DIVEMASTER
Do you envision yourself as a future leader within the diving industry? Maybe you’d like to refine your diving skills, learn how to anticipate and solve common diving problems, increase your diving knowledge, or learn to safely supervise divers above and below water. Whatever your reasons, becoming a divemaster has numerous benefits and opportunities for personal and professional growth. During your training, you will work along-side your instructor as you learn how to conduct Discover Scuba Diving and ReActivate programs, dive site set up including current checks and deep dive set ups, dive site mapping and dive briefings, guiding divers underwater, and many more leadership skills. Through hands-on experience, you will gain the skills and confidence to become a leader within the diving industry.
WHY BECOME A PADI DIVEMASTER
There are many different training organizations throughout the world, so why pick PADI? PADI stands for the Professional Association of Diving Instructors and is the world’s leading scuba diver training organization. With more than 50 years of training experience certifying over 27 million divers, PADI has developed a comprehensive curriculum featuring books, videos, and materials in almost every language. Enrolling in a PADI course taught by PADI Instructors ensures that you are learning in an industry-leading environment in regards to safety and quality of teaching. Lastly, their certifications are acknowledged worldwide, making it possible for you to use your PADI certification around the globe. We are proud to be a part of the PADI team and transform lives through scuba diving.
There are numerous benefits to pick PADI specifically for your Divemaster training. As a world leader in scuba diving training, once you complete your PADI Divemaster training you will have access to dive centers, boats, and clubs throughout the world to start your professional career.
If you are considering starting your divemaster training, but would like to talk to one of our professionals, contact us.
WHY WITH DECO DIVERS?
Our team of instructors at Deco Divers has an outstanding reputation for providing fun, safe, and transformational courses and experiences. What makes us so great? Well for one, our team of instructors are trained and supervised by PADI Course Director Ahmed Mamdouh. We offer a high level of training in a variety of conditions, with personalized teaching, and a strong emphasis on marine conservation. Our knowledge, passion, and experience, will help guide you in becoming a leader within the scuba diving industry.
HIGH QUALITY OF TRAINING
Diving is more than just a career for our team. Many of our Instructors and Divemasters walked away from professional careers to pursue their passion for diving. That passion leads us to go beyond the requirements for course completion. We strive to create divers who are confident and competent underwater, advocate for marine conservation, and see the opportunity for lifelong underwater exploration. Lastly, our team of instructors are extremely flexible and can deliver course exercises and instruction in a wide variety of conditions and locations.
WE MAKE TIME FOR YOU
We believe in personalized teaching. We believe in teaching in small groups to ensure we are fully dedicated to helping you learn the knowledge and skills to succeed as a PADI Divemaster. Whether you need additional practice in mastering a skill, or would like more information about an important topic in dive theory, we believe in taking the extra time or adjusting our instruction to make you feel more comfortable and competent above and below water.
Since we believe in personalized training, we offer flexibility when conducting your divemaster training. Whether you’re a working professional who would like to complete your training on weekends and/or holidays, or an individual who would like to complete your training during consecutive weeks, we can customize your divemaster course to meet your needs.
SAFETY FIRST
As a divemaster in training you will not only learn from an instructor who places your safety first, but you will also be responsible for creating a safe environment for the divers you are leading. Preparing an emergency action plan, conducting dive site checks, refreshing your first response skills, and practicing deploying a surface marker buoy are just a few of the safety skills you can expect to learn in your divemaster training. Safety is always our number one priority and we strongly believe in helping our divemasters understand the responsibility they carry in keeping divers safe.
LARGE VARIETY OF DIVING
As a PADI Divemaster, you’ll lead others as you supervise scuba diving activities and assist with diver training. Our team offers a wide variety of diving activities that range from shore diving, boat diving, safaris (or liveaboards), and even global trips. With so many different opportunities for diving, our team draws upon our extensive experience to mentor you throughout your training. Our team also provides you with hands-on experience in a wide variety of conditions, to ensure you have the knowledge and skills to work in a wide variety of dive operations.
THE PADI DIVEMASTER COURSE
The PADI Divemaster course is your first level of professional training. Working closely with a PADI Instructor, you’ll fine-tune your dive skills, like perfecting the effortless hover, and refine your rescue skills so you anticipate and easily solve common problems. You’ll gain dive knowledge, management and supervision abilities so you become a role model to divers everywhere.
