The Tale of Tater: Why be a Dive Master?

I’m Baaack.  You can all get off the edge of your seats now, the wait is over.  OK so it’s not that exciting, but as far as I’m concerned anything SCUBA is of some interest.

This time I will discuss how I came to the decision to become a DMC.  There are many reasons, both for and against; I won’t be able to cover them all.  I know that I am not the only one who considered it with some skepticism.  I have a lot of fun diving, have a great dive buddy and we always seem to have fun just diving.  I don’t really have a great desire to schlepp tanks around and, don’t figure I can make a living as a DM.  For the life of me, I can’t see any logic in paying for the right to be slave labor on some evenings and weekends. (no offense to anyone who might be into that sort of thing!!)

I had a lot of fun in all of my classes but due to nature of the class it seemed like all of the students in my Rescue Diver class at least considered the possibility of doing Divemaster or Master Scuba Diver.  I had always wanted to take courses to become a better diver.  Deep, Navigation, Night, Search and Recovery, Rescue….Hmmm  Pretty much sums up the requirements for Master Scuba Diver.  I don’t think taking those courses makes one a “MASTER” Scuba diver, but it does give you a good bag of tools to use for diving.  I guess without really knowing it, I had made up my mind on becoming a ‘Master Scuba Diver’ pretty early on.  I’m already pretty close to being qualified and have one more class planned for spring/summer.

So what about Divemaster??  What turned around my skepticism?   Do I really want to teach/lead?  I waited 30 years to get back into diving; I really just want to enjoy it.  Being an engineer (Mike & Lisa LOVE engineer student divers!! Just ask…and ask….and ask) I just had to analyze the pros/cons.  

CONS:

• Not the cheapest course you can take with all the books and videos etc.
• Much more than a book test and a few dives.
• More difficult requirements
• Added Responsibility
• Not really wanting to (help)teach
• Time consuming with an already busy life
• Summers are too short and my wife doesn’t dive
• To what end?

This wasn’t an easy decision to make black and white.  As I said, I was pretty skeptical at first but a few factors not directly related to SCUBA were eating at me.  I had always wanted to go back to school to get my Masters Degree.  I tried several times to take courses but it seemed like every time I did, my job would force me to travel.  Now that I am older, I can’t justify the cost vs. payback on my going back to school.  I don’t want to have the same thing happen to SCUBA.  I didn’t want to find myself in 10 years looking back and wishing I had done it.   I had for years considered a part time job just to get out and socialize with people that weren’t all dorky engineers.  Maybe this was a way to do that.

Being a geeky engineer, all of those side thoughts had to be set aside so I could stick to relevant issues to make a decision.  I still had to finish weighing the pros/cons.  Fortunately humans have an amazing ability to twist statistics,  bend facts and rationalize items into what seems like logic, in order to conclude that which they hope to be true, regardless of reality. (definition of politician)

Pros:

• A good investment in myself physically and mentally.
• Much more than a book test and a few dives.
• More challenging requirements
• Additional Diving Responsibility
• Learning better skills by preparing to demonstrate/(help) teach
• Spending more time doing one of my favorite things
• My wife doesn’t dive
• I will have done it.

For me there was one other item that was really important to me.  I couldn’t stand the thought of not diving from October to the end of May.   As a DM(C) I get to at least get it the pool on a regular basis.   Every time I help in the pool, I get just a little practice in on my buoyancy, my demonstration skills, finning, and of course Schlepping.  In the summer I expect to get in a few extra dives helping with some students.  

Before I close here I have to fast forward just a tad.  It wouldn’t be fair to for me to not confess that while I did not look forward to it specifically, I have really enjoyed spending some time with some of the Open Water and Discover Scuba students.  Seeing the nerves and shivers turn into smiles and fun is pretty cool.  Not as cool as seeing a shark, but still pretty cool.

The meeting of the Underwater Basket Weavers Guild will now begin.

Ok.  From here on out we get into the DM training stuff.  I can’t wait for those end of chapter tests.  

Later,  Tater