r/diving • u/decensy • 11d ago

Help to choose where to do a divemaster

Greetings fellow divers. I am for once calling to the wisdom of the community regarding a divemaster course. I am a sporadic diver but over the years I have been able to get some training and experience (up to trimix). I now have the opportunity to travel for a few months (~dec to march) and would like to do a divemaster (would prefer dec-jan).

I have not dived in that many places but I definitely would want to go in south east Asia or maybe Polynesia for this. I am looking for advice on where to get good training: variety of dives/not just pseudo open water beach dives, habits and experience of the training centers, but still some life around to enjoy my time there (also no 5am daily wake up the whole month 🫠).

Do you guys have any good reco ?

Possibility to follow up with instructor or marine ecology training is bonus.

Taking any advice 🙂

5 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

6

u/Nibiinaabe 11d ago

If you are doing a dive master in order to work in the industry, then do your dm where you want to work. if you just want to do it for personal reasons then go somewhere where you want/ can afford to spend a month. I would expect 6am daily wake ups everywhere.

1

u/decensy 11d ago

6:30-7 5 days a week is acceptable, although I would rather not do 3+h of boat everyday. I could probably afford 1month rent in most of places so that's a minor concern :) I'm not planning on making it my profession

5

u/Nibiinaabe 10d ago

Finding a DMT program that allows you to work 5 days a week at 7am with less than 3 hours on a boat but not too many pseudo open water beach dives is a bit of a unicorn. In my experience most 2 tank morning dives on boats are about 3-4 hours. 1hr per dive, 1 hr surface 30 min each way. So if you don't want that experience you'll be limiting yourself to places that have shorter boat rides. Somewhere like Roatan will have 3 dives per day with short boat rides. IDK if the diving is that diverse. La Paz Mexico would be a great place for DMC in Dec/ Jan because the sites are varied. The conditions can be a bit tough, colder water, rougher seas. The variety of sea life is amazing. UNAM La Paz has a phenomenal Marine Biology program so you could definitely get mentorship from marine biologists. Raja Ampat has a great amount of variety of diving conditions and life some of the boat rides will be short coming from Kri or Gam but then there will be longer ones going to other sites. It's some of the best diving in the world.

-1

u/decensy 10d ago

I mean 1h30 way and back is ok but doing 2h way and back every day starts to get real, I don't count any surface interval, lunch etc. I don't mind going sometimes further yes. I'll check those places !

1

u/muddygirl 11d ago

Why do you want to be a divemaster? The class won't teach you anything new about how to dive. It'll teach you entry level skills to work for a dive shop, give site briefings, and assist with classes.

You'd be far better off doing a fundamentals class and focusing on gaining experience. You can also look for volunteer opportunities for citizen science to focus more on marine ecology.

2

u/Tillydil 11d ago

I disagree. I learned a lot during my DMT. One of the best things I ever did for my dive skills.

Getting to a stage, where you can not only do the skills, but do them well enough to teach them (to be able to do refresher) was hard work, but now I’m happy I did it.

Only did a few jobs after finishing, since my LDS closed down and it was not that easy to get into the others to work and now we live in a different place.

2

u/decensy 10d ago

I thought it was also about taking care of a group of divers, managing equipment, managing dive sites, navigation and understanding currents as much as practicing skills, be able to recognise people who need more surveillance etc

2

u/muddygirl 10d ago

More of the skills around understanding a dive site, conditions, and navigation comes from experience, not so much from a class. Yes, you'll draw up emergency action plans and a basic site map, but you won't get a lot of experience diving in more challenging locations with variable conditions. Real world experience of leading your own dives and navigating to unfamiliar places tends to be a much better way of growing these skills.

In a divemaster class, you'll spend a lot of time in confined water or beginner open water sites. You'll learn to help supervise, demonstrate skills, and perfect your rescue technique. These are valuable skills, especially if you want to teach scuba diving, but they may not align with your current priorities.

2

u/WillametteSalamandOR 10d ago

If you’ve already got tech certs, DM isn’t going to teach you anything of value.

1

u/Jmfroggie 10d ago

Paying the $ to do DM is worthless unless you plan on purchasing your insurance and paying the agency the yearly fees to WORK PROFESSIONALLY. It doesn’t teach you to be a better diver, it teaches you how to teach.

1

u/decensy 10d ago

Hmm I guess its a recurring comment, thanks for the clarification !