Divemaster ?

[TMHeimer]

To me the most important part of the gear exchange is the coordination with another person underwater. As a DM or instructor that's what often presents the greatest challenge. Doffing/donning your own gear by yourself is something any OW student should be able to do. Add another person into the mix... now you've got a challenge.

I agree about the coordination being most important. The donning of one's own gear drill has some aspects of gear swap though. You have to swim down to it (chlorine in eyes), get the reg in your mouth first. Then find the mask--probably before donning unit or fins--so it's now easier to see, then it's exactly like a drill for an OW student. It's just a thought, and a DMC shouldn't have to practise anything to easily do the gear swap, but the drill is good practice anyway.

 

[Frosty]

On the same subject.
My Padi Emergency first responder card was issued 2 years ago in March.
The Padi online info and the EFR manual say that if you have already done EFR training you only need to do a refresher.
Local dive shop staff say I need to do the entire course again.--which is correct?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Ask them to show you the actual written standards. Not what they say they are.

 

[RJP]

On the same subject.
My Padi Emergency first responder card was issued 2 years ago in March.
The Padi online info and the EFR manual say that if you have already done EFR training you only need to do a refresher.
Local dive shop staff say I need to do the entire course again.--which is correct?

In the US, a refresher course is comprised of the Skill Development and Exam sessions of the regular course. It is very common for instructors/shops to have refresher students simply join those sections of a full EFR course.

Do note that there are often differences in EFR/First Aid/CPR certification and refresher requirements between different countries, based on local regulations. Below is from the EFR Instructor Manual in the US.

Emergency First Response Refresher Courses

Emergency First Response Refresher Courses are for people who have received training in CPR and/or first aid and want to refresh their training. Encourage your Emergency Responders to take refresher courses at least every 24 months.

Prerequisites - any previous CPR and/or first aid training (Emergency First Response or other).

Course Content - You can off er refresher training in Primary/Secondary Care together or separately.

Follow the Skill Development segment of the course(s) the participant needs refreshed. You can do this by having Refresher Course participants join the skill development portion of a regular class or you may conduct a stand alone refresher course. Be sure to also review any new developments or changes to primary care or secondary care techniques since participants last completed training. Keep in mind that this is an opportunity to teach or refresh skills on AED and Emergency Oxygen Use as well. Participants must take the exam for the course they are refreshing.

Materials Requirements: Reference required and recommended materials for the individual course you are teaching.

Recognition: When participants successfully complete an Emergency First Response Refresher Course, submit the appropriate Course Completion Authorization (Primary Care (CPR) and/or Secondary Care (First Aid) to your Emergency First Response Regional Headquarters. Participants will receive a new card(s) for the course they refreshed, showing that their skills for that course are current.

 

[Frosty]

call from the LDS--all good it is a refresher I need

 

[Timbro]

I did my PADI DM last year. I can't add too much to the above except:
Swim Tests - Practice your swimming for a month or so prior. Surface swim muscles differ from run muscles and scuba muscles.
Stamina - Towing an inert diver (a fellow DM student) is hard work and needs fitness. I've only towed a real dive victim once and you need to be fit all the time just in case (especially in an open water situation).
Stress test (gear change) - Wear a weightbelt and make sure your fellow students do too. Trying to do it with integrated weights is just so much harder due to buoyancy issues. Think ahead, plan the exchange in a logical manner, stay calm.
Standards - get the standards, read them and understand them. An instructor once told me that the tread water had to be with ears out of the water, but this just isn't the standard.
Dives - Doing the DM or any other selection of courses is not, in my very humble opinion, an alternative to doing a heap of dives in a variety of conditions.
I'd rather dive with an AOW diver who has plenty of experience in low-viz, strong current, cold-water dives than someone who did all their dives (incl DM) in warm, daytime, high-viz tropical water.

 

[TMHeimer]

Standards - get the standards, read them and understand them. An instructor once told me that the tread water had to be with ears out of the water, but this just isn't the standard.


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Absolutely. I found out (on the "Going Pro" forum) what drown proofing was and that it was "legal". My instructor didn't tell me that, but then again it's up to me to find things out. OTOH, an instructor may say "You can meet the standards for your DM cert., but if you want to work at our shop you must meet this or that". Two different things.

 

[DownbelowDiver]

Hi Militant83

As you've read others' feedback on PADI Standards progress of dive education, the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating, is the highest achievement for recreational scuba diving but not a requirement to enrol on the PADI Divemaster course - not to say it's not useful towards your professional dive career though!
There are a couple of PADI Specialties, that will credit to your PADI Divemaster performance requirements though, which are: the PADI Search and Recovery Specialty Diver and the PADI Deep Diver Specialty courses. Completing the Specialty Diver level of these two disciplines credits towards the practical application of dive skills in the PADI Divemaster course, so if there were any Specialty Diver courses you might find most valuable, then I would suggest those two.
You needn’t have the experience of deep diving beyond 30m or search and recovery skills to enrol on the PADI Divemaster, but you will do to qualify.
Another requirement to qualify is night diving, which can be experienced as an adventure dive (and can be integrated in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course).
But all of this is included in the PADI Divemaster course diver training anyways.

Diver experience is the most valuable asset to a professional divers’ career and we highly advise for candidates undertaking professional scuba diving education under our Go PRO internship program to complete a 1-month itinerary to observe the dive operations of our premier PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
Within that month, whether they are completing the PADI Divemaster or the PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC), there will be plenty of opportunity to experience the diver lifestyle!

 

[rocus4094]

I am not sure about PADI but with NAUI which should be the same, I was given the book for master diver, took the test and given the divemaster material at the same time. Its good thing to know the master diver material and equations but you can go right to divemaster as long as you have advanced rescue with oxygen provider. That's what I had.

Rocus4094

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Master diver in naui and padi are two very different things.