Wanted to change your passion into a career??? Go Pro and become a divermaster!!!

My personal story:

When I started travelling, I always knew the main aim of my trip around the world would include a lot of diving. Travel goal number one would be: Dive as many unique and cool places in the world. And from than on my trip started to lead a life on its own…..

I don’t have enough money to dive all these fantastic places, so I needed a plan. How could I make money and dive all these places at the same time? And out of now where somebody slipped the word, become a divemaster.

Becoming a divemaster?? Me, I am absolutely crazy about diving, but working as a divemaster, don’t I need to be a really good diver? Or know so much about diving?  Quite soon I found out that that is exactly what a divemaster course is….. developing your knowledge of dive theory and develop control and problem-solving of diving activities, map-making and; learning how to guide dive tours and control groups of students, preparing you completely for a career in diving.

And that was absolutely what I wanted, develop my diving knowledge and skills and hopefully travel the world as a divemaster.

What I didn’t realize is that my divemaster course offered more than just diving, it gave me a lifestyle. I got to do, day after day, what I loved doing. Life was so easy, cheap and fun on my tropical island Koh Tao, diving everyday and hanging out with divers from all over the world, who all were as enthusiastic about diving as I was. Together we would cheer after wicked dives, we would go out at night and worked together to become a divemaster. Some of the people I did me divemaster course with became very close friends.

By the end of the three months, I was so upset it was over. I cried me eyes out, but got memories that will last a lifetime. By looking on this website, you know how the story ends…. I never left my island in tropical Thailand! Best decision ever made!!!

The PADI Divemaster course

The divemaster course usually runs as an internship. A Divemaster internship is unlimited in time and dives. You complete the DM course at your own pace. IN general this would be 6 weeks up to 3 months.

To get started, you need to meet the following certification requirements:
Open water – Advanced Open Water – Rescue diver – Current CPR and 20 dives.

Now that you have met the requiremnets and are completely ready to go. What do you need to do during your Divemaster course?

Materials:

PADI divemaster manual - Diving knowledge workbook - The encyclopedia of recreational diving (book or digital) - Divemaster slates -  Instructor manual guides for programs Divemasters may conduct (Scuba Review, DSD, Discover snorkelling) - RDP, Wheel & E-RDP

It is recommended that you have on every dive:
Compass -  Knife / tool -  Timing device & depth gauge (or divecomputer)  - Emergency signaling device (whistle) – SMB

Now that you have met all your requirements, you have materials and dive equipment ready, what can you expect to do during your divemaster course?

Assist the Divemasters

One of the first thing you can start doing during your divemaster course is to assist the Divemasters that are working for the diveshop. Join them on their dives, have a good look at how the trips work and sit in on boat briefings, divesite briefings etc. As well as you can help out the divemasters in preparing the trip, which gives you a good idea what is involved in the dive trips.

Towards the end of your divemaster course you can start practicing leading fundivers around, conduct divemaster conducted programs, like scuba reviews. Obviously depending on your future plans, you can stretch these tasks as long as you can, to get as much experience as possible.

Assist the Instructors

During your DMT you can start assisting on the various courses. This can be open water, advanced open water or rescue diver courses. I would say, try to do at least a few assists on open water and advanced courses and at least one rescue course. On the first courses you assist, you will probably be expected to observe and buddy up with the students. Later on you might get more tasks assigned. As well as by sitting in on the academics of the courses you will get a nice review on your own theory as well. I would also advice to assist with as many different instructors as possible; this gives you a good idea about the different teaching styles between instructors.

By assisting you will become part of an instructional team, and help divers to become certified. As you will find out, it is a very rewarding experience!

Besides assisting and learning from the dive Pro’s, what else is involved in your divemaster course?...

Divemaster theory:

You can prepare yourself up front by studying the encyclopedia, fill out your knowledge reviews and work through the workbook for your exams. Improving your knowledge on the following general topics:

The role and characteristics of a PADI Divemaster
Supervising diving activities for certified divers
Assisting with student divers in training
Dive theory introduction
Decompression theory & divetables

However as part of your Divemaster training you will be able to follow lectures on the following topics to prepare you for you exams.

Physics
Physiology
RDP & Wheel
Equipment
Guiding fundivers / emergency scenarios

Skill Circuit:

During your skill circuits, you will practice demonstrating the different skills that are taught in the PADI courses. This prepares you for scuba reviews and demonstrating skills when assisting on courses. I would advice you to do at least 2 skill circuits during your course. On the first one you can observe to see what skills exist and practice. On the second one you will be scored on each skill demonstration.

Of course you can practice skill demonstration when diving with other DMT’s, when doing safety stops or making fundives. Of course, you will see skills being demonstrated by the instructors when assisting on courses as well.

Emergency assistance plan

During your course you are expected to write an emergency assistance plan about a scenario handed over to you. You will have some experience with this obtained during your rescue course.

Mapping

During your course, you also have to make a map of one of the divesites in the area. This will teach you what is important when it comes to learn new divesites or explain divesites to other divers.

Stamina skills

The following skills need to be done at one point during your course:

400 mtr swim
800 mtr snorkelswim
100 mtr tired diver tow
15 minute float

Specialities

To make yourself more employable after your divemaster course, as well as t improve your dive knowldge and increase your experience even more. A lot of divemaster trainees take additional specialitycourse during their DMT.

Specialties that would be very interested for you as a divemaster trainee would include:

Nitrox, Deep, DAN O2, Gas Blender, Equipmemt, Photography

Fundives

Of course at anytime during the course you can make fun dives. You can either go for a fun dive with other divemaster trainees and improve your navigation skills or just enjoy the marine life.

And before you even realize it yourself it over. You have reached the end of your Divemaster course. To finish of completely you should meet the following requirements:

- have at least 60 logged dives

- Have finished all the DMT course modules

- Have current CPR and first aid training within the last 24 months

Remember that you have to pay PADI a yearly fee to become a PADI Divemaster. The current fee is: 125 AUS$ per year.

A Divemaster course could be completed in as little as two weeks, even though most Divemaster trainees like to spend a little longer, and gain more experience , or absorb a little more of that great tropical atmosphere and enjoy unlimited fundives. Both options are available at most diveschools.

The best place to do your Divemaster training would be on Koh Tao in Thailand.