Divemaster course divers do it for two reasons. The first reason very important for divers is simply because they want to learn more, to refine various skills in a way they didn’t have time for before, they didn’t know how to commit as much. The second reason is to gain professional underwater guide credentials.
Imagine blue water, white sand, a reef visible in the distance and a group of divers who have come to experience it all. And you are the person who will show them all this. Without you, they wouldn’t know this world, so it’s worth being a Divemaster.
However, in order to earn this degree, one must master diving at a distinctly higher level. First, get to know all that you may not have been interested in before and didn’t want to spend time on. The Divemaster course is such a preparation for the diving baccalaureate, a little bit about everything and at the same time a lot of details. On the other hand, on the Divemaster course you need to master diving skills so that you can show them and it is known that teaching others teaches us the most about ourselves. The ability to perform an exercise in so-called “demonstration quality” is a skill that requires mastery of exercises at a very high level.
Who is a Divemaster?
The basic truth is that it is the instructor who trains and the Divemaster who helps. However, the instructor imparts dry knowledge and skills. Divemaster shows what we are supposed to be like as divers. It conveys what is most important, which is the approach to diving. The right attitude and its transmission is precisely the role of the Divemaster “I say as I do/do as I say”.
On the other hand, the rank of Divemaster is a responsibility. Now being in the water you will always feel responsible for others already. The thought of “and let them flow” will no longer be so peaceful. You’ll start thinking “What’s going to happen to them”, you’ll think before, during, sometimes also after the dive, what it should look like. Sometimes you will think; “not that it worked – just never again”.
What instead, you might ask? Diving once you are a Divemaster will allow you to meet very, very cool people. Diving is not really: blue water and white sand or reef. Diving is about meeting new people. Cognition, which is so hard to come by in normal life. When we do something nonetheless difficult and perhaps a little dangerous like diving, it is an activity that brings us incredibly close to each other. After a week of diving with the newly arrived team, we know a lot more about each other than long-time acquaintances. I’m not saying friends; but certainly a lot more than simply acquaintances.
On the Divemaster course, we begin to understand what all those skills we mastered on the Rescue course were for. Maybe navigation with AOWD will also become clearer. Things that until now seemed less important to us. But now we are responsible for others and especially for making sure that we emerge where we dipped or just where we wanted to emerge, leading the whole group behind us.
When to start the Divemaster course?
Someone may ask when? At what experience should we start the Divemaster course? I can say that maybe similar to sailing, “When is the best time to reef the sails?” When we first think about it….. We start the Divemaster course when we first think about it, although, of course, from a formal point of view, we must meet certain prerequisites. Well, and then simply enroll in some course.
Two methods of conducting a Divemaster course
There are like two methods of doing the Divemaster course. One such typical training method, the other – let’s call it the internship method. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, in fact, both have certain characteristics that can be advantages or disadvantages depending on the situation or our needs.
The training method – it can also be called the simulation method to some extent, is a method during which the doing a Divemaster course practices skills – especially those related to conducting dives, taking care of divers, assisting in training on other Divemaster candidates or simply on certified divers. That is, what is most difficult – the initial training in the water during Discovery Scuba Diving or Open Water Diver programs – is simulated by already trained divers. It has its …… Well, that’s exactly what it has some features. On the one hand, the reactions of these people are not completely natural (because they are already divers) on the other hand, you can introduce the Divemaster candidate to specific situations. In general, this method gives you more diving skills – skills of your own.
The second method – the apprenticeship method – is the method at which the future Divemaster simply assists in real training by the instructor. It helps with dives led by some guide. This is the method by which Divemaster courses are most often conducted at dive bases. It is very enjoyable on the one hand, because we learn with real divers or real dives, on the other hand because we meet real people, real problems sometimes certain situations – certain skills, will be very repetitive. The future Divemaster will encounter some situations often but other situations he may not encounter at all. This method gives more experience and less skill but this is not a disadvantage it is just a feature of this method or maybe an advantage?
That is, which Divemaster course we choose for ourselves should depend on what we want to do afterwards. If we simply want to look for a job at dive bases around the world then an internship method done at one of these bases will certainly be a very good choice, if in the future we plan to dive with people in our community, help with training, get more people into diving, then a diving course that gives us as much of our own diving skills as possible guided by a simulation method may have features that will be best for us.
In the Divemaster course, getting down to the nitty-gritty, we learn to perform exercises in a perfect way… let me say more, in a demonstrative way – typical skills from the Open Water Driver course. We learn and develop our rescue skills by compiling them into a more challenging set of subsequent actions. During such a scenario, we have to find the injured diver, extract him, tow him to shore, and then pull him to shore or help pull him out. During the course, we also have to show that we have some swimming and fitness skills by getting enough points in competitions such as swimming 400 meters and 800 meters in the ABC. Credit lying on the surface of the water for 15 minutes. Credit the ability to solve problems by exchanging underwater equipment with a partner. We don’t have to be champions in every competition. If we did worse in one of them, we can make up for it in another, but overall we need to know quite a lot.
A divemaster isn’t simply paperwork for a specific profession – it’s a calling to get people into something as wonderful as diving. So when it comes to a Divemaster course, it’s best if you choose a place where you’ve trained before, felt that’s where divers feel comfortable. This will definitely be the best places for this course.
Divemaster is a vocation.
