PADI Divemaster

Our PADI Divemaster course is the most popular professional level, recreational diver training course in the world and your first step onto the PADI Professional ladder.

You will gain knowledge, supervisory, leadership skills and the management abilities necessary to organize diving activities for others. You will fine tune your dive skills so you can hover like a fish. You will sharpen your rescue skills enabling you to anticipate and solve problems and manage emergency situations.

Fine Tune your Diving skills

You will learn how to supervise and guide other divers, assist PADI Instructors with diver training courses and most importantly become a role model for others.

Become a PADI Divemaster and learn what it takes to become an accomplished dive leader and immerse yourself into a whole new world.

Included in the OTB Diving PADI Divemaster Course

• Lots of real-life experience
• Flexible schedule
• Rental of all scuba equipment
• FREE use of Dive Computer

To enroll on our PADI Divemaster course you must:

• Be Rescue Diver or equivalent
• Hold a recognized First Aid and CPR certificate valid within the last 24 months
• 18 years of age or older
• Have recent diving experience – we recommend completing a scuba review if you have not dived for 1 months
• Logged a minimum of 40 dives to start the course
• Medically fit to dive and cleared for diving by a physician with the last months

Our Divemaster course provides you with a flexible schedule to suit your itinerary and the course itself can take anything from a minimum of 3 weeks to 8 weeks.

All performance requirements are fixed and must be met regardless of the time it takes you to complete the course.

OTB Diving PADI Divemaster Course Candidate Information

The course consists of three sections; Knowledge Development, Water skills Development and Practical Application.

Divemaster Knowledge Development

The all new PADI Divemaster e-Learning will cover the following subjects:

• The role and characteristics of the PADI Divemaster
• Supervising diving activities Assisting with student divers
• Diver Safety & Risk Management
• Divemaster conducted programs
• Specialized skills and activities
• The business of diving and your career
• Awareness of the dive environment
• Dive theory review

The Divemaster video is integrated within the online study materials and each section will finish with a knowledge review. Once you have completed the knowledge review sections and you are comfortable with the information, you will take the PADI Divemaster Final Exam part 1 & 2.

You will also need to prepare an emergency assistance plan (EAP). This is something you should have originally completed in your PADI Rescue Diver Course.

Divemaster Water skills Development

• Water skills exercises 1-4 (400 & 800metre swim, 15 minute float, 100metre diver tow)
• Equipment Exchange
• Diver rescue assessment
• Dive skills circuit (24 skill circuit)

Divemaster Practical Application

The practical application section of your Divemaster course includes a number of in-water workshops, scenarios and assessments.

Divemaster Practical Skills

1 – Dive site set up and management

2 – Mapping Project

3 – Dive briefing workshops

4 – Search & Recovery scenario

5 – Deep dive scenario

Divemaster Conducted Programs Workshops

1 – Reactivate Program

2 – Skin Diver & Snorkelling supervisor

3 – Discover Scuba Diver program in confined water

4 – Discover Scuba Diver program additional Open Water diver

5 – Discover Local Diving in Open Water

Divemaster Practical Assessments

1 – Open Water diver students in confined water

2 – Open Water diver students in Open Water

3 – Continuing Education students in Open Water

4 – Certified Diver in Open Water

Divemaster Professionalism Criteria

You are evaluated on your professionalism and role model behaviour throughout the PADI Divemaster training.

You will be scored on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being excellent and 1 being unacceptable.

You are evaluated on the following criteria and to successfully complete the professionalism section you must score at least a 3 in every area:

• Level of active, positive participation in the training session
• Ability to serve as a mentor to student divers
• Willingness to follow directions
• Positive attitude and demeanour towards student divers, certified divers and staff
• Positive attitude and practice towards caring for the environment
• General understanding of the role of a PADI Divemaster
• Appearance

To be certified as a PADI Divemaster you must meet all the knowledge development, water skills development and practical application performance requirements and meet the professional criteria.

To be certified, you must also have:

At least 60 logged dives including diving experience in deep diving, night diving and underwater navigation.

Completed a recognized Primary & Secondary Care First Aid and CPR course within the past 24 months.

** Additional costs

• 2023 Divemaster Application Fee
• PADI Divemaster Materials
  (Divemaster Digital Crew Pack)

All Divemaster candidates must have a set of required materials for use during the course and to retain afterwards.

• PADI Divemaster e-Learning & Manual
• Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
• PADI Instructor Manual
• Divemaster Slates
• DSD Cue card
• ReActivate
• Digital Electronic Recreational Dive Planner (e-RDPML)
• PADI Log Book

Knowledge & Skills

You will progress at your own pace and receive additional attention in areas you are weak in, as you develop the skills necessary to become a competent PADI Divemaster.

Our Divemaster programs include lots of additional workshops and training sessions that go above and beyond what PADI actually requires.

Our distinctive buoyancy clinics will ensure your skills are of the absolute highest standard and we will turn you into a buoyancy expert who divers look up to.

Our PADI Divemaster Course in more detail

Orientation & Knowledge Development – Divemaster Course

You will need 40 logged dives in order to start your training and we begin the course with your Divemaster course Orientation.

We issue you with the Divemaster Digital Crewpak to get you started with the Divemaster e-Learning.

