I have a few questions about different certifications as well as different certification agencies

[pconsidine]

From what I am reading you are basically a Open Water Student with a couple of dives who is talking already about becoming a Instructor, I would feel very sorry fr your future students. Before you even consider going to Instructor route you should have a couple of hundred dives under your belt & have Rescue diver and specialty certs such as wreck , deep , navigation & drysuit, this is valuable lessons that must be learned before advancing to professional level plus a couple of years experience as a Divemaster is invaluable. People who think they can go from zero to hero in less than a year are basically a lawsuit waiting to happen...

 

[Bent Benny]

From what I am reading you are basically a Open Water Student with a couple of dives who is talking already about becoming a Instructor, I would feel very sorry fr your future students. Before you even consider going to Instructor route you should have a couple of hundred dives under your belt & have Rescue diver and specialty certs such as wreck , deep , navigation & drysuit, this is valuable lessons that must be learned before advancing to professional level plus a couple of years experience as a Divemaster is invaluable. People who think they can go from zero to hero in less than a year are basically a lawsuit waiting to happen...

I expect to have a couple hundred dives under my belt, or close to it, a year and a half from now.

 

[pconsidine]

I expect to have a couple hundred dives under my belt, or close to it, a year and a half from now.

That is a lot of dives in a short time for someone so new to diving and I hope you do well rounded diving- northeast along withCaribbean also Ias I stated previously you should have at least two years as a Divemaster before proceeding to Instructor- when you are dealing with new open water students many things can go wrong and it will be your job to prevent this..

 

[mmerriman]

I expect to have a couple hundred dives under my belt, or close to it, a year and a half from now.

don't let people piss on your dreams.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

@Sh0rtBus how I hate the friggen dive industry....

Ok, here's the deal. If you want to help with classes, then with NAUI we have an underissued cert called training assistant. You are able to assist an instructor, including just about everything you have said, without having to pay membership fees, deal with liability insurance, etc etc. We use them all the time and they're brilliant. Babysittings during direct supervised dives 1/2, and "guardian angels" when they are doing the independent buddy team navigation on dives 3/4/5. Brilliant certification that is annoyingly rarely issued.
If you DM that's fine, but if you're helping classes, you're more useful as an AI. If you're just mentoring new divers outside of classes, avoid all of the professional certs entirely and just dive with them. I don't know why the industry needs to make every friggen diver out there a dive master or instructor, it's stupid.

rant over

This might be something for me to look into. But the shop I use switched to NASE and I don't know if NASE has something similar. I'm honestly not thrilled they switched and the only reason I can come up with for the change is money. I did the NASE rescue course and honestly found the academic material a bit lacking. Just not very well put together. And apparently my instructor felt the same, which is why we ended up getting not only the NASE cert but also NAUI rescue and advanced rescue certs, too. There are certainly other NAUI shops in the area but I really like my LDS and I'm pretty loyal to them. Plus if I DM for them, they cover the insurance, etc. I'm pretty sure I could do the training assistant cert with my rescue instructor, though. Of all the instructors I've has thus far, hes been the best one. So if he'd be willing to do that....that might be a good option.

 

[tbone1004]

@Sh0rtBus I do not believe NASE has a comparable course but @The Chairman can probably answer better since he's a NASE instructor

 

[Bent Benny]

don't let people piss on your dreams.

I won't but I will still try to see their valid points.

 

[emoreira]

For me this is the best equivalence table out there. It's also related to ISO and EN norms.

Master Diver is a recognition certification and the requisites are being AOWD + Rescue Diver + 50 or more logged dives. No class required nor checkout dives.
Master Diver is the highest Recreational Diver level. There are some other recognition cards, but only counting the number of dives done.

Dive Master is a professional level, with all what is involved being a professional. Also mentioned as Assistance Instructor. A DM can lead divers and be part of dive courses.

 

[Bent Benny]

So after talking with you guys I'm thinking instructor may be a little ambitious. If I just got to DM or assistant instructor I would be qualified enough to get a job in the industry for the winter somewhere warm. Then after a year or so at that level I could think about moving up to instructor. Does that sound right to you guus?
My current instructor is through NAUI. That will be the easiest to transfer from if a prospective job requires a PADI, or other certification, right?

 

[Addicted2H2O]

So after talking with you guys I'm thinking instructor may be a little ambitious. If I just got to DM or assistant instructor I would be qualified enough to get a job in the industry for the winter somewhere warm. Then after a year or so at that level I could think about moving up to instructor. Does that sound right to you guus?
My current instructor is through NAUI. That will be the easiest to transfer from if a prospective job requires a PADI, or other certification, right?

Yes, if you're a NAUI DM/Instructor, you can easily cross over to PADI without much trouble. Not necessarily so the other way around.