Its Official!!!!!!

[DeepDiverBob]

I was finally signed off on my DiveMaster today. Paperwork has been sent in. Hopefully I will have my PADI Professional number sometime next week.

[nauifins73]

Way to Go and CONGRATS!!!! Can't wait to see your number.

Becky

[tom725]

I was finally signed off on my DiveMaster today. Paperwork has been sent in. Hopefully I will have my PADI Professional number sometime next week.

Congrats, now you can begin not making any money as a dive pprofessional like the rest of us.

[theskull]

Congratulations Bob!!

DM is a tremendous accomplishment.

theskull

[Atlaua]

Way to go Bob, when's your IDC? :D

[DeepDiverBob]

Way to go Bob, when's your IDC? :D

I'm not going to do AI until the fall.

[ozarkjim]

Don't know how I missed this one until now. Congratulations, Bob.

[nauifins73]

Bob you need to go in a update your profile - you are now a Dive Professional and probably a Dive Shop Staff :)

Becky

[DeepDiverBob]

I am`waiting until I have all the paperwork in hand. Call me superstitious.

[M&P+4]

Congrats! DM seems like a long way off for me, but it is something I'm interested in.

[Atlaua]

I see you fliped the switch in your profile, Bob. You got your number already?

[DeepDiverBob]

not yet, but Chris seems to think it will be any day now.

[DeepDiverBob]

Now its REALLY official.

DM# 194960

[nauifins73]

That is great - congrats!!!!

Becky

[Atlaua]

Only 1090 new PADI DM's between September and now...

[Atlaua]

Congrats! DM seems like a long way off for me, but it is something I'm interested in.

To be honest it's probably not as far off as you think. I see from your profile you are an open water diver. Here is what is inbetween that and DM (from a PADI point of view):

1. AOW. Personally I've never been that impressed with the AOW program. IMHO, it's little more than an opportunity to dive with instructors after your open water. You can do AOW with a night of class and a weekend of dives.

2. Rescue. This is, again IMHO, the best course a person can take. If I were the SCUBA dictator :) this would be part of the open water course. From a diving standpoint it doesn't do much for you as there is only 1 diving skill you need over OW which is a bouyant ascent. The rest is basicly life support stuff. My opinion is that every diver should have this. Anyway from a time standpoint it's not much more than AOW: 1 night of EFR training (if you don't already have it), 1 night of class and a weekend of dives. When I did rescue we added in a pool session, but many shops do not. With the new rules you can do a pool sesson and complete the OW in 1 day. I would also recommend an O2 class.

3. DM. I've seen a lot of people say that DM doesn't teach you to be a better diver, but rather is an introduction to marketing and instruction. Personally, I found this to be untrue. I had not had a lot of opportunity/desire to dive locally until I took this program. I found that diving in the local muck as a DMC improved my skills greatly. It only takes a few dives where your primary concern is student safety before all the stuff you used to think about becomes automatic.

I recently attended a PADI forum and the presenter commented that everyone considers rescue to be their most rewarding class. Not me, DM was by far the most rewarding I have had.

James

[ozarkjim]

Congratulations Bob. I agree, James, that DM had the greatest rewards for me. My instructor believes that the diving part of the course is all about problem solving. Learning dive theory was probably my favorite part though. I do better when I know WHY to do or not do something rather than someone arbitrarily saying "don't hold your breath".

[DeepDiverBob]

Thank you, everyone.

I will probably move on to AI in the fall. I want to work the summer as DM and get a lot more class experience before moving on.