As a PADI Divemaster, you’ll lead others as you supervise scuba diving activities and assist with diver training. Whether you want to work at a faraway dive destination or close to home at a local dive shop, the adventure of a lifetime awaits you. PADI Divemasters are respected dive professionals who are aligned with the largest and most respected dive organization in the world – PADI.
The theory portion of the Divemaster course can either be completed using independent studies based instruction or through PADI’s elearning modules. If you chose to complete the independent study the PADI Divemaster Manual will be provided to you by your instructor. Like all PADI Manuals, the book is broken into chapters that contain both quick review questions and knowledge reviews to help assess your understanding. The topics you will learn are the roles and characteristics of a PADI Divemaster, supervising diving activities, assisting with student divers, diver safety and risk management, divemaster conducted programs, specialized skills and activities, the business of diving and your career, awareness of the diving environment, and dive theory review. At the conclusion of the course, there is a comprehensive theoretical exam.
As part of your training, you demonstrate competency in a variety of water, diving, and rescue skills. Your performance for each skill will be scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with minimum total scores needed to become a certified PADI Divemaster. At the start of your course, your instructor will go over each of these assessments in depth and help you understand how you will be evaluated. For the water skills you will need to complete a 400 meter swim, 15 minute water tread, 800m swim with mask, snorkel, and fins, 100 meter tired diver tow, exchange equipment underwater with a buddy, respond to an unresponsive, non breathing diver, as well as be assessed being able to demonstrate the 24 essential scuba diving and snorkeling skills.
PRACTICAL SKILLS:
To safely lead divers underwater, there are a wide variety of skills you will need to learn to help divers prepare for their dive and to safely supervise them underwater. The tasks you will learn to complete are dive site set up, mapping a dive site, conducting a dive briefing, searching for lost items and recovering them, and also setting up safety equipment for deep dives.
DIVEMASTER CONDUCTED PROGRAMS:
Depending on your local regulations, there are several programs that you are qualified to deliver as a certified divemaster. Those programs are ReActivate, Skin Diver Course, Discover Scuba Diving in confined and open water, and Discover Local Diving open water. During your training, you will work closely with your instructor to learn how to deliver each of these programs.
PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT:
As a PADI Divemaster, one of your major roles within a dive operation is to assist instructors with student divers. This is an important responsibility, as you are often a part of divers’ first underwater experience while providing assistance and support to the instructor. During your divemaster training you will receive hands-on training working with student divers in the open water scuba diver course and continuing education courses.
PROFESSIONALISM:
As a professional diver and leader within the diving industry, you are now responsible for the safety of other divers. As such, professionalism is extremely important. During the course of your divemaster training you will learn about the roles and characteristics of a PADI Divemaster in both the theoretical and practical components of the course. At the conclusion of your training, your instructor will assess you on your level of activity, positive participation in training sessions, ability to serve as a mentor to student divers, willingness to follow directions, and positive attitude and demeanor towards student divers, certified divers and staff.
To enroll in the divemaster course, you must be at least 18 years old, certified as a PADI Rescue Diver, and meet the following criteria:
- Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and First Aid) training within the past 24 months.
- A medical statement signed by a physician within the last 12 months.
- At least 40 logged dives to begin the course and 60 dives to earn certification.
Note that qualifying certifications from other diver training organizations may apply. Please contact us for more information.
Your Divemaster course is completed after you successfully finish knowledge development in the PADI Divemaster Manual, create an Emergency Assistance Plan, complete water skills exercises, diver rescue assessment, dive skills workshop and assessment, and practical assessments. Upon completion of these, you and your instructor will complete the PADI Divemaster application and submit it to PADI. Unlike recreational courses, there is a processing period that typically takes 10-14 working days until your certification becomes active. Once your paperwork has been processed, PADI will issue you a PADI Pro number that can be used as proof of your certification level until your official documents arrive in the mail.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Once you’ve completed your Divemaster course, there are several different options for you to continue to enhance your diving skills. You can continue to advance your skills and knowledge by completing additional specialty courses. Wreck, deep, drift, and enriched air are all great specialities that will help enhance your skills as a dive guide. For information on our available specialties, please take a look at our specialty page.
You can also expand upon your professional training and become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. To become a scuba instructor, you must complete the Instructor Development Course, which must be led by a PADI Course Director. For more information about our PADI Course Director, Ahmed Mamdouh, and the IDC please check our IDC page or send us an email.