theatis
Contributor
I passed my NAUI Master Diver exam this morning and thought i'd post some thoughts both on that and my first year in diving.
Within the past year i did - in quick succession - OW, AOW, Nitrox, Rescue and Master (first three with PADI, latter two with NAUI, i actually completed the NAUI OW but injured my lower back and could not complete the checkout dives as scheduled and did them afterwards with PADI). It may sound odd but the primary reason that i kept taking courses is that i don't have a regular dive buddy (at least here in the US) and wanted to be active in diving. Also, and this may sound ridiculous as a justification i know, the NAUI classes were basically free since as a doctoral candidate at the university i don't pay tuition.
After all these courses, i must say that i see little value in the common advice to hold off until one has more experience after OW. Of course, one would expect to perform better at the practical part of continuing education (but it would also depend on the individual), yet i see the primary payoff of going beyond OW to be the knowledge and not the practice.
I've seen people post on numerous occassions that Rescue was both their most challenging and their most rewarding experience; i have to concur. It was fun and it was tiring and i learned so many things that i hope to never have to put to use. One thing that i'm scared of about Rescue is that in time those skills will diminish; it's all fresh in my mind right now, but will i remember instinctively how to respond to a risky situation ten years from now?
I would characterize NAUI Master as the serious version of OW and AOW combined. You learn the same theory from the beginning only this time it's not balloons popping and "never hold your breath, now dive" (a caricature i know), it's application of gas laws and decompression theory. I would still like to know more about these topics but if someone is interested in taking that extra step, then this is a great course.
One anticlimactic aspect of both courses was that both textbooks are quite challenging if one wants to really absorb everything, yet both exams were very easy, especially the Rescue exam. The Master exam was a lot more challenging but still not at the level set by the textbook where there are many compound questions.
In summation (since this post is getting ridiculously long) i would see the three factors that most influenced my diving so far have been: getting more education and taking it seriously, buying my own set of gear and developing familiarity with it over time so that new tasks are easier to internalize, and reading the comments of people way more experienced than i on Scubaboard. And not necessarily in that order!
Within the past year i did - in quick succession - OW, AOW, Nitrox, Rescue and Master (first three with PADI, latter two with NAUI, i actually completed the NAUI OW but injured my lower back and could not complete the checkout dives as scheduled and did them afterwards with PADI). It may sound odd but the primary reason that i kept taking courses is that i don't have a regular dive buddy (at least here in the US) and wanted to be active in diving. Also, and this may sound ridiculous as a justification i know, the NAUI classes were basically free since as a doctoral candidate at the university i don't pay tuition.
After all these courses, i must say that i see little value in the common advice to hold off until one has more experience after OW. Of course, one would expect to perform better at the practical part of continuing education (but it would also depend on the individual), yet i see the primary payoff of going beyond OW to be the knowledge and not the practice.
I've seen people post on numerous occassions that Rescue was both their most challenging and their most rewarding experience; i have to concur. It was fun and it was tiring and i learned so many things that i hope to never have to put to use. One thing that i'm scared of about Rescue is that in time those skills will diminish; it's all fresh in my mind right now, but will i remember instinctively how to respond to a risky situation ten years from now?
I would characterize NAUI Master as the serious version of OW and AOW combined. You learn the same theory from the beginning only this time it's not balloons popping and "never hold your breath, now dive" (a caricature i know), it's application of gas laws and decompression theory. I would still like to know more about these topics but if someone is interested in taking that extra step, then this is a great course.
One anticlimactic aspect of both courses was that both textbooks are quite challenging if one wants to really absorb everything, yet both exams were very easy, especially the Rescue exam. The Master exam was a lot more challenging but still not at the level set by the textbook where there are many compound questions.
In summation (since this post is getting ridiculously long) i would see the three factors that most influenced my diving so far have been: getting more education and taking it seriously, buying my own set of gear and developing familiarity with it over time so that new tasks are easier to internalize, and reading the comments of people way more experienced than i on Scubaboard. And not necessarily in that order!
