Is It Realy Possible To Make A Master Degree In Diving In A 5 Day Course?

[Sandman77]

I always must smile, when tourist told me everywhere I travel in the world our children or family make a master degree in diving within a 5 day course, I not want believe that this is possible within this time, same on the yoga classes or learn thai massage within one week!

[theblether]

No.....it's a dangerous con trick.

I know a guy who had never dived in his life who went through one of these courses and he genuinely believes he is now qualified.

You have to put the hours in, you have to put the dives in, there are far too many variables that can't be taught in 5 days, and far too many aspects that must be truly ingrained through continuous practise.

So you may come out of the course with a fancy certificate, but you are far from being an experienced and truly qualified diver.

These courses are not worthless, they do teach a fair bit, but this false confidence they promote is dangerous.

[NomadJoe]

If you are talking about PADI, which you probably are as they do about 80% of the worlds certifications, then you need to determine what they mean by a "master degree" as there is no such rating by that name. It is likely they are talking about divemaster, but it could mean master scuba diver. They are very different things. The minimum recommended time for a divemaster course is 3 weeks and you need a minimum 60 logged dives, and that is assuming you aren't doing a "zero to hero" course but have already completed the openwater course, advanced openwater course, rescue diver course, and are current in CPR and first aid. In my opinion 3 weeks is not enough time for most people, unless, perhaps, they do all the eLearning first. PADI now allows people to do all the academics via the internet which reduces the amount of time needed for the course. They have this option for most of thier courses now.

I did my DM in 7 weeks but they also taught me how to run a shop, tourlead on a boat, and operate compressors. The master scuba diver course is simply a rescue diver that has completed 5 specialty courses (like wreck, night, boat, nitrox, cave, ice, underwater naturalist etc) and logged 50 dives. Assuming again that one is already a rescue diver and has completed the requisite number of dives, this can easily be done in 5 days, as each specialty requires between 0 and 4 dives to complete, plus a bit of academics, and PADI allows 3 training dives per day.

Edited May 1, 2013 by NomadJoe

[gamini]

PADI which stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors is a misnomer. It should be SCUBA diving instructors. You don't even have to be able to dive anymore to become an instructor. Way back you had to be able to free dive to 60 feet and swim two lengths of the swimming pool underwater and a lot of other criteria to become a diving instructor. But in order to make more money they will now accept and certify people who can't dive provided they have the money. I often meet people who tell me they are a professional diver. They don't even know what the word means.

Real professional divers have given PADI a nick name PUT ANOTHER DOLLAR IN

[NomadJoe]

^ Yes back in the day there were a lot of unnecessary and silly requirements one had to do to become a diver. I agree, the quality of instructor has definitely fallen in the 13 years I have been a "professional" diver, but that is industry wide, not just within PADI. Most notably is the lack of environmental awareness many DM's and instructors display. These are the ones that are just in it fro the money and couldn't give a shit about anything else. I was having this conversation with another instructor of 10 years just tonight over dinner. We were sharing stories of ridiculous things, environmentally destructive things, we have seen instructors and divemasters do. It is definitely getting worse. I don't understand how a dive instructor can flick their cigarette butts into the street or sidewalk. I am a bit of a smart ass about it. I always tell them, "Don't worry, I will pick that up later on when I am out on the reef." I don't make very many friends with that one but I am beyond caring at this point.

[stevenl]

PADI which stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors is a misnomer. It should be SCUBA diving instructors. You don't even have to be able to dive anymore to become an instructor. Way back you had to be able to free dive to 60 feet and swim two lengths of the swimming pool underwater and a lot of other criteria to become a diving instructor. But in order to make more money they will now accept and certify people who can't dive provided they have the money. I often meet people who tell me they are a professional diver. They don't even know what the word means.

Real professional divers have given PADI a nick name PUT ANOTHER DOLLAR IN

Yes, it was about time things changed. Swim two laps under water, freediving to 20 meters (don't forget to don the scubagear waiting there), etc., really have no connection at all to recreational diving.

Those things were not required to become an instructor but to become a diver BTW. If you want to come up with stories out of the old hat at least get it correct.

[Sandman77]

Thx for very good answer !

How long a teacher must learn , that he can work for a school?

[Swiss1960]

Thx for very good answer ! How long a teacher must learn , that he can work for a school?

I have been doing my Advanced PADI the hard way in Switzerland and been diving around South America, Middle East, Europe and Asia for 20y now... and found out that working for a school does NOT require any fixed time... I always want to see the dive log from my dive instructions / dive buddies in order to evaluate the risk I am taking (and he with me).

Too many schools, specially in tourist regions, allow divers to take people on tours without being a divemaster... some even had less hours / dives than I did... the only requirement seems to be knowing the dive places and speak a bit of the language of the divers and have basic know-how on how to put on the gear... those are then the people who want to take you for Nitro dives, even though you never ever did that and those "divemasters" don't care a bit about your health... happened to me in Mexico...

That is why I never dive without having seen the dive log and certificates of the guide and that is why I never agree to any dive outside of my personal qualification and experience. My life and my health is worse more than the expectation of a "kick" from cave / wreck / nitro diving.

[gamini]

PADI which stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors is a misnomer. It should be SCUBA diving instructors. You don't even have to be able to dive anymore to become an instructor. Way back you had to be able to free dive to 60 feet and swim two lengths of the swimming pool underwater and a lot of other criteria to become a diving instructor. But in order to make more money they will now accept and certify people who can't dive provided they have the money. I often meet people who tell me they are a professional diver. They don't even know what the word means.

Real professional divers have given PADI a nick name PUT ANOTHER DOLLAR IN

Yes, it was about time things changed. Swim two laps under water, freediving to 20 meters (don't forget to don the scubagear waiting there), etc., really have no connection at all to recreational diving.

Those things were not required to become an instructor but to become a diver BTW. If you want to come up with stories out of the old hat at least get it correct.

They were required to become an SCUBA instructor. I was certifying SCUBA instructors long before PADI.