divemaster course recommendation

[Leslie]

Hello, I need a reccomendation for a good dive master course preferably Carribean or US for my 18 year old advanced diver, but open to location. He wants to start in June .. any leads? any experience with dive shops or good instructors? that you like? a lot know someone taht really likes teaching and stimulating young minds... you know a Cousteau type??
any leads with marine science focus?
Thanks a lot
Leslie

 

[daylight]

Leslie,
First of all, welcome to the board.
Your little Jacque is really moving along. I'm assuming he has completed the prerequisite courses for DM. If not, that is a good place to start. ProDive in Fort Lauderdale has a certification mill that you can check out for an intense class format. How many dives has Jacque logged? What are his goals once he becomes a DM? Maybe the two of you could visit with a couple of local DM's and the Instructor that taught Jacque's AOW class and get some advice from them.
Good Luck and Dive Safe.
Larry

 

[ZoCrowes255]

Leslie once bubbled...
Hello, I need a reccomendation for a good dive master course preferably Carribean or US for my 18 year old advanced diver, but open to location. He wants to start in June .. any leads? any experience with dive shops or good instructors? that you like? a lot know someone taht really likes teaching and stimulating young minds... you know a Cousteau type??
any leads with marine science focus?
Thanks a lot
Leslie

You're son and I are around the same age and I recently completed my instructor certification course. It took me two years of working my ass off to get where I am but it was well worth it. I would say that if you were certified by the shop that I work for in the past 16 months I probably had something to do with your course.

Does he plan on using the Divemaster course as a spring board into an ITC? If so I would HIGHLY recomend that he do an "apprenticeship" of some sort with an Instructor. It helps to build people skills and (most importantly) dive skills.

If you want to know more PM me

 

[Leslie]

Thanks Larry and ZoCrowes.. akkk I am new to this formatt and not sure how it reply. Hope this works.....
I like the apprentice format. I am abit concerned about just having him go off to a new area with out abit more guidance. We heard some good things about Utilla's ( honduras) divemaster track however it is such a party island I am concerned it could take him off course. He is a good worker and willing to work in the dive shop etc...
I need specific names of persons or dive shops to call. If you have information as to why you like a particular instructor I would REALLY appreciate it. I suspect that instructor course could be next he has had many different thoughts as to whats next. I would think that the instruction and guidance that he recieves now will birth the next steps.
Thanks for your attention to this
Leslie

 

[Leslie]

Chris where do you work? Where did you do your dive master? why NAUI vs PADI?
Leslie

 

[Lead_carrier]

What about your local dive shop?

Do you have a shop in your area that you frequent? If so then they should be an excellent source of information. If they've been around very long they should be able to give you some recommendations or the area rep should be able give you some locations from different areas.

Personally I don't like the "DM/Instructor" mills. They teach you the information but not the skills. Work as an apprentice for a while. That is where you really learn about being a dm.

 

[Leslie]

I understand that local dive stores are good and ours is but being in no calif the water is cold. we are looking for warmer waters in the carribean or Fla. I don't want a dive master mill either, I am looking for some one that takes interset in their students. I would like a focus towards the marine sciences. He is looking for an experience away from home. Any leads? Thank you
Leslie

 

[ZoCrowes255]

Leslie once bubbled...
Chris where do you work? Where did you do your dive master? why NAUI vs PADI?
Leslie

I work at the Louisville Dive Center in Louisville, KY. I did my Divemaster and ITC through the store (we have 3 Course Directors.)

I chose NAUI over PADI because NAUI and SSI are the Certs the shop I work for issues. I feel that NAUI offers the Instructor more flexibility to teach than PADI. Through NAUI I don't have to teach everything based on a cue card that some guy at headquarters needed. I had a class tonight and after I got finished doing basic skills we worked the rest of the night on buoyancy. I don't think PADI offers that kind of flexibility.

On edit: LDC is not a Divemaster or Instructor mill. We only train those that we plan to use to teach our students (exceptions are local Rescue teams and military) so we rarely run an actual course. It's mainly learning from experience as a TA.

 

[ZoCrowes255]

Leslie once bubbled...
I understand that local dive stores are good and ours is but being in no calif the water is cold. we are looking for warmer waters in the carribean or Fla. I don't want a dive master mill either, I am looking for some one that takes interset in their students. I would like a focus towards the marine sciences. He is looking for an experience away from home. Any leads? Thank you
Leslie

Here is my plan and it may work for him:

I have my Instructor. My plan is to work for a resort or a chartar service like Blackbeards next year. I plan on getting more experience locally.