The first step on the professional scuba dive ladder is becoming a PADI Divemaster. Continuing on with my scuba education this was the next course in my diving story.

Back in 2018 I qualified as an open water diver after several struggles and being supported by a fantastic team of Divemasters. After a couple of years of diving and exploring avenues such as Tec diving. In May 2021 I started the course to become a PADI divemaster myself. But why?

There are many reasons why someone decides to become a PADI Divemaster. For me, it was the chance to help other diving students who have had the same struggles I had while learning.

Quick disclaimer; As with all of my Scuba Education blog posts, this is my experience, thoughts and process that I took. Different dive centres do things in different ways and different divers have different experiences. I will do some more generic divemaster posts later down the line but for now, this is my experience. Also as per my other scuba education posts I do not have many photos! Even more so for the DM course as it’s working too.

Becoming A Divemaster In The UK

A big difference when doing your PADI Divemaster course in the UK is it can take a considerable about of time. A lot of DM courses here will take at least a few months. You won’t find many 2-week divemaster courses around here!

The diving industry in the UK mostly revolves around the weekends and of course the weather. Personally, I think it is great that you get to take your time, get loads of experience and really take on board what is expected of you as a future divemaster.

If you are keen on becoming a PADI Divemaster here in the UK, but you have not got much experience in diving here, then that’s okay. Get in touch with your local UK dive centre, do a bit of UK diving to see if you enjoy it, and then get involved doing your Divemaster. I learned to dive with my dive centre, Scuba Blue, and have completed all my courses with them. So it was only fitting for my step into the professional world to be with them too.

The Theory and The Skills

As with all PADI dive courses, there is a nice thick book of theory to go through. As we are at a professional level the book is quite heavy and contains a lot of content you need to absorb. There are 2 exams to complete after doing the theory reading. Personally, the theory is a strong point for me but I found the last section at the end a bit of a struggle! This is because you need to get your head around the decompression tables and the formulas for them.

As a divemaster in the UK, sections of the book are more aimed at being a Divemaster abroad in places such as the Red Sea. There aren’t many chances you’ll be deciding which vantage point is best on the boat for a view of your divers in the UK. However, this is useful information to know in case I decide to go and DM abroad somewhere.

You will also have a mapping project to complete. I found this good fun, you have to produce a map of a dive site. An underwater map, that could be used on briefings to explain to other divers what to expect on the dive. Key things to put in this are depths, best diving conditions, bearings, things of interest and any hazards that you may occur.

My dive buddy, Joe and I did a local dive site, called Charmouth. We have not dived it often but one that we have snorkelled plenty of times. So have a good birds-eye view of how the landscape changes on the dive. It also allowed us to measure from the shore too. It can be good to choose a site you are familiar with or have easy access to as you will need to visit the site many times to gather all the information you need.

Swimming, Skills and… More Swimming?

A big part of the divemaster training is mastering the skills taught in open water. This includes my least favourite mask skills (although I am much better and more confident at it now!). You need to master all 25 required skills and do them with ease. You also have to perfect the key rescue skills. Raising an unresponsive diver and giving in water rescue breaths. You will have a rescue scenario to complete for the Divemaster course.

The change in the skills here is learning to do it in a demonstration fashion. It took a while for me to get the hang of this as it involved remembering to add extra hand movements and signals. A big part of this was slowing the skill down. As someone who greatly dislikes the mask skills, slowing these down took some time to get the hang of.

My top tip is; Get some sessions in a pool with a buddy to practice these until you are fully comfortable with them.

You also have the water skills/swim tests. Again, another of my weak spots. I have never been the best swimmer. I can swim but not very fast and I am not the most confident without fins. So doing the 800m and having it scored on speed was a challenge.

I did score in this test but made up the rest of the required points in the snorkel swim, diver tow and 15-minute water tread. These other water tests I have a lot more confidence in. Give me a snorkel and fins any day and I’ll swim for ages.

The final skill in this area is an underwater kit exchange sharing 1 regulator. A crazy task to do, not one you will ever do while diving. The idea behind it is task loading. Being capable of managing yourself and dealing with stressful tasks under the water. I actually found this alright, my kit exchange was with my main dive buddy Joe. We were comfortable with each other’s kit as it was fairly similar. We also switched masks first as he started with my mask due to it being a prescription mask. It actually ended up being quite fun!

Out In The Open Water

Then comes the time you’re let loose with students at open water. This can be quite a nervous time as the environment is not as enclosed as in the pool. However, the principles of being a Divemaster do not change. You are there to assist the instructors, support the students and be ‘on it’ if an issue may arise.

