PADI professionals and dive-centre / resorts are competing with each other to get as many divers as possible up to Master Scuba Diver level before the end of the year, as the training agency incentivises its members to make savings by maximising their ratings.
For the trainees themselves there is also a Maldives dive-trip for two up for grabs.
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MSD is the highest attainment for a PADI non-professional diver, or “the black belt of recreational diving,” as PADI Worldwide growth & marketing VP Lisa Nicklin puts it. “We are rallying PADI members to challenge more scuba divers to continue their education and transform them into confident and prepared divers,” she says.
To gain MSD status, students have to complete the Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver courses and five specialities as well as completing 50 logged dives.
The MSD Instructor Challenge is open until the end of the year to any qualified member, with those showing the biggest percentage growth in MSD ratings from 2023 winning their competitor category.
Members compete in groups, with individuals and dive-centres or resorts evaluated separately for each region based on their previous MSD rating statistics.
Each competitor group (four for individuals and four for dive-centres and resorts per region) is awarded one first-place winner, for a total of 24 first-place prize-winners overall. They win free 2025 membership renewals online and bragging rights, while all participants in the Master Scuba Diver Instructor Challenge have their 2024 MSD application fees waived.
Maldives incentives for students
PADI is also providing an incentive for students working towards receiving their Master Scuba Diver rating during the competition period.
They stand to win a free dive-trip to the Maldives, with return airfares for two to Male and six nights’ full-board with two dives a day at Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa. Two additional winners will receive a recreational PADI eLearning course of their choice.
To enter the giveaway, participants sign up and answer the question: “Why do you want to be a PADI Master Scuba Diver?” They receive additional competition entries based on the number of PADI courses completed on their way to MSD status.
This includes 10 entries for an MSD rating, five for Rescue Diver, three for Advanced Open Water Diver, two for a speciality, one for an Open Water Diver and five for becoming a PADI Club member.
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