Master Scuba Diver Trainer, or MSDT, is a rating that PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors can apply for after reaching certain milestones. Specifically, an instructor has to be able to teach five specialty courses, as well having certified 25 PADI divers. It’s an extra step above the first instructor rating, which shows that an instructor has a bit of experience behind them, and a commitment to teaching courses.
When I first started working at Dive HQ, I had slowly started getting closer to reaching the MSDT level. I could teach five specialty courses (Deep Diver, Underwater Navigator, Underwater Naturalist, Search and Recovery Diver, and Boat Diver); but I was still a bit away from the 25 required certifications. My previous dive job was a mixture between dive guiding and running introductory dive sessions (which don’t count as a PADI certification), so I was looking forward to jumping into teaching courses and getting to MSDT.
I’d done my instructors course in Dunedin back in 2021, when I had decided to switch up careers after losing my job overseas because of COVID. The cold water scared me off a little bit so my first job as an instructor was overseas in Cairns, working on a boat running day trips to the Great Barrier Reef. I got a good bit of experience working with divers and enjoyed it over there, but didn’t get much experience actually teaching and running full courses.
When I first started at Dive HQ, it took me a while until I was able to teach. There was about 3 or 4 months of paperwork for me to receive a Certificate of Competency – a certificate that allows you to work as a diver in New Zealand. There’s a big long medical and a tricky administrative process, so I was still going through that until the end of 2022. By the time this finally came through, I was absolutely rearing to get in the water.
My first course at Dive HQ was an Open Water Course in November, where I got my first few official certifications. We took a bit of a break on courses after this one, as the pool was closed over the Christmas/New Years holiday, so that was it for 2022. By the time we were all ready to go again at the start of 2023, I’d done the maths that with the number of courses coming up, I’d be getting my MSDT rating within the next couple of weeks. I started the year off with an Advanced Open Water Course, followed up by another Open Water Course. But of course, things don’t always go off without a hitch.
On the final pool session of that Open Water Course, I felt a bit of a funny feeling in one of my ears. It was a bit of an odd feeling – it wasn’t a squeeze or a barotrauma, but there was obviously something funny going on in there. I left the pool at 9:30pm, and by midnight my ear was in so much pain that I had to drive myself down to the emergency room at the Lower Hutt hospital to see what was wrong. The line there was a bit too long, so they gave me some codeine and told me to go see my GP when I can. I took the next day off work and lay in bed in pretty extreme pain. I tried to go back to work in the shop the next day, but ended up heading back home after about 15 minutes. The following day I finally got in to see the GP, where he let me know I had gotten a pretty nasty ear infection. I was given a treatment of antibiotics and told to stay out of the water until it had all cleared up. So I missed out on finishing off that course… And the next one as well.
By the time everything had cleared up, my timeline to MSDT had been pushed back about a month. This probably wouldn’t have been a huge deal, besides the fact that I’m about to move to the Philippines to work as a dive instructor (hopefully). I really wanted to have the MSDT rating to chuck onto the CV, just to make me stand out a bit more amongst the pool of applicants. So the longer it took me to get to MSDT, the less time I would have to apply for jobs before moving.
My first course after coming back from being sick was an Advanced Open Water course taking place over a weekend. We were all set to go… and then the weather kicked in. Not only was the wind too high, but the visibility completely disappeared, and it was definitely not going to be safe for diving. Push that schedule back another couple of weeks.
By the end of February, I was getting pretty desperate to get to MSDT and start applying for jobs before I got overseas. And that was where my luck began to change.
I put together a Rescue Diver course that went off without a hitch. Then another Advanced Open Water. Then a couple of Open Water classes. Soon, I found myself with 24 certifications, just one away from getting to MSDT. And I had one student that I hadn’t yet certified, waiting on her to finish her online homework. Every day I showed up to work to check whether she had done it yet, and every day I’d see that she hadn’t.
Eventually, I finished off another Advanced Open Water course, before that student had finished her eLearning, giving me the 25 certifications that I needed. I applied for MSDT online, and within about 24 hours the certification had showed up in my PADI account, and everything was all sorted!
Following on from that, the next couple weeks that number of certifications has nearly doubled – we’ve had more Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses, as well as a DSMB specialty and an Underwater Naturalist specialty. We’ve got another Rescue course and a Search and Recovery course coming up, so and everything seems to be going perfectly.
Once I got MSDT I starting applying for jobs in the Philippines, and landed myself a trial as a German speaking dive instructor at a beautiful small shop in Panglao – my time at Dive HQ helped extremely not only with getting me to MSDT, but also for a million little tips and tricks learnt along the way – thanks Claire and Paddy!
Next stop on the instructor pathway is IDC Staff Instructor – let’s see how long that one takes!