At open water sessions, I got to divemaster on courses with loads of divers with a wide range of diving experience. Learning to adapt my level of helpfulness to how experienced the group of divers are. Letting students figure out their problems for a moment before stepping in to assist.

On open water diver courses, I found I was keeping a closer eye on the students and helping with their kit setups and buddy checks. Quite often students would ask me to have a quick look over their kit once they have done it to make sure they haven’t missed anything. If they had then we’d have a quick chat about it and what to look out for next time.

With students doing their deep, wreck, navigation or other speciality courses, a lot of the divers had their own kit and have plenty of dives under their belt so knew what to do when getting ready.

The biggest thing I had to think about when in the water was positioning. Knowing where the instructor needed me to be to keep an eye on the students and be close enough to sort out any issues someone may have. Also what to do if something was to happen under the water, at the start I often thought ‘What am I going to do if ‘x’ happens?!’

Eventually, this all comes second nature and you’ll gravitate to where you need to be. But don’t be afraid to ask your instructor where you need to be and what to look out for. After all, you are still learning and doing a course yourself, I often had to remind myself of this.

Working As A PADI Divemaster

At the end of the day being a PADI Divemaster is a job role. One that entails you being support for the instructor and for students learning to dive. At Scuba Blue we like to look at the Divemaster as an older sibling to the students, and I love this way of thinking.

Someone the student can always turn to for advice, use as a role model and ask the questions they don’t feel that they can always ask the instructor. When it came to our pool training sessions and open water sessions, this is when taking that step out of recreational diving and into professional diving became apparent to me. It was terrifying at first.

Those first few sessions figuring out what needed to be done and how to do it properly, are tough on the mind. It is a lot to remember. Luckily, I was guided by the rest of the team on what the heck I was meant to be doing.

A big part of becoming a PADI divemaster is organisation. For me, this is in my element! Knowing where everyone’s going, what they are meant to be doing and the kit they are using. Laying kit out and setting up for discover scuba sessions, making sure everyone has the kit they need at open water, checking paperwork is completed and signed ready for the dives. When you’ve got 2 courses at open water happening with 5 students on each, there is a lot to sort to get all the students ready to dive.

The other big skill I learned was anticipating problems before they arise. Looking out for any buoyancy issues or free-flowing regulators and then being there ready to assist the student if the issue happens. It might be someone’s fin falling off and grabbing it before it goes to the depths, seeing someone’s mask not fitting great and bringing a spare in case they need it or knowing to bring extra weight with you to complete the PPB course activities.

Knowing the signs of these situations and having that solution ready is invaluable. As well as being quick to react in helping a student so a small problem doesn’t become a big issue.

Do You Want To Be A Divemaster? Some Tips Just For You!

• Work on your fitness. Those swims are brutal if you are not a strong-ish swimmer. If you get the chance, practice swimming and time yourself to see how you will do in the tests. Also, you will be carrying a lot of dive kits and heavy cylinders around so do some strength training too.
• If you are a nervous person you can still be a good Divemaster. This is a whole blog post in itself (watch this space…) but you can be a great Divemaster even if you are a less confident person. Since starting my Divemaster course I have gained so much confidence in myself and my diving. However being more nervous has helped me connect with certain students in a different way, allowing me to offer dive support that works better for them.
• Remember to dive for yourself. I’ll be honest, me and my dive buddy (and partner) Joe, have not been great at remembering to go diving for ourselves. I love being a Divemaster and just want to throw everything into it. It brings me such joy seeing our students overcome a diving fear, take their first breaths underwater or achieve their open water course. So much so that we forget to go and dive for fun! Not only is it fun, but it’s a good chance for you to perfect your own diving and come back with more stories to share with the students.

Becoming a PADI Divemaster is hard work and takes a lot of determination to become a competent dive professional. You are no longer diving for yourself but responsible for assisting in the safety of other divers, which can be scary at first and a big responsibility.

However, I love being a Divemaster and the people I have met through doing this are amazing. It has given me more confidence in myself, my diving skill and my diving knowledge, and I look forward to every Divemaster session. It is so rewarding seeing students go from taking their first breaths underwater in the try dive to qualifying as fully-fledged divers after the open water course.

Are you a Divemaster? Or are thinking of becoming a PADI Divemaster? Share your stories in the comments about why you are/want to be a Divemaster and take those first steps into the professional dive industry.