NAUI Master Scuba Diver

Age: Minimum is 15 years of age.

Diver Certification: NAUI advanced certification or the equivalent is required.

Equipment: Students shall furnish and be responsible for the care and maintenance of their own equipment. The instructor shall initially assist the student in checking all student gear to ensure it is adequate and in proper working order.

Hours: Academic - 23 hours estimated. This includes classroom sessions and on-site discussions, briefings and debriefings as necessary to prepare for or conclude a dive's activity in confined or open water.

Open Water Dives: A minimum or eight open water dives is required. A maximum of four dives per day shall be applied.

Diving Equipment: This area reviews and expands upon the information presented in the Scuba Diver Course by covering the care of equipment, detailed functioning, specialized gear and applications, plus additional gear to be used in the Master Diver Course. Technical information on scuba mechanics may be included.

Diving Risks: This is to cover rescue, first aid and emergency procedures as applied to diving in open water. Underwater communication, orientation and navigation, the environment, dive planning, and safety measures, including the benefits of emergency oxygen first aid, are also to be covered. First aid is to include the definition, types, causes, prevention, signs symptoms and care of: shock, wounds, drowning, heart attack, fractures, sunburn, overheating, exposure, hypothermia, lung over expansion injuries, decompression sickness and seasickness. Rescue training is to include problem recognition, diver assists, rescues, in-water rescue breathing techniques, transports, carries and an orientation to CPR.

Diving Environment: This area is to provide the diver with a better understanding and appreciation of both the physical and biological aspects of the environment which affect or engage the diver. Coverage is to include: plant and animal identification, relationships, dangers, regulations and uses; conservation, preservation and pollution; water movement and characteristics; shore, bottom and surface conditions; and diving locations.

Underwater Navigation: This area provides the diver with the skills needed to use a compass and natural aids for orientation in order to: establish relative position, swim in prescribed directions for set distances and find particular locations while submerged and at the surface.

Limited Visibility Diving: This area prepares the diver to function safely and effectively in dirty water or at night. The problems, techniques, skill levels, hazards and safety procedures are to be covered.

Search and Recovery: This area provides the diver the information and training needed to select an appropriate search pattern and method for a given area and then perform a search using proper techniques. The problems, planning, methods, techniques and equipment are to be covered.

Light Salvage: This area prepares the diver to recover intermediate-sized objects with limited or basic equipment. Theory, problems, hazards, methods, gear, rigging, calculations and principles involved are to be covered.

Deep and Simulated Decompression Diving: This area enables the diver to anticipate and prevent problems, utilize concepts, methods, and equipment used in this type of diving. The diver is to acquire a thorough knowledge of the dive tables. Deep diving in this case is defined as any actual or simulated dive made between 60 and 130 feet (18 and 40 meters).