Six Months in the Fils! Want ot upgrade my Diving level. Where's a Economical School?

[wildlands1]

People, newbie here from Montana USA. Going to the Fils in March for six (yes 6!) + months of travels by motorcycle, island to island, to go diving, among other things (wwnn). Now an open water PADI diver with about 50 dives in the last 10 years. I want to upgrade to advanced, and more, maybe deep, wreck, cave, drift, etc.. Where could I find a good, yet economical school there? Plan on moving there (Dumaguete?) soon after too. Do they hire white guys as instructors like in Thailand? or local pinoys mostly?

 

[Centrals]

1. Not many places offer cave and wreck, especially cave.
2. You can cover many places in the country in 6 months. I hope your paper is in order.
3. Competition, demand and supply! So if you want cheap diving/tuition, you probably need to go to popular places eg. Alona Beach, Moalboal and PG. The cheapest way probably would be all the way from AOW to IDC from the same operator. But you have to ask yourself if it is the best way. Send out the enquiry and mentioning the potential employment as well! Promise is one thing and whether the shop can deliver is another matter!
4. I will let the expert to answer your LAST question.

Sorry for not being helpful at all.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Almost all of the dive guides in our three trips to many destinations were local people. There are also an increasing number of Filipino instructors. This is a poor country and a job in the dive industry is very highly regarded. The customer service skills of the local guides and instructors we met have been superb. I am sure that it would be an excellent spot to do your IDC

Lucky you ...six months.

 

[Bröla]

So you say your heading down to Dumaguete and go from there?
There a loads of good dive operators in the Visaya area and loads of them are in Moalboal on the island of Cebu roughly 2 hours away from Dumaguete with great dive sites and good dive shops to dive with.
There a both foreigners and local instructors around but most of the time the locals are working as guides and i have to say they are very good at it compare to foreigners who can't find a thing =)

 

[opheliafae]

I can recommend a few dive operators around the Puerto Galera area:
Scandi Divers (La Laguna)
Badladz (PG)
Campbell's Beach Resort (La Laguna)

All have great dive instructors and various courses/packages to choose from.

 

[dirtfarmer]

Do they hire white guys as instructors like in Thailand? or local pinoys mostly?

How's your Mandarin Chinese?
If you have multiple language skills it makes you much more employable.

 

[rob1967]

If you are going for 6 months:
1) you are very lucky!
2) You don't really need to figure out now which dive shop you want to train with, because you will have plenty of time to figure out which dive shop you like when you are there.

Since you have so much time, you will have time to check out all the major dive destinations in the Philippines. In no particular order, check out Puerto Galera, Malapascua, Southern Leyte, Moalboal, Dumaguete, and Bohol. If you like shipwrecks, check out Coron too. Maybe others will chime in with their favourites.

You have enough time to spend 3-4 weeks at each place, which is plenty of time to get the lay of the land and figure out which dive shops you like and want to train with. There are plenty of good operations to choose from.

As for getting paid to dive, most westerners will find the money quite small, which is why the locals end up doing most of there dive-mastering. Most westerners will have trouble competing with the locals who dive master as their full-time profession for many years. Since the Philippines is a poor country, locals can survive on the pay of a dive master. Westerners would have trouble surviving on the pay of a dive master unless they are willing to live very frugally.

Instructing is a bit different, but you are still a long way off from that. Start with your AOW, then rescue, then maybe you can think about doing your Dive-master after a few hundred dives.

Have fun!