newbie looking for DM internship advice. Roatan or Utila??

[diversteve]

First of all you prioritized the OP's mention of wanting to get a DM over:

Im also looking for some fun night life, nothing too crazy would love meeting new people and preferably a younger crowd as well.

Cocoview is a stretch for both. It's ok Robin, we're old. Just not willing to admit it yet...

Yet without working too hard I can name at least a dozen bars/clubs in the West End. And several training organizations have already been specified that are mostly a younger crowd. Not that the three DMC candidates at CCV aren't but the dozen plus at Coconut Tree are also.

The West End has food in all price ranges also. They have all of what passes for nightlife on Roatan - unless your definition is limited to sitting around the dive resort bar. If that's the case, Anthony's Key's bar is a whole lot nicer. Or some of the West Bay properties.

I tried to come up with solutions where both had almost equal weighting. As did most of the others respondents. If all the OP wants is DM training he can do it a lot cheaper in the states. Is there any research diving done at Cocoview? Barefoot seems to have some - news to me as well I admit - but I was only there once. And RIMS at AKR also possibly.

As some, including me suggested, maybe DM isn't in his best interest - he never plans to be one and seems more interested in research diving and enjoying his time there.

Maybe what we all should be suggesting instead is he find an AAUS program somewhere instead. I don't think there's any on Roatan but I'm fairly sure there's a couple in Belize. One around the Sapodilla Cayes reserve, IDK where the other is. Actually one of them does coral reef research so that might be his best option. Not the one that does all the certifications while you help with the "research" but there's another one.

CCV is the best place on Roatan to dive-dive-dive though - I'll concede that. But it's just too far removed from everything else to be an effective base without doing a lot of travel to everything else. For just plain diving, I can do a month in the West End for what a week at CCV costs also - or close to it. No idea what their DM training costs are.

 

[Doc]

I think the OP, ScubaDavey has surely been pointed in the right direction, Utila or West End.

For the other 250 "views" this thread has already garnered, some may have different requirements.

If all you want is the DM Program and not concerned with night life, the CocoView answer with Dockside Dive Center is the best answer. Roatan Divemaster Internship at Dockside Dive Center, Western Caribbean (Lots of good general DM information there)

My personal experience? In 2000 I decided that I had the time to do PADI DM and IDC. This was after 30 years of diving on my original card.



These cards go back to a time when you could actually get both cards by only training in a pool. Times changed.

I am (and was in 2000 during DM) one of those:doctor:grey hairs (what there is left, anyway) sitting at the CocoView Bar, drinking my iced tea.

So I had a whole lot of dive experience, dry suit, tri mix, ice, and cards like PSD, BSAC, CMAS, all that alphabet soup.

In advance, I read and memorized :cyborg: the DM Manual, took the quizzes, read the Encyclopedia of Diving, did a local Red Cross First Aid Course... and packed my bags for two weeks at CCV with Patty Grier. She was certified by Ralph Erickson himself, and has owned Dockside Dive Center on Roatan for 29 years IIRC. Stability. She is well regarded in PADI Management as a model instructor and Operator. Long term says a lot.

A large percentage of people go through DM to "learn about diving", and likely most will do so. Most of these people are kept in that internship capacity for an extended period of time, hauling tanks and making coffee... along with nightlifepartying. Not me, I do not wish to be slave labor.

You can do the program at as leisurely a pace as you need to acquire skills necessary for completion.

There is no reason that any competent diver with earned self confidence cannot complete the DM requirements in that two week period. I added the additional stressor of completing the Rescue Cert in that same period. Bang, bang, done. Read everything, do all the quizzes, before you go to paradise.

But that was just me, it worked for my needs. I do not need nightlife- for me that was diving every night. Dockside provides beach house lodging which is walking distance and professionally security patrolled 24/7.

If one of the 250 "viewers" of this thread (so far) is in the pipeline of taking this DM process with perfect seriousness, with full intensity of focus, Dockside is where I would refer you, again~ from my personal experience. It fit my needs. Time expended was a considered factor.

A week later I went to a PADI IDC and walked through it without a stress.

This isn't for everyone, but it is for some. Maybe somebody reading this thread will find it striking a chord.
.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Doc, that is one great footnote to this thread!

 

[Stout]

Well it looks like scubadavey isn't returning to his thread so I might as well hijack it,

With regards to working as a dive professional.

I've seen several divemasters and more than a few instructors working with shop gear. Only one shop that I talked to about this stated theat they wouldn't hire a professional who didn't ow their own gear.

Is this working with shop gear a thing on Roatan as well or do their professionals need to be fully equipped?