You will be asked to complete the following paperwork:

PADI Release of Liability

Assumption of Risk

Non-agency Acknowledgment Form

PADI Standard Safe Diving Practices

Statement of Understanding

PADI Medical Statement (RSTC Medical form)

The PADI Divemaster course e-Learning comprises of the modules listed above.

Each module is discussed in the Divemaster e-Learning and comes with a corresponding knowledge review for you to complete. Your Diving Instructor will then review these with you in order to ensure you understand everything fully and assist you with any questions you may have. You will also have to complete the Divemaster e-Learning Quick Review.

As our Divemaster course schedule is very flexible, your Instructor will help you to manage and balance your time, in and out of the water.

Orientation & Knowledge Development

Some of your time will be spent on self-study as you work towards completion of all 9 knowledge reviews, which can be completed before arrival with the Divemaster e-Learning. Once all the Divemaster course knowledge development is completed and you are satisfied with your knowledge, you can take the Divemaster final exam.

The final module of the knowledge development section is the Emergency Assistance Plan (EAP).

You will prepare an emergency assistance plan with the necessary information to manage a diving accident at specific dive site.

Divemaster Water Skills Development & Exercises

There are 5 water skills exercises to complete as part of your PADI Divemaster course. You must score at least 15 points in total to pass this section of the course and your Dive Instructor will review the scoring criteria with you.

The Water Skills are:

• 400 meter freestyle swim
• 800 metre swim with mask, snorkel & fins
• 15 minute float
• 10 metre diver tow
• Equipment Exchange

You will complete the equipment exchange in confined water and you must exchange all your scuba equipment with a buddy whilst neutrally buoyant.

PADI Divemaster Diver Rescue Assessment

During your rescue assessment, you must locate a missing diver who is fully submerged underwater.

The victim will be simulating that they are unconscious and unresponsive and you must bring the diver to the surface in a manner that is safe and controlled for both you and the Victim.

You can then begin to tow the diver back to the boat whilst administering rescue breaths and finish the exercise by removing the diver from the water.

Divemaster Dive skills circuit(24 skill circuit)

During your first skills circuit your Instructor will demonstrate each skill and then give you an opportunity to try it out on your own. During the skill circuits, the objective is to learn how to conduct the skill with demonstration quality.

The PADI definition of demonstration quality is: Exercise is performed correctly, slowly and with exaggerated movement – appeared easy. Showcasing the skill in this manner will score a 5 out of 5.

To pass the skill circuit you must demonstrate all 24 skills listed below, scoring at least a 3 on each one of the skills.

Your total score should be at least 82 points with at least one underwater skill being a 5.

Neutrally Buoyant

To score a 5, during the regulator recovery and clearing & mask removal, replacement and clearing skills; you must demonstrate the skill neutrally buoyant.

Your Instructor will give you lots of time to practice these skills and we will conduct multiple skill circuits with you to ensure your skill demonstrations are as good as ours.

• Equipment assembly, adjustment, preparation, donning and disassembly
• Pre-dive safety check (BWRAF)
• Deep-water entry
• Buoyancy check at surface
• Snorkel-regulator/regulator-snorkel exchange
• Five-point descent, using buoyancy control to stop descent without contacting the bottom
• Regulator recovery and clearing*
• Mask removal, replacement and clearing*
• Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use (stationary)
• Alternate air source-assisted ascent
• Free flowing regulator breathing
• Neutral buoyancy, rise and fall – using low pressure inflation
• Five-point ascent
• Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent
• Orally inflate BCD to hover for at least 60 seconds
• Underwater swim without a mask
• Remove and replace weight system underwater
• Remove and replace scuba unit underwater
• Remove and replace scuba unit on the surface
• Remove and replace weight system on the surface
• Surface dive while skin diving and clear snorkel using blast method upon surfacing
• Disconnect low-pressure inflator
• Re-secure a loose cylinder band
• Perform an emergency weight drop

PADI Divemaster Mapping Project

The mapping project is a lot of fun and can be completed over 1-2 dives, depending on the dive site you map.

With a buddy you will survey a dive site and then draw a map highlighting the underwater topography with references to depth, points of interest and environmental notes and potential hazards.

PADI Divemaster Dive Briefing Workshops

As a PADI Divemaster, you may be expected to guide certified divers and give role model dive site briefings to diving customers.

This is an important skill and something we will work with you over time to develop.

You will use one of your Divemaster slates to assist with the structure and key points of your dive briefing.

Your dive briefing should include:

• Dive plan
• Dive procedures
• Entry and exit techniques
• Description of the dive site
• What marine life you can expect to see
• Hand signals
• Emergency procedures
• Environmental guidelines

PADI Divemaster Search & Recovery scenario

We will start this workshop off with practice on land including; tying knots and rehearsing underwater search patterns.

We find it helps to rehearse these skills on land, before attempting them underwater.

We will also review the characteristics of each search pattern and the appropriate time to use them.

Search & Recovery

This is a two dive workshop and the first dive will focus on underwater knot tying and using a lift bag.

Once you have mastered these skills, we will continue with further challenges.

On the second dive your Instructor will hide multiple items for you to find and bring to the surface and you will need to choose a suitable search pattern to find each one of these objects. During this workshop we will focus on proper dive planning and gas management.

You will prepare and deploy a drop tank at the dive site for emergency decompression purposes and plan a deep dive.

You must then execute the dive based on your plan, while also working on underwater navigation at depth.