What it takes to be a PADI Divemaster

In order to qualify for the course you have to:

• Be a Rescue Diver
• Be an Advanced Open Water Diver
• Have at least 20 logged dives
• Be in good health
• Be at least 18 years old (that's in Poland, I'm not sure about other countries)
• Have CPR training, such as the Emergency First Response course

During the trainig, as we've learned yesterday, it takes a lot of reading:) All the books you've read so far and 3-4 more, all the PADI videos plus some more. Apart from that it takes good swimming skills, proficiency in basic diving skills, rescue skills, some instructor training, decompression theory.

You should be able to swim the following distances in given times (that's an average, you can be faster on one and slower on other):

Distance	Time
400m swim	< 11 min
floating on the surface	15 min
800m swim in ABC	< 18 min 30 sec
100m diver towing	< 4 min 20 sec

Basic diving skills include for example: mask removal and replacement, entering the water, breathing from a freeflowing regulator etc.