How Long Until I Become A Master Scuba Diver?
How many weeks will it take, if i’m in the water for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, to become a master scuba diver?
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You could do it in about three weeks. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s possible.
The three week time frame assumes perfect dive conditions and it assumes no problems on your end (ear or sinus issues, for example).
Here are the minimum requirements for Master Scuba Diver and how you might go about completing it in three weeks time (diving five days/ week):
WEEK ONE
Open water certification (3 days / 5 dives)
Advanced Open Water certification (2 days / 5 dives)
WEEK TWO
Rescue Diver certification (2-3 days)
Five specialty certifications (6-15 dives)
WEEK THREE
Finish any remaining specialty dives and continue diving to meet 50 dive requirement.
Something important to keep in mind: you can do a maximum of three training dives in one day. That’s why it takes a minimum of two days to get your Advanced Open Water cert. That said: there isn’t a limit to how many dives you can do per day towards the minimum 50 dive requirement. So you could do three dives for your advanced class and then log a couple fun dives afterward towards your 50 for Master Scuba Diver.
A few things you should know about specialties:
* Non-diving specialties count toward your master scuba diver rating. so, if your instructor was willing, you could do three dives for your advanced class and then go back to the classroom and knock out your Equipment Specialist specialty (no dives for that one).
* The dives you do as part of your advanced certification count toward dive one of a specialty. So, for example, a deep dive is required for an Advanced Open Water certification. That dive counts toward the deep diver specialty. The three dive deep diver specialty is cut down to two (at the instructor’s discretion).
* You can do the Enriched Air specialty at the same time you do your Advanced class (PADI only).
Keep in mind that the Master Scuba Diver rating exists to denote well-rounded, experienced divers. So I would encourage you to pick specialties because they interest you, or because they will increase your enjoyment of diving – not because they get you to Master Scuba Diver faster.
I recommend Peak Performance Buoyancy for all my students. It’s only two dives and you can knock one of them out in your Advanced class. I also recommend Equipment Specialist because you’ll learn about the “care and feeding” of your gear. Enriched Air and dry suit are also useful depending on the type of diving you do – also, you can’t rent a dry suit or get a Nitrox fill without the appropriate specialty rating. I also recommend DPV (if your dive operator offers this one). They’re really fun and something you can get the hang of pretty quick.
Have fun!