Live Aboard Advice

[dive-spot]

Objective:
The work on a live aboard as a dive master and gain experience to become and instructor.

Present:
I am new to scuba. I am certified just over 1 year and in this last year I have logged 56 dives to date. I am (NAUI) AOW certified and am planning on taking Rescue and Master Diver over the winter. Then starting Dive master next summer. I have dived everything from mud puddles with 3-inch vis. in calm waters to Flower Garden Banks NMS with strong currents in 6 ft swells.
I am a 28-year-old male with no wife or kids with very little debt.


Question:
What is the best way to go about getting a job aboard a live aboard? Are there live aboard jobs that will hire before you are a dive master? Is there a trade magazine with jobs listed?

I have been land locked all of my life with no prior boating experience. But, I have always loved the water and have a strong desire to work on it. I have looked into places like Halls Diving Institute but I don't think starting a new career $18k in debt is the best idea. I would like to here any advise on this matter. I would like to come up with a plan that will make me a great diver/dive master/instructor in the future with as little room for failure as possible. I am willing to work anywhere in the world.

 

[scubajoe]

Check the live aboard companies website. Peter Hughes has a link to employment. I am sure the others do too. PHD requires you have a certain type of safety training. It is mentioned on their site. I think it is a Coasy Guard requirement so it would be benificial to have. Talk to Captain Frank on the Fling in Freeport or the capt of the Sea Searcher, I think that is the other boat company at the flower gardens, and ask them for advice.
As to hiring you as a dive master, probably but any other skills you can bring to the boat will be benificial.
Good luck,
Joe

 

[Belushi]

it is not a link to jobs, but my two last liveaboards. I did nto work them I was treated as a guest.

http://www.dsproffitt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/home/Diving/what its like.htm

You could also try Dive Centres in Egypt(Hurghada/Sharm in April), Thailand (Phuket in November) Indonesia (Bali) these are places that I know employ single-language instructors (like me)

It would also help if you were an instructor. Egypt has a NAUI chapter, Phuket is almost exclusively PADI and Bali is a PADI enclave as well.

If you speak another language, this is the biggest bonus of all. Especially if it is a major European one (French, German, Spanish, Scandinavian) or Japanese.

It will be hard work to find a job, but once you make it is fantastic. I did it for two years in Thailand cruising up to Myanmar(Burma) and discovering new sites in unexplored territories,
Good luck

 

[jcorreia]

good luck and take care