Competition for students?

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Keith.M

Contributor
Divemaster
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
967
Location
Loomis, CA US
# of dives
200 - 499
So I am a bit confused and thought I might see what others thought about this.

I have been using the same dive shop for all of my training and LDS business. They are close, they are well stocked and they offer everything I need.

I have recently bought the Divemaster crewpack and have finished the first 4 chapters and knowledge reviews.

So it is time now to sign up for the training.

I have had training here from several different instructors, although except from my open water course, all certifications have been signed off by the CD.

I have been in the shop talking about signing up for DM for a little while and I have been surprised that each instructor I have talked to (only 2, original OW instructor and the CD) basically wants me to sign up right then with them. Not that this is an issue, but I am wondering if a DMC is assigned to one instructor, and that instructor, is the one to benefit financially?

I do understand that over the course of the training, I will be working with several different instructors and that will be great, but it seems you are in the program under one specific instructor.

I don't want to offend either one of them and I am fine with either one of them being the specific instructor. One is the CD and the other is right below as a Master Instructor.

Maybe I should just not care and let them figure out their own financials.

Any input on how that works is appreciated.
 
Instructors get credit for how many students they certify, from OW students to DM ones. They can move up the ladder to MSDT, IDCS, and MI based (in part I think) on that. I don't believe there is any personal incentive for either CDs or MIs to certify a certain number of students, so the incentive to "steal you away" wouldn't seem to be there. I could be wrong. Maybe they both just like you a lot as a candidate?
 
Thanks for the input. I can see that neither the CD or the MI have any need to add more certifications as they are both as far as they are going to go. I was thinking there was money due someone other than the shop for the course, but like I said, I probably should just let them work that out and not be concerned.

The shop has recently sent some newly minted divers my way to see if I could take them on some dives, so that last part could actually be the case.
 
Instructors DO get paid for their specialty and pro students, so whoever you sign up under is probably going to get at the very least a larger share of the class fee than anyone else. At least that's how it works here.
 
Instructors DO get paid for their specialty and pro students, so whoever you sign up under is probably going to get at the very least a larger share of the class fee than anyone else. At least that's how it works here.

That is what I was thinking. I think I may do it under the MI since I haven't trained under him since OW. The CD requires, or at least "strongly suggests", that you also take Deep, and Search and Recovery specialties before finishing DM. Those specialties would be with the CD I am sure.
 
That is what I was thinking. I think I may do it under the MI since I haven't trained under him since OW. The CD requires, or at least "strongly suggests", that you also take Deep, and Search and Recovery specialties before finishing DM. Those specialties would be with the CD I am sure.
I am surprised that the CD did not suggest deep and navigation...those would be the most useful in my thinking and PADI's way also for dm students. There is quite a bit of record keeping, presentations, remedial work to be done with dm courses. The instructor doing this works gets paid for it. The internship can be with the same instructor or others. If the instructor using a dm as a intern is not the paid instructor it should be no big deal as he/she is getting assistance with their class out of it.
 
It all depends upon the pay structure as determined by the individual shop. The course costs X amount of dollars, and those dollars will be distributed among instructors in some way. What way? In whatever way the shop chooses. In my shop, we have gone through two sets of DM candidates in the last year or so, and we have done it differently each time in our attempt to make it fair.

What is being done in your shop? There is no way of knowing.
 
I am surprised that the CD did not suggest deep and navigation...those would be the most useful in my thinking and PADI's way also for dm students. There is quite a bit of record keeping, presentations, remedial work to be done with dm courses. The instructor doing this works gets paid for it. The internship can be with the same instructor or others. If the instructor using a dm as a intern is not the paid instructor it should be no big deal as he/she is getting assistance with their class out of it.

Thanks for that input. Although I had not asked specifically about that, I too thought Navigation specialty might make more sense. But knowing the CD, I suspect it is more because we navigate on every dive but don't do searches and don't use lift bags on every dives. I know diving here in California, I use my compass on every dive all the time.

I know he feels that way on PPB specialty. When I asked him during AOW if that would be one of our dives, his response was: "We work on buoyancy on EVERY dive!"
 
reason for taking the deep and s&r specialty is both of these specialties will credit you in the dm course and you are exempt to do deep and s&r workshop during your dm taining. in fact you suppose to learn more doing the specialties than just doing the workshop. well, of course it will also depend on who is the instructor.
 
reason for taking the deep and s&r specialty is both of these specialties will credit you in the dm course and you are exempt to do deep and s&r workshop during your dm taining. in fact you suppose to learn more doing the specialties than just doing the workshop. well, of course it will also depend on who is the instructor.

I was going to say that as well. I think the Deep specialty is of particular value in that many charters do dives routinely below 100'. I always wondered about a DM leading such dives if they weren't Deep certified. I assume the Deep worshop in the DM course now gives you "permission" to lead those. I would think taking the Nav specialty would be more valuable than S & R for the reasons you gave. During OW courses students only do a reciprocal heading with the compass, but knowing more navigation can't hurt should something unexpected arise. I guess S & R could be of use if a student gets separated.
 

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