From Newbie to Divemaster - escape the office for a new career!

A lot of people are wondering how does the way to start a new career in diving looks like. So we would like to explain the steps and studies within the program of package 'OWD-DM', offered by XDI.

The package includes 5 courses, each course representing it's unique set of skills and knowledge:

- Open Water Diver, - Advanced Open Water Diver, - Emergency First response (it's a dry course required to continue with a Rescue Diver training), - Rescue Diver, - Divemaster.

Each course has a theoretical part, which consists of self-studies of the manual, lectures, tests and exams. Then goes the practical training with a list of skills to finish.

If you' ve never dived before, you have to start with an Open Water Diver course. That's a manual of 250 pages, 4 tests and final exam. Practically it's 20 skills to master during 8-9 dives (5 of these dives are shallow water and will be never registered in your diving log book). In total OWD course lasts 3-4 days.

Advanced Open Water diver is very important to improve your underwater skills and your mental readiness for unexpected situations. That's a manual of 350 pages..Good news that you have to study just 5 chapters from 16. Each chapter represents another diving type, i.e. deep diving, boat diving, etc. So you free to choose 3 chapters you'd love to study, and Deep diving and Underwater navigation are obligatory. Practically it's 5 dives, one for each chosen adventure. In total AOWD course lasts 2 days.

Further on, you'll have to be able to provide emergency help and care, that's what we do in the EFR course. That's a manual of 70 pages, and an exam. Mastering the skills of primary and secondary care takes 1-2 days.

The rescue skills are still missing. So you run into the Rescue diver course with it's important but fun training. That's a manual of 200 pages, and an exam. Water part has a list of 10 skills and another 2 rescue scenrios to play. Each skill here is a scenario for training a certain rescue technique. Course requires 3-4 days.

Finally we approached the DM course. But - oh! There is an entry requirement: 40 listed dives. Needless to say that total amount of dives, calculated through all your diving courses is inder 15. You may take extra 20 dives package - and we'll give you the rest of missing dives in DM course. During this weeks of diving only you'd better get started with Divemaster theoretical studies, including: - Manual - 200 pages, - Encyclopedia of diving - 250 pages, - Divemaster workbook - 100 pages.

Within the course you will have to study PADI standards, skills demonstration, managing the groups before, on, and after the dive, assisting your instructor in teaching PADI courses of all levels. Final exam will cover all diving theory (i.e. Equipment, Physiology, Physics, Skills, Environment and Standards). Divemaster course requires 10 days at least for those who've already studied all course materials from the list above - while standard duration is 15-20 days.

Then - after you pay the DM fees to PADI - you'll receive a DM file, including the paper certificate, and your first black card (all professional levels cards are black, while the rest are blue-silver-golden), and other surprises from PADI. Be sure that you follow all requirements to work in chosen area - like local work permissions etc. In the future you can impove your career by joining Assistant instructor course, another option is to join Instructor Development Courses (IDC) after half year of practice. Assistant instructors have to attend just a second half of IDC.

Join the team of any diving club and enjoy your new blue office!

#padi #certification #levelup #xdeepimmersion #diving #standards