Category: Scuba Comics

Part Three, and our final comic covering Divemaster. We’re almost to the finish line!

I was praised on my interpersonal relationship/customer service skills, but contradictorily sort of chided for spending so much time getting to know each client. After some thought, I think the dive shop employees thought it was weird because they were personally uninterested in getting to know clients. And I do understand the perspective: the instructors meet new people every day, usually for only a single day. Tourists come and go and you’ll never see them again. What’s the point of chit chat? Why waste energy on people you’ll never interact with again?

I think there’s a huge benefit to chit chat. For one, I get to learn more about different types of diving, hear different interesting stories, and get recommendations for dive sites and vacations. It’s all useful information for me.

Chit chat often relaxes the person you’re talking to (unless they’re antisocial, but that’s rare in divers). Having relaxed divers means having easy-to-manage divers. I also think it heightens the entire experience. Nobody wants to be brushed off or not given much attention, especially if they’re trying a new activity they’re nervous about.

If the person feels like they have a connection to an experience, a place, or a person, then even if they don’t come back… they might leave a good review or even recommend the place to others! It’s good for business!

Maybe I have a different perspective on it all. Whatever works for the shop, I guess!

End of the line!

Once all the practical assessments are complete, the course is over. I was so scared I wasn’t going to pass that I didn’t quite believe it when I was told “Alright, congrats on making it to your final day of the course! After this, we’ll finish up your paperwork and application, and you’ll be the real deal. Let’s make today a good one!” I successfully led someone on a dive with no incident, and that day was indeed a good final day! We ended it on a high note. Phew! I was so ready to be finished. You couldn’t get me out of there fast enough.

The paperwork was very simple on my end. I had to sign a few forms, fill out my information, confirm that information was correct online, submit the application payment… and I was a Divemaster. I’m very surprised by how fast it took. I was told it would take about 2 weeks to process the application but it took under 2 hours.

As a Divemaster, you get access to the PADI Pros website, which has teaching resources, a quarterly magazine, seminars, a little store (I’m thinking about buying the Divemaster ballcap…) and more.

This is where you can order your physical Divemaster card, as you initially only get a digital card. The physical card is mailed to the address you have on file and was $55USD at the time of this writing. That’s annoyingly expensive, but I want my hunk of plastic!! This is the most important credential I’ve ever received! This is more precious to me than my darn diploma!!!

You also get assigned to a regional PADI office, which you can probably change if you move in the future. The application asks in what city and country you’ll be working, which was really interesting. What if I don’t want to work as a Divemaster? I am now under the purview of of PADI’s Latin American branch. Very exciting.

I

Got

So

Sick

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so ill. I was contemplating going to urgent care or the hospital, but I pulled through. Luckily I have all the time in the world, so I just took a long break while I healed and came back when I was feeling good again. Holy cow. I’m still not sure where I picked it up or what it was, but it was awful. 0/10 do not recommend!

I learned a lot, mostly about myself and my abilities. How far out of my comfort zone can I go and have the activity still be worth it? How strong do I think I am, vs. how strong am I really? What environment is best for me to learn in?

What makes a good dive shop, and what qualities does a good instructor need to have to be successful? What bad and good habits do I need to watch out for in other people? What would it take for me to be a confident dive professional? Do I want to be a dive professional after this?

I learned a lot of practical things too, but the most valuable things I got from the course certainly involved my personal development and self knowledge.

So yeah! What’s next…?

Well…

Honestly, probably not more Divemaster stuff! Like I said before, I didn’t enjoy the course, and now I’m not sure I’d enjoy actually being a Divemaster. I don’t know if it’s that I don’t like Divemaster activities, or that I was too stressed to enjoy it but would like it under different circumstances? Maybe I’ll feel better about it later. For now, it’s back to fun dives and my favorite: Specialty Classes. I need some low-stakes learning to cleanse the palate!

That’s the end, for now. Thanks so much for reading through, and I hope this helps someone out if they’re considering doing their own Divemaster training. It’s all doable, but finding the right learning environment and teacher will really make out break your experience.

We last talked about the Gear Exchange, and how I initially failed it.

“Instead of exchanging masks, divers remove and replace their own masks.”

The PADI Instructor Manual had the info! That’s official, baby! And with just that one little change, I felt much more calm. I successfully completed the Gear Exchange the second time through, and it was shockingly easy when I had the right mindset.

With the hard part over, it was time to work on some other tasks.

