Divemaster or Dive Guide?

We commonly refer to professional divers who escort us on dives in exotic places as "divemasters." But are they?

A PADI Divemaster has received certification after demonstrating swimming and lifesaving skills, among other things, and they'll have a certification card to prove it. (You can always check with the dive operations manager.) A divemaster is trained to assist PADI diving instructors by covering safety aspects when teaching. Often divemasters demonstrate some skills to the students, but in classes, their role is to take action should, say, a trainee decides to break for the surface while failing mask or regulator-clearing skills. Divemasters are trained in supervision, risk management, rescue, first aid, and CPR. They have a duty of care, the responsibility to look after you.

The local guys who escort you on a dive might well be certified divemasters, but often they're just guides who know the sites, can point out interesting features in wrecks, and can find you a hairy frogfish or a pygmy seahorse. They're underwater tour guides, probably without the duty of care to supervise divers accompanying them. If they're not divemasters, they should not be called a divemaster. You can't expect them to be well-trained in risk management and rescue, and you can't be sure they have a duty of care if you get in trouble.

Too much new diver training these days leans toward quick certification for those who pay for courses rather than ensuring they become competent, autonomous divers. The commercial pressure to certify people in short order means that many newly certified open water divers expect to be looked out for rather than being able to look out for a buddy.

Nowadays, it's common for a group of divers to follow the local dive guide. They assume he will be able to unravel any problem that arises. However, if two or more divers have a simultaneous problem, causing one diver to head for the surface while another sinks, for example, a single dive guide will be in a quandary, unable to respond to both, with no help from his barely trained certified divers. You can't even be certain a dive guide has the duty of care, with a responsibility or skills to aid divers.

While Undercurrent subscribers tend to be well-trained and experienced divers, your impromptu buddy may not be, especially if he was assigned to you. Discuss the dive leadership with him. You may not want to be diving merely with a guide, if your buddy really needs a divemaster.

- John Bantin