovery
Wreck

These would be my starting point


Other possible options could be Deep and Equipment course. Depending on the shop, Equipment can be very useful if taught properly with a lot of real world knowledge and not half-ass. I never saw the need of taking a deep diving course, I learned everything I needed about it from talking with divers more experienced than myself

Wreck is a great course that gives you experience with different fining techniques, lift bags, line reels, etc

 

[TMHeimer]

I agree with everyone here. Rescue is the most important, and I advise taking it as soon as you are "comfortable" with all the basic aspects of diving and your equipment. As for the specialty dives that are optional for MSD, I advise anything that either improves safety or your overall diving. Such as ones mentioned like Wreck, P.P. Buoyancy, Search & Recovery, maybe Night, Nitrox (if you plan to use it). In other words, I don't recommend stuff like Fish ID, UW Photography, Videography, etc. These types of courses can be very useful I guess if you're into what they're about, but I don't think they generally improve your diving. Some disagree.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

If you want to advance as a diver consider some classes outside of SDI. That’s not a negative comment on SDI at all but rather a suggestion to get some other points of view. A cavern class from a technical agency would provide a different approach to diving. Some of the intro to tech classes would do the same. Consider UDT, or NAUI Tech for a different perspective.

Most of all get out and dive. Do push slowly and incrementally forward to be safe. A lot of the classes like night and deep have little value as taught by the majority of instructors out there. Of course if you pick carefully there are good instructors and good classes out there. But buying the litany of classes offered by the agencies is not likely to be fruitful. There are some classes that are simply done for the cert but in and of themselves have little value if you want to read up on your own. Nitrox comes to mind.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think the proper thing to do is take classes in areas of interest to you, or in which you feel the need to improve. Every diver can benefit from a good navigation course. A buoyancy class is also good for everyone, especially newer divers. Beyond that, it's a matter of personal interest. You will find your own interests- don't let others dictate them.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Lorenzoid]

Keep taking courses, but don't do so with an end goal of having some label like "Master Scuba Diver" attached to you or let your instructor put that goal in your head. I'm sure your instructor means well, but keep in mind the inherent conflict of interest he has in, well, selling you courses. Just take one course at a time. Meanwhile, get a lot of dives under your belt. Experience counts more than anything in making one a good diver. Take Rescue, take Nitrox, maybe some kind of navigation course, and then see what else you want to take. But above all, keep diving. As I understand it, SDI requires 24 dives plus four specialties to label you an "Advanced Diver," and then 25 more dives plus Rescue to label you a "Master Diver." What's important there are not those labels but rather the 50 or so dives under your belt. If you should tire of the game after "only" three of those specialty courses but you happen to have racked up many more than just 50 dives, you will be just as good or better a diver as if you had sped your way toward some illusory "Master Diver" goal.

 

[EFX]

My advice:
Take buoyancy first. Every dive you do will require buoyancy skills whether it's a night, deep, wreck, or especially a reef dive. Some practical advice: next take AOW or deep as some dive charters will require this to go deeper than 60 feet. Next take navigation so you won't get lost. After that take nitrox as this specialty will extend bottom times for deeper and more repetative dives.