While I obviously can’t claim (yet!) to be an expert DM, I have recently qualified, so I do feel something of an expert on the process of qualifying 😉 Here are just a few random thoughts:

• Choose a busy dive centre. The DM programme is experience-based, so you will need two things: for activities to be happening that you can do, and for people around who you can at first assist or shadow, and who can then sign you off. The centre I chose I already knew having done my Drysuit Spec there, and then when B wanted to do her OW and AOW she went there, so it was the logical choice – and that turned out to be the correct one, as it’s a CDC, so there are lots and lots of instructors around.
• Be aware how much it will cost. First there is approximately £450 to enrol on the programme. Then there is another £150 for the Crewpak and an eRDPML. Entry to Wraysbury is £9 and Vobster £16 or pay £35 membership and it’s £11 (looking back over this blog, that’s 13×9 + 3×16 → £165). Air fills are £3 at Wraysbury and £3.75 at Vobster, you will need at least one per weekend, more for AOW. Mostly I got a ride in the van to the sites, but occasionally I drove, so there was some cost of petrol, and getting to and from the dive centre with all my gear, some cost of petrol and some of taxis, which I didn’t keep track of, but still needs to be considered. After qualifying there is another £120 for the HSE Preliminary, €270 for professional level insurance, and finally £80 for membership of PADI. Those last three are payable annually. So that’s a budget of at least £1300 you will need, in the first year, assuming you already have all of your own equipment. It will be a long time working as DM to make it pay. I don’t want to discourage anyone, but this is something you do need to understand.
• Also it will take a lot of time. Many people take over a year; to do it in 5 months like I did took 2-3 weekends and a few evenings per month. That’s why I say travel costs also need to be considered!
• Do the skills circuit slowly. Slower than that. Now slow it down some more. And do it early on as it’s useful on several subsequent modules. The water skills can easily be done in a surface interval while waiting for a tank fill and everyone offgassing.
• It really helps to have your own equipment, especially a drysuit. I already owned everything, bought over a few years, apart from a tank (£180 from Mike’s next door) and some weights (£70 I think). Students and instructors get priority over the school’s kit. There were a few weekends where if I hadn’t been personally fully equipped, I couldn’t have dived. And drysuits aren’t cheap, so factor that into the budget. There is a very limited window in the UK when you can get away with wearing a wetsuit, especially doing many repetitive dives. It’s possible to do it in all school kit, but it wouldn’t be easy and you might need to split it over two summers. Budget for a full set of UK kit? Maybe another £1000, maybe more
• Never miss an opportunity to dry something or charge something, you don’t know when you might need them in a hurry!
• Get to know everyone – fellow DMTs, qualified DMs, all the way up to the exalted Course Directors. The more people you know the more experiences you have to draw on and the more you will learn, the more opportunities you will have to progress, and last but not least, meeting new people is the PADI way 🙂 But at the same time, understand that you will not be shepherded through DM like a conventional PADI course. You must use your own initiative and manage your rate of progress yourself. I found every instructor more than willing to help if I just asked, can we get this signed off today please? when I felt ready, subject obviously to what the actual class being run was. It helps a lot to build up a store of “good karma” by doing chores like Surface Support or inventorying the kit or bringing in donuts, that you can draw on when needed. Under no circumstances, despite you technically being a paying customer, should you stamp your feet and make demands. It’s not professional.
• I regularly dive with people who have hundreds or even thousands more dives than me, so I am humble and always trying to learn. It is only after 100 dives that you understand how little you really know. But to a student, there is no difference between and DMT and a DM, and you are supposed to exemplify the qualities of the ideal diver. If you make an effort to do so, everything from how you set up your gear, to your buoyancy and trim in the water, it will feed back into a genuine improvement in your skills when you are not “acting”. That is the real secret to how DM makes you a better diver.

I enjoyed the course a great deal and think I got a lot out of it, and I’m planning to do the odd weekend here and there as a pro DM. I’d encourage anyone who wanted to understand diving beyond the purely consumer aspect of it to consider enrolling. Think of being in the audience vs being one of the cast (in the circus a DM is not a ringmaster, more of a clown). When I dived purely recreationally, someone else had made the plan, sorted the kit, knew where we were going, knew their way around there, could help anyone having problems, had figured out what to do if it all went hatstand, had checked the O₂ and First Aid kits and knew how to use them, etc etc etc. I wanted to take a bit more ownership of my diving experience, and I found that I enjoyed working with new divers and showing them a whole new world. But now it is time to do a bit of my own diving, the IDC can wait until next year at the very earliest…