So in what situations are people's lives dependent on the dive master? When DMs "leads" a dive, what magically happens that makes the situation so much more dangerous that the DM needs hundreds of dives, in horrible conditions to insure the survival of his/her charges vs divers just renting tanks and going diving?
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I think the issue is a bit more complicated than this. I know from experience I once had with a divemaster who did a similar type of course in Malaysia.
As no one in our group knew the dive site, we obviously needed to rely on the divemaster as a guide. Unfortunately, he did not know the dive sites very well. There were also two relatively inexperienced divers, who I had to basically keep an eye on. Remember, I paid money for these dives.
A divemaster, should have enough dives in an area, to be able to easily guide people around. This comes with experience of that area. If there are multiple dive sites, this required a lot of dives.
Another experience was with an instructor, who went a similar route. From an open water diver with twelve diver to master scuba instructor through a similar program. He is a friend of mine. He was with three students and two panicked. He had to take one to shore, and left the other with me. I had to basically carry her over rocks to get to shore.
A highly experienced diver, would have probably noticed the potential problem at an earlier stage, or possibly have taken them to another dive site. I personally know another site a few km away, that is in a sheltered bay, the max depth is ten meters, there are no entries or exits over an expanse of rocks.
Make no mistake. Experience counts. There was an earlier post where someone mentioned he has no problem with these type of courses, if people take them for what they are, and once finished, they realise they are not highly experienced and work on skills before they are in a situation where they are responsible for others.
However, there are people out there who do these courses, think they know everything, and are bulletproof. This is where the problem starts.
This is just my opinion. I am not looking to get into a debate. I have done close to two hundred dives, and I accept the fact that I am still relatively inexperienced.[emoji13]