PADI Divemaster
You have decided to become a Professional Diver!
Congratulations on completing your "PAID Rescue Diver". You are addicted to diving.
Now, do you want to know how a dive shop works?
Do you want to gain more experience and deepen your knowledge?
Do you consider becoming a professional, even part-time?
This is the right course. It will be your first step in the professional zone.
You don't need this course to be a good diver. You are already familiar with most of ther elevant theory and tehcniques. But what you don't know is the backstage; logistics, planning, marketing, sales, relations with customers and service providers, preparation and the maintenance of the equipment, prepare a course upstream not as a student but with the instructors.
BENEFITS
1. An immersion in the commercial side of diving.
2. Gain confidence and more experience.
3. Enhanced technical knowledge.
3. Assist instructors and get an idea of the job.
4. Professional qualification, first step to a career switch?
What will you discover?
A. The role of the Divemaster.
B. Supervision of activities and assist students.
C. Risk management.
D. Specialties.
E. Career in diving.
F. The environment.
G.Prepare for a dive.
H. Draw a map.
I. Perform a dive briefing.
J. Organize a research mission and a deep dive.
K. Conduct a review course and the skin diver course (snorkelling)
L. Assist instructors with PADI Discover Scuba Diving program and guide a dive at a local site.
The course
You already understood that the course does not take three days. I did it in over a month and I found it was just right. But if you are short of time, you can do it faster. Note that two weeks is the minimum.
You will likely pay your course. Pay to work, isn't that magic? The ultimate development of neo-capitalism, every boss dream. Jokes aside, you are still a student, somehow. You can find schools who gives the PADI Divemaster for free but, in return, you will likely spend more time working for them than focusing on your training. I wouldn't recommend that.
Study:
You will receive supporting material as for any other course. A PADI Divemaster.
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Roles and Characteristics of the PADI Divemaster; who are you now?
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Supervising Diving activities, plan, brief, manage problems.
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Assisting with Sutdent Dives; control and supervise logistics, demonstrate skills.
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Risk Management; techniques and tools.
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Divemaster Conducted Programs; scuba review, discover local diving, skin diver course.
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Specialized skills: floats, market buoys and signaling devices, mapping, search and recovery, deep diving.
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Business of diving.
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Dive Environment.
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Dive Theory; physics, gases, buoyancy, thermal changes, dive material, decompression theory, RDP use.
In addition, The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, the bible of recreational diving. It is thick but I highly encourage you to read it. Many people don't (let's be honest) or only partially. It is very rich and interesting. You will deepen your knowledge about equipment, physics, risk management, geography and environmental considerations. Be a good student!
At the shop
A fair bit of time will be dedicated to theory. Be serious about it but make it pleasant. The bookd and a macchiato (made with love) in front of the beac! What else....
Spend time and efforts to get familiar with the decompression table. It might not be intuitive from the start but its worth it. It is very important that you get it in order to plan dives within the limits of no-decompression diving.
You will be helping to welcome the students and client, guide them around, prepare their equipement, answer questions. You will be actively engaged during pool exercises by demonstrating skills, supervise students, play the panicked, distressed or unconscious diver for the instructor to demonstrates rescue scenarios. Although you are only a candidate Divemaster at this stage, expect students or clients coming to your for random questions or askin for help. You might be less intimidating than the instructror. So don't be shy, be social.
You will likely be less engaged on the commercial aspects, and Divemaster candidates have usually less interest for that part. After all it is administratative taks, not diving. Neverthless, I suggest you to spend a bit of time to understand how the school works; booking system, customer database, marketing, organization, staff management etc. It is particularly relevant if you aim to join this industry.
Less glamorous but important, logistics. Here I include everything that happens behind the scene; prepare the equipement, carry it, clean it, bring faulty pieces to the specialized shops, fill the tanks with air, clean the shop, etc. You want to give a good impression to clients? It starts with presentation!
On the boat
When you are on boat duty, you will have to be an early bird. You will be at the jetty way before the clients to load the boat, get things ready for a smooth day. The good news is that on these day, you will also be diving in the deep blue!
You will join courses or help guiding fun dives. So you can be tasked to help students to revise or do a briefing, help divers to gear up, fix problems. You won't be asked to the barista but you may consider, who knows, you might get a tip a the end of the day.
Remember that you are learning the job hands on. Meaning? Get ready for everything and anything. A student vomitted his breakfast on me after we surfaced because he was sick...the instructor couldn't stop laughing at me. You will likely be having roleplays and again be the distressed diver. Be ready to be shaken.
You will be tasked, depending on the program and what type of customer you have onboard, to supervise snorkling activities. Let me be straight here, it is not the most exciting thing you will do. Why? Because it is not diving. That said, depending on the spot, it might turn being nice. Remember that in shallow and clear water you can see a lot. So be good, and look excited for the customers.
Examination
Similar to all the courses you went through, you will have knowledge controls down the road.
In the second half of your training, you will take the final test (written). It won't be harder than the PADI Rescue Diver course but it will cover a different scope, to include, in exemple, the use of the decompression table to plan dives.
In terms of fitness level, you don't need to be ready for a marathon but still be ready for a few meters of swimming in the pool (500m or 800m) and have stamina to rescue a diver, carry air tanks, etc.
Don't underestimate your look, presentation and the way you behave. This is also marked by your instructor. A bad grade here isn't a good sign. So be fresh, awake, clean and enthusiast! You are living the dream so there are no excuses.
One last observation, you will need to refresh (i.e. re-run) your Emergency First Response (EFR) certification if it is older than 24 months.
What should you bring?
Basics: As usual, always bring your smile and your good humor! You should also bring your swimsuit, a towel, sunblock depending on the weather.
Equipment: as a Divemaster you are supposed to have your own equipment, except the tanks of course. Is this rule really adhered to or not, I can't comment. I personnally completed my equipment during my Divemaster training. It is a good time to do it since you will likely benefit of substantial discounts buying via the dive centre. In can be 10% it not more so it is worth it.
What else: a lot of energy. You don't have to be an athlete but a reasonable fitness level will help. Some exercises can be a bit demanding, e.g. pulling back an unconscious diver to the boat and give him assistance at the same time.
Accomodation: it depends on the location. Some schools will arrange an accomodation for you, included or not. I was in Phuket and booked a hotel few minutes away from the school. This is up to you.