DM or Master Diver????

[Diver Dennis]

Now, explain to 10K+ dives what a SAC rate is and you might earn his respect.

:shakehead

 

[Diver Dennis]

Dalonious, you are a scuba dork...deal with it!


I know that "boat diving" gets a lot of chuckles, BUT, if you set your own objectives you can learn quite a bit! For example, visual line-ups, GPS for sites, talk to captains in the community about ocean conditions and how to read the water for deciding where to choose the days site for a given group of divers. Also, I learned to call the Atlantis submarine for current updates. Nobody volunteers any of this stuff, you have to go ask the right people. Even a lot of the boat logistics...there is actually more to it than parking your butt on the bench and bringing an unobtrusive dive bag! Sure, you have to think like a local not like you just got off the plane and all you have to do is sit correctly and remember to tip. ...whew...so, NO MORE JOKES about my boat diving specialty!

Oh, I'll never let go of that one Catherine...

 

[Diver Dennis]

In my opinion, DM's earn respect my showing that they know what they're doing, regardless if they're 19 or 59. Usually you'd get on a list for a dive shop or two, and if they need a DM they could call you, or you could provide them with times that you'd be available. It's not like you're going to make $$$ doing the job, and it's not like you have to work 6 days a week. I think you could work as often or as little as you wanted as a DM with the right shop...

D.

I base my opinion of divers on how they do in the water. I've seen lots of people that topside you would not maybe peg them as a good diver but in the water they were terrific divers. A lot of the loud mouth "experts" I've seen are less than competent.

 

[Daylonious]

Me too. If you went through 3 main level certs and 5 specialties to get your card, way to go.

Now, explain to 10K+ dives what a SAC rate is and you might earn his respect.

That's a whole different discussion thread.. but if I answer, do I get bonus points?

D.

SAC Rate = (DCR x 33) / (Depth + 33)

Let's look at an example. Suppose you did a 50 foot dive for 25 minutes and used 1700 pounds of air. This would mean our DCR is 1700/25 or 68 pounds per minute. Using this in our formula we get:

SAC Rate = (68 x 33) / (50+33)

or: SAC Rate = 2244/88 or 25.5 pounds per minute.

We can then turn the equation around to determine our DCR for any depth.

DCR = SAC Rate x (Depth + 33)/33

Let's assume our SAC Rate is 25 and we want to know how fast will we use 2000 pounds of air at a depth of 75 feet.

Dropping our numbers into the equation we get: DCR = 25 x (75 + 33)/33 or DCR = 25 x 108/33 or DCR = 81.81

This means at a depth of 75 feet, we will use 81.81 pounds of air per minute. Dividing this into the 2000 pounds, we see this amount of air would last 24.4 minutes.

 

[k4man]

Thanks for the info and suggestions. I really do need to get on here (scubaboard) more often!

Cheers and happy diving.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Welcome k4man. We are actually pretty nice people here but there is a dust up once in a while...

I would say take the course, it's a good one, if you want more training. Me? I just like to take pictures.

 

[Diver Dennis]

That's a whole different discussion thread.. but if I answer, do I get bonus points?

D.

SAC Rate = (DCR x 33) / (Depth + 33)

Let's look at an example. Suppose you did a 50 foot dive for 25 minutes and used 1700 pounds of air. This would mean our DCR is 1700/25 or 68 pounds per minute. Using this in our formula we get:

SAC Rate = (68 x 33) / (50+33)

or: SAC Rate = 2244/88 or 25.5 pounds per minute.

We can then turn the equation around to determine our DCR for any depth.

DCR = SAC Rate x (Depth + 33)/33

Let's assume our SAC Rate is 25 and we want to know how fast will we use 2000 pounds of air at a depth of 75 feet.

Dropping our numbers into the equation we get: DCR = 25 x (75 + 33)/33 or DCR = 25 x 108/33 or DCR = 81.81

This means at a depth of 75 feet, we will use 81.81 pounds of air per minute. Dividing this into the 2000 pounds, we see this amount of air would last 24.4 minutes.

Excellent! NOW you are a master Diver...

 

[HammerNoMore]

You know, I'm in a very similar situation. I have just finished my 5th PADI specialty and will have my 50th dive the next time I dive (a week or so), so Master Diver is there.

