Prerequisites: 18 years of age, 20 logged dives (60 logged dives required for certification), PADI Rescue Diver or equivalent, PADI Advanced Open Water Diver or equivalent (experience in deep diving and underwater navigation), CPR and First Aid training within the past 36 months.

The following are the recommended steps to efficiently complete your PADI Divemaster training:

• Get a Medical form signed by your physician before starting anything else.
• Make arrangements with us to complete the required watermanship and stamina skills. These consist of the following:
  400 yard swim (goal: in under 10 minutes)
  800-yard mask, snorkel, and fin swim (goal: in less than 17 minutes)
  100 yard tired diver tow (goal: in less than 4 minutes)
  15 minute tread water (last two minutes hands out of the water)
  You will be awarded points for each of these skills (except the tread) based on the time it takes for you to complete each swim. Your goal is to accumulate 12 total points for all these skills.
• You will be required to perform a simulated rescue of an unresponsive, nonbreathing diver. This is the same rescue you performed in your PADI Rescue Diver class. We suggest you review the Rescue Diver manual and video for information on how this skill should be performed.
• You will be required to demonstrate to the instructor the 20 basic skills from the PADI Open Water Diver Course. We suggest you review your PADI Open Water Diver manual and video before this assessment.
• You will be required to complete a problem solving assessment, which consists of the following: You and a buddy will start in the shallow end on the pool. You will then start to buddy breathe, sharing one air source. While buddy breathing, you and your buddy will swim to the deep end of the pool, where you will exchange tanks/BCDs, masks, and fins. Exposure suits and weights do not get exchanged. Once all gear has been exchanged, you will swim to the shallow end of the pool to complete the skill. The buddy team is allowed 5 minutes to discuss and practice this assessment before starting.

Once all the watermanship and stamina exercises have been successfully completed, you should make arrangements to start taking the eight required written exams, covering the following topics: Divemaster Conducted Programs, Supervising Certified Divers, Assisting with Student Divers in Training, Physics, Physiology, Equipment, Skills and Environment, The Recreational Dive Planner. The first three exams must be successfully completed before starting your internship. The remaining five exams may be taken anytime. The information for these exams may be found through self-guided study in the current Divemaster Manual, The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, and the Diving Knowledge Workbook. The Divemaster Manual has Knowledge Reviews that must be completed and turned in as well. All exams are 20 questions and have a minimum passing score of 75%.

After the first three exams and the watermanship and stamina assessments are successfully completed, you may start your internship, which consists of achieving passing evaluation scores on the following:

• Assisting with one PADI Open Water course pool session.
• Assisting with four additional pool training sessions from any PADI course or program.
• Assisting with one PADI Open Water course open water training session.
• Assisting with one PADI Advanced Open Water, Rescue, or Specialty Diver course open water training session.
• Assisting with three additional open water training sessions from any PADI course or program.
• One supervisory situation with certified divers not in a formal course.

The last portions of the course consist of completing an underwater map of a dive site assigned by your instructor, as well as completing an emergency assistance plan for that dive site. Lastly, candidates will conduct under instructor’s supervision a real or simulated program that certified Divemasters could conduct. This may be a Discover Local Diving, Scuba Review, Skin Diver Course, or Discover Snorkeling.

All Divemaster candidates are required to have the following equipment: Mask, fins, snorkel, tank, regulator with alternate air source and submersible pressure gauge, BCD with low pressure inflator, weight system and weights, exposure suit appropriate for the local environment, timing device and depth gauge or dive computer, compass, knife or diver’s tool, whistle or signaling device.

Required Training Materials:

• PADI Divemaster Manual
• Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving (text or CD-ROM)
• Diving Knowledge Workbook
• Recreational Dive Planner (Wheel and Table versions)
• Logbook

Recommended Candidate Materials:

• PADI Instructor Manual
• Confined Water (pool) Teaching slates
• Open Water Teaching Slates
• Dive Roster
• Skill Evaluation Cue Card

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