• Must have a signed Medical Release within 12 months directly preceding the course, and valid throughout. The Divers Medical must be signed by an MD, DO, PA or NP. Doctors Notes cannot be accepted.

• Must hold certifications for CPR, First Aid, and Oxygen provider valid within 24 months directly preceding the course, and valid throughout.

• Must hold specialty certifications for Rescue, Deep, Navigation, and Night.

• Proof of 40 logged dives totaling 25 hours or more of bottom time.

This program is divided into 3 sections:

• Academics:

The course is set up as a partial self-study course. You need to read and watch the digital materials assigned to your MySSI account. You will be prompted with quizzes as you go through the material; please make sure to answer all the quizzes before your class starting date. During the class sessions and independent study you will learn how to lead groups, manage divers, solve problems underwater, and shift focus from yourself to those around you.

• Watermanship:

During the watermanship sessions you will be doing swim exercises as well as refining your dive skills to professional quality. You also learn how to solve problems underwater by doing an equipment exchange with another Divemaster Candidate (DMC). We also bring your rescue skills up to date and to a professional level.

• Internship & Open Water:

After you have completed the Academics & Watermanship skills you are then able to participate in the internship portion of the Divemaster course. This is the final phase of your Divemaster training. The internships include working with part 1 of an Open Water class, leading a number of simulated guided dives, working with continuing education students, mapping projects, dive briefings, and overall helping with certification courses.

Once you have successfully completed your academic, watermanship, internship, and open water requirements (in addition to 50 logged dives totaling 32 hours or more) you are a certified Dive Guide! To be a professional Dive Guide, you must be affiliated with a Dive Center and insured appropriately. To achieve the Divemaster rating (which allows you to work as a certified assistant), you must also have the Science of Diving specialty certification as well as 60 logged dives totaling 40 hours or more of bottom time.

• Must have a signed Medical Release within 12 months directly preceding the course, and valid throughout
  (the physician must be an MD or DO. Signatures from NP, PA-C, etc. cannot be accepted).

• Must hold certifications for CPR, First Aid, and Oxygen provider valid within 24 months directly preceding the course, and valid throughout.

• Must hold a current Assistant Instructor rating from an RSTC organization.

• Must hold a RSTC specialty certification for Nitrox.

• Must have 75 logged dives totaling 50 hours or more of bottom time.
  IE Requirement: 100 dives totaling 65 hours or more of bottom time.

This program is divided into 4 sections:

• Academics:

During the OWI course you continue to refine classroom presentations. This course prepares you to teach programs from the Open Water diver to Dive Guide. It also covers continuing education programs as well as business of diving topics.

• Confined Water Training:

During the confined water training portion of the OWI program you fine tune your confined water teaching presentations as well as get more opportunities to polish your abilities to evaluate student diver skills in the confined water environment.

• Open Water Training:

During the Open water training portion of the OWI program you are fine tuning your ability to create open water presentations. You also refine the evaluation and training of student divers in the open water environment.

• Instructor Evaluation (IE):

The IE is the final exam for an OWI certification. It consists of written exams covering standards and dive physics/physiology, evaluations of classroom, confined water, and open water presentations, as well as evaluating candidates on their ability to recognize and correct problems from students of varying levels.

You will need to show proof of 100 dives totaling 65 hours or more of bottom time to be eligible to attend the Instructor Evaluation.