Good for you. I'm assuming you've done rescue. Was that fun or what? I know I loved my rescue class.

However, I wonder if DM will really be "worth it" financially for me. I'm 42, so no young guy running off to a resort job, have a family and career for the past 20 years. Are there REALLY many shops or places that would hire someone like me, even for weekend jobs, when many other younger applicants are available to dedicate LOTS more time to the position????

What a dilemna. Any ideas people??

Kevin

When I took DM I did it for the education. I absolutly did not want to "work" as a diver. I said to myself, diving in the loclal shallow quarry over and over is not fun anymore, at least if I take DM, I'll have somthing new to do.

So I shopped around and took DM. I had a blast, mostly, I learned an important lesson the semi-hard way, but I had enough fun that I contuned to work as a DM. A little over a year later I decieded to go AI. Why? Because I wanted to teach a DAN class I couldn't give a PADI cert for as a DM.

So I entered an IDC. I did my "time" and I was done, I was an AI. I told my wife "This was fun and I'm so close to instructor I should just go ahead and finish it".

She said, "why don't you then." So I said what the heck and I finished the IDC and did the IE.

Now, I'm starting my Staff IDC, and I can't wait. I start Monday and I'm chomping at the bit to get to do antother IDC, much less, help teach other instructors.

So, here is my advice:

If your think you might want to teach later, then go for PADI DM. Unless you know a lot, you will learn somthing and you might find something new out about yourself!

If your don't think you'll ever want to teach, see number 1.

If you are sure you never want to teach (as I used to think), then, still give it a shot, you might be surprised. Otherwise, seek out the proper training for what you want to do and then quit. If all you wan't to do is X then why seek out Y training to get there?

I.E. If you want to dive in blue salt water, then OW is good. If you want to dive caves, then do, OW, AOW, Deep, GUE, etc. If you want to find a reason to dive the local mudhole after you've seen it all, do what I did.

DO WHAT IS RITGHT FOR YOU.

If you need help with that, don't post here. You'll get 10 different answers, at least. Find someone who's opinion you trust and PM them.

Diving is about having fun. I did my DM to have some more fun diving as my local quarry was small and had lost that for me. I went from 2 years of "I'll never instruct" to I love it. You may, as others have said, decide DM sucks. Or you may say, as I did, why the he double hockysticks, didn't I do this 10 years ago.

If your goal is to get 10K+ dives. Go dive. If your goal is MD, good for you! Sriously, it's a good goal.

James

P.S. Thalmanimgodtodiving will say that a goal of MD is a joke. I say it is absolutly not. OW, AOW, Rescue, + 5 specialites can be the education you are looking for. Do you want to be a good and safe diver, or do you want to be all end all best diver in the world?

OW is a ticket to learn. PADI, MD says, if you want it to, I've learned how to dive, I've learned how to protect myself and others, and I've lookd for training in 5 fields. If you want the card, that's easy. If you want to earn the card, as some people I really respect have done, then you WILL get something out of it.

Me I want every dive I do to be:

1. Safe
2. Not bad for the environment.
3. Fun

That's what I look for and that's what I get out of every dive!

The very worst dive I every had was a learning experience for me and I wouldn't trade that dive for the best!

James

 

[Cacia]

If you need help with that, don't post here. You'll get 10 different answers, at least.

OR...get ten answers and pick what parts you like! I LOVE getting ten answers.

I even like predicting who will say what.

 

[k4man]

I used to think, no, just want to dive for fun--not teach it. After all, that's my main career job. I've been teaching high school for 20 years, so WHY would I want to teach on the weekends when I'm supposed to be having MY time??

Now, yes, after rescue and other specialties, I guess I'm having the conversation with myself (yes, I do that from time to time) about what I want to do AFTER the first career is over. I'm good at teaching, diving is fun, so why not combine the two? Likewise, as was mentioned earlier, I've already had a few instructors who I thought were 'borderline' at best (along with some really great ones, too).

Mid-life crisis?? Don't know. Guess I'm just starting to look to what my future may hold for me and trying to make plans now rather than wait until its right in front of me.

thanks again for the insight.