I had no instruction on how to create the Emergency Plan or the Map. There’s also not a lot of guidance online!

Ah, Rescue Scenario #7! This is an assessment for Rescue Diver too. When I did it over ten years ago, I had to pull a fellow diver onto shore. This time, I had to tow the diver to a boat. I can barely remember my Rescue Diver training, but I feel like this time the assessment was so much easier.

I’m never going to live down the fact that I couldn’t tie the damn bowline. I was doing so well, but it was like all my practice and skill disappeared the moment I got underwater. I got water in my brain or something hah! And don’t even get me started on the 5 Point Ascent/Descent…

And the struggle didn’t end there. The next part of the course felt like a complete disaster. Nothing I did was right, and anything I thought I did well wasn’t good enough. Endless issues, endless frustrations. The stress kept building until it basically turned into a negative feedback loop: the instructor would get stressed, which would make me stressed, which would make the instructor stressed, which made me stressed… you get the idea. It was miserable, to be completely honest.

Oh boy!!! This is a long one because there’s so much that happened and so much to say about it.

A dive shop I visited told me about their Divemaster program, and I figured, why not do it now when I have the time and the motivation! Divemaster used to be a dream of mine as a kid, but as an adult I put the idea on the back burner . I have some chronic pain issues, so working a very physical job was probably not in the cards for me. I also had been enjoying just taking Specialty classes, and didn’t feel like I needed a professional rating.

Despite my many reservations, I decided to go for it. I thought if anything, it would make me a better diver. Plus, if I got in enough dives, it might be a cheap way to fill up more of my logbook!

Now that I’m done with the course I have mixed feelings about my training. Spoiler Alert: I passed! But I didn’t enjoy the experience. We had to figure out the training schedule as we progressed through the course, which made everything difficult because we had such a limited timeframe. As much as I like to think I’m spontaneous, I’ve discovered I learn a lot better when academic activities are streamlined and mapped out in advance (as much as possible).

All things considered I did get the certification, and after a lot of thought and rest… I think I did indeed become a better diver. And I did get in a ton of dives for cheap once I did the math.

Divemasters, once certified, can run and assist several programs. I have personally never met an instructor who had a divemaster as an assistant–it’s probably not cost effective– but that is a career option. Another career option is leading dives as a solo guide, and that’s been my experience.

Equipment! I love scuba equipment. Every time I walk into a shop, I want to buy *everything* even if I don’t need it. I just love all the tools! I needed to buy a few things for the course, and my wallet wept… I mean good grief, who knew a simple dive light could cost so much! Why is my beloved hobby so expensive!?

My course experience was unfortunately marred by some weird behavior from a potential instructor. Happily, I was able to switch to another instructor, but the last-minute nature of the change, the drama, and the fallout contributed to an already stressful learning environment. It’s a great reminder to really check the people who are going to be taking care of you. Plus, never accept bad treatment!

I found the eLearning to be pretty easy. The final module covers the harder topics, but you get access to reference material for the final exam. I was afraid the test was going to be extremely hard because everyone I talked to spoke about it fearfully. I’m terrible at taking tests, but with a little dedicated study I passed with 95%. Not too shabby.

Like I said, it’s an expensive hobby! There are so many costs associated with this course that aren’t talked about–I could barely find info online!– so if you’re considering taking the course yourself I hope this cost breakdown helps you plan/budget.

Nobody EVER believes me when I tell them I need extra weight. I’m buoyant! I’ve had a surprising number of Divemasters and Instructors comment that it looks unprofessional to wear a lot of weight. I think that’s dumb. I’d rather look unprofessional than not be able to get under the water, or shoot up to the surface at the end of a dive.

Ah… the gear exchange! Nightmare!

I do not panic under water. I haven’t ever been in a life-or-death situation that I can remember, but I really don’t panic when I’m diving. This is the first time I’ve done that! I was overexerting my lungs, clearing the ill-fitting mask, then having to hold my breath… it was a recipe for disaster.

For all that I internally panicked though, I somehow kept it together enough that the instructor didn’t realize I was panicking at all. According to him, I was very calm and everything was going great when I suddenly signaled to abort the dive. He was so confused on the surface.

Oof, I cried my eyes out after. I felt like I could barely breathe the rest of the day. It’s upsetting to me that I can consciously understand that I am not in danger, but have my body do its own thing and decide there’s a life-threatening emergency happening. I learned some interesting things about myself that day.