Considering dive master certification

[underthedeepblue]

Hi

I am on an extended diving trip and may stay longer to do my DMT

The instructor who I get along well with and who will be assigned to me has said he is newly qualified as an instructor (qualified six months ago) and he has about 200 dives.

I have 60 dives and the only thing weirding me out about this is that he doesn't have that much more underwater experience than me.

Should I listen to my intuition and ask for a more experienced instructor or do you think that given he has his instructor rating he is amply qualified to take through DMT?

I like him and we have dove together a few times ie in the last couple of weeks.

He is pitching me to be his student and I am sort of OK but would prefer a person with several hundred dives as an instructor.

Unless you old timers say that his rating is enough to qualify him as a teacher.

I am a super cautious diver.

 

[DevonDiver]

You are asking this..... but I think you know the answer already....

 

[underthedeepblue]

You are asking this..... but I think you know the answer already....

lol

yes

you're right

 

[TSandM]

What do you want to do with a DM cert?

If you want to assist instructors, it's a great idea to do your cert where you can work with a number of different teachers, and observe different teaching approaches and learn to work with different people. In that kind of setting, who the "formal" instructor for your DM is is less critically important, because he won't be the only influence.

Even if you are interested in guiding, you should get a chance to intern under a variety of people.

I guess my biggest question is why you want to do your DM with 60 dives? If you want to do the class to improve your own diving skills, there are better classes for this. If you want to help teach, what does your own evaluation of your experience and skills tell you about whether you are ready to do this?

 

[FireInMyBones]

Everyone has to start somewhere. The more experience the better, but perhaps you two could help each other become better. There is always the option of having multiple instructors work with you on your DMT. That is what I am doing. I have a list of a few instructors I hope I do not have to work with again.

 

[DevonDiver]

I did my DM course because I wanted dive leadership skills. I had no intention at that time of working in the industry or assisting instructors. I just wanted the ability to safely plan and lead dives for less experienced divers, along with the capability to provide rescue and emergency management if necessary.

I know that the OW, AOW and Rescue courses should provide a diver with those capabilities, but the DM course really brings them all together and fine-tunes it into a finished product.

Basically, at the time it was me who arranged diving trips for friends and took upon myself the responsibility for getting the day's diving completed safely.

I completed the DM course in the UK...working with a group of instructors, all of which were eager tech divers and MSDT-Course Director level. They had a breadth of personal diving interests that they passed on, which were not part of the course - for instance advanced first aid/life support, decompression and wreck techniques. It was hard work, but good fun.

Any qualified PADI instructor can run a DM course. Few of them can run a great DM course!

You'll never get anything 'extra' from a run-of-the-mill standard OWSI or disinterested MSDT. The 'bare-bones' DM course is dull. Search for instructors with passion and a breadth of scuba experience and interests.

 

[Divemastersintraining]

I think you've answered this question for yourself even before you finished writing it. But here's just a thought... If you have built a trust and relationship with this instructor there must be a reason... His style of teaching or approach he takes to diving, or just the way he educates his students. There is something you must like. Definitely keep him part of you course... he seems to have grown your interest in diving in the first place. Also as already said by others the more instructors you have a chance to work with the better Divemaster you will become.

 

[Thalassamania]

When you "shop" at the extremes, very inexperienced or very experienced you tend to get either really good or really poor. Most of the time I think you have better luck with the instructor who has lots of experience, but I have, rarely, seen situations where a new instructor with a lot of skill and enthusiasm will do a better job than jaded instructor whose been at it for twenty years and could care less.

 

[Islandheart]

I have seen long time instructors that are poor teachers that lack passion and fail to empower their DiveMasters to do a good job working with classes and working on dives.

Just because someone has taught a 100 students and/or 25 DMs, you should choose an instructor that excites your desire to be a good Dive Master that YOU can be proud of.....

Sorry if I don't just fall into numbers are everything.

 

[Thalassamania]

You are right, someone who has trained 20 good divemasters and now trains a better divemaster today than he or she did yesterday is a much better bet than someone who has trained 1000 and now could care less.