DARE TO BE CHALLENGED

As the entry point to professional levels of diver training, the PADI Divemaster course plays a pivotal role within the PADI system of diver education. Those who join the ranks of PADI Divemaster will be able to assist instructors with training student divers and may also independently supervise diving activities for certified divers, snorkelers and skin divers. The PADI Divemaster course expands the problem solving skills developed during the PADI Rescue Diver course, and extends them from accident management and prevention scenarios to supervisory situations with both student and certified divers. At the Divemaster level, problem solving emphasizes looking for many possible solutions under the circumstances and choosing the best of several. Divemaster problem solving may include more than just safety related issues, and often looks at customer service, business and operational challenges. The course also addresses attitudes and judgment. Attitudes are emotional influences that shape individual choices ranging from professional behavior, role modeling, personal health and following safe diving practices, to very basic values, such as honesty. Judgment applies attitudes, experience, theoretical knowledge, deduction and intuition to problem solving and making decisions based on variables, sometimes under circumstances that aren’t always black or white. In short the PADI Divemaster course is probably the toughest, yet most rewarding course in the PADI system of diver education.

Course Prerequisites

• Be certified as a PADI Advanced Open Water or equivalent.
• Be certified as a PADI Rescue Diver or equivalent.
• Have completed and logged at least 20 dives. N.B. proof of 60 dives is a certification requirement.
• Be at least 18 years old at the start of training.
• Submit medical clearance for diving, signed by a physician within the past 12 months.

Training Materials

• PADI Divemaster Manual
• PADI Divemaster Video
• Recreational Dive Planner (both table and wheel versions)
• The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
• The PADI Diving Knowledge Workbook

Course Overview

As with all PADI courses the PADI Divemaster course is a performance based course and so the duration of the course is really up to you. PADI recommends a minimum of 50 hours. How many weeks or months it actually takes to complete the course will depend upon your ability/willingness to apply yourself during independent study and attend classroom, pool and open water sessions. We realise that life goes on outside of diving and so we aim to be as flexible as possible when scheduling Divemaster sessions.

The PADI Divemaster course is divided into three parts

1. Knowledge Development
2. Waterskills and Stamina
3. Practical Application

Knowledge Development

Consists of 12 topics

1. The role and character of a PADI Divemaster
2. Supervising and general diving activities for certified divers
3. Assisting with student divers in training
4. Dive theory introduction
5. Physics
6. Physiology
7. Equipment
8. Decompression theory and dive tables
9. Divemaster conducted programs
10. Risk management
11. Business of diving
12. Furthering your dive career

The Knowledge Development performance requirements are meet through a combination of home study (reading the Encyclopedia and working through the Workbook), classroom sessions and evaluation by written exams. You must also complete and turn in each Knowledge Review.

In addition you are also required to complete an Emergency Assistance Plan for a dive site. Evaluation is based on plan completeness in providing information to someone who might need to manage a diving accident at the chosen site.

Waterskills and Stamina

Consists of four exercises each rated by points. There is no passing score, but a combined score of 12 or more is required before certification. ALL of the following exercises must be completed before certification.

• 400 meters/400 yards swim without stopping and without aids, using any stoke.
• 15 minutes treading water, with hands out of the water for the last 2 minutes.
• Using mask, fins and snorkel and swimming with the face in the water, swim non-stop for 800 meters/800 yards.
• Wearing full scuba equipment, non-stop push or tow an inert victim at the surface for 100 meters/100 yards.

Diver Rescue Assessment – You are required to execute an effective simulated rescue of an unresponsive non-breathing diver at the surface (remember the Rescue Diver course ?)

Confined Waterskills Assessment – You need to be able to execute mask removal replace and clearing a mask in a manner than earns a score of 4/5. In addition you need to be able to execute a further 20 skills (as listed below which includes repeating the mask skill) in a manner that earns a score of at least 3. The total score for all 20 must be 68 of higher.

1. Equipment assembly adjust, preparation, donning and disassembly
2. PADI pre-dive safety check (BWRAF)
3. Deep water entry
4. Buoyancy check at surface - attain neutral buoyancy
5. Regulator-to-snorkel and snorkel-to-regulator exchange
6. Proper five point ascent
7. regulator recovery and clearing
8. Mask removal, replacement and clear (to a 4 at least)
9. Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use stationary for 30 seconds
10. Free flow regulator breathing
11. Fin pivot (both oral and Low Pressure inflation)
12. Proper five point descent
13. Remove and replace weight system on the surface
14. Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA)
15. Hover midwater for 30 seconds
16. Underwater swim without a mask
17. Remove and replace weight system underwater
18. Remove and replace scuba unit underwater
19. Remove and replace scuba unit on surface
20. Buddy breathing stationary (donor and receiver)

Practical Application

This involves you putting your skills into practice. There are three required exercises.

Mapping Project – You are required to survey (with a buddy) a dive site or portion of, including underwater and surface feature with sufficient detail that you can create a map of the dive site. The map should show underwater relief, points of interest recommended exit/entry points, local facilities (including emergency contact points – its a good idea to tie your map in with your Emergency Assistance Plan) and potential hazards.

Equipment Exchange – This exercise demonstrates your ability to problem solve underwater by exchanging all scuba equipment with a buddy while buddy breathing. You need to score a 3 or higher on this exercise.

Confined/Open Water Divemaster Experience – By the end of the course you must be able to effectively brief, debrief and conduct activities for a PADI program that may be conducted entirely by a PADI Divemaster. You will demonstrate this by conducting a program in a simulated situation or under the direct supervision of an instructor in a real world scenario. The mastery of "Divemaster Experience" comes with time and we will encourage you to spend as much time as possible in real world teaching scenarios (this is the best place to learn !!) By the end of the course you will also have participated in 5 confined water training sessions with students, 5 open water training sessions with students (one of which must be a con-ed course) and one open water supervisory situation with certified divers.

Please contact us directly for details of course availability
on 01992 650 674