DM internship in vietnam?

[Latinboy]

hello, i was planning to nha trang to do my DM trainning, asked in a few places by inet and found out i could DM certification for "free", as you probably know would had to work for 2.5 month for a couple hours a day and pay the study material, at least thats what they told me, what would be extremely nice because i want to go all the way to instructor, and if i have to pay for DM wont have money to do the DI in this trip, and time only knows when i could come here again, but reading this forum i got the idea that diving in vietnam its not nice (or at least not nice to spend 3 months), i might be extremely wrong on this, but its the impresion i got on this, so wanted to ask if its really like this, do you know a place i could do something like this here on SEasia? thailand or malasya maybe, the work for certification method?, any input is greatly appreciated, thanx
Cheers
PD: sorry for my english

 

[stevenl]

Personally I think this is a very bad method of diver training, but you will see it done a lot on e.g. Phi Phi and Koh Tao. Especially on Phi Phi the diving is a lot nicer than in Nha Trang.

 

[bcdannymalone]

I agree with Stevenl- this is a crappy way to do the course. You end up with more headaches than it's worth. DM course is cheap enough in Asia. However, I would disagree that it's offered in Koh Tao. Spent many years there and have heard of no such arrangements.

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

I maintain that people who are SERIOUS about their CAREER TRAINING are willing to pay for it. In diving, like so many things, you get what you pay for. If you pay nothing for your Divemaster course, that's exactly what you get most times.

We've met DMs that have done the "free" course in various Southern Thailand places and all of them were, to put it mildly, crap. Before they could do their IDC they had to basically do all the DM academics over again. They spent more time pumping tanks, scrubbing decks and working the jobs we have paid Thai staff do do than working on becoming a good, safe DM.

As Steven said, DMs are cheap enough in Asia. Look around. And while you are, consider the all-inclusive package that we offer here at Aquanauts that will take you to DM or OWSI plus toss in UNLIMITED DIVING and about $1,500 in extra free courses (if you book early). See us at the link below.

 

[Mako Mark]

I maintain that people who are SERIOUS about their CAREER TRAINING are willing to pay for it. In diving, like so many things, you get what you pay for. If you pay nothing for your Divemaster course, that's exactly what you get most times.

We've met DMs that have done the "free" course in various Southern Thailand places and all of them were, to put it mildly, crap. Before they could do their IDC they had to basically do all the DM academics over again. They spent more time pumping tanks, scrubbing decks and working the jobs we have paid Thai staff do do than working on becoming a good, safe DM.

As Steven said, DMs are cheap enough in Asia. Look around. And while you are, consider the all-inclusive package that we offer here at Aquanauts that will take you to DM or OWSI plus toss in UNLIMITED DIVING and about $1,500 in extra free courses (if you book early). See us at the link below.

Touche...

I agree 100%

 

[Giap]

An interesting (and most likely satirical) web log about Dive master internships in Nha trang ...http://divevietnam.blogspot.com/

Seriously,
If you wanna do a good divemaster course ..you should pay for it , and go to a "world class diving" destination.
In south east Asia there are a lot of places as cheap as Vietnam ,where the diving is 1000 times better :
Sipadan , Flores ,north sulawesi,komodo ,pulau weh ,malapascua to name a few...
If you decide to do a DM internship in Nha Trang you can expect s**t visibility almost year round ,and a very limited fish life ,due to overfishing.(but i have to say Vietnam is very good for macro ,if you like nudibranchs, shrimps ,frog fish etc you may enjoy the diving there)
Don' t listen the dive operators when they talk of the "possibility" of shark or dolphin spotting in Nha trang ..
it' s just bullsh** ,these guys just wanna sell you some dives,so they will tell you there is a "possibility" you may see a shark, well if you don' t see one they' ll just tell you that you wasn't lucky that day...
Some Vietnamese DMs in Nha Trang have been doing 1000s of dives without EVER seeing a single shark.

 

[Giap]

Besides ,if you do a DM course and pay for it ,try not to be exploited ,the DM course is about assisting a few courses , and learning to plan a dive and guide divers.
It doesn' t mean that you have to work for free !
Same thing goes for the so called "MSDT internship" some people are conned into once they finish the IDC...
it' s just a con.

Just pay your courses ,pay your fun dives , anf the day you feel ready and experienced enough to work ask for a salary !
Don' t listen to the shops who will ask you to work for free to get experienced.

 

[red_barbarian]

Do your DM with a dive shop/resort that has a course director or master instructor on staff. Your going to be learning to guide/rescue/and teach diving, the tanks your going to be carrying look the same every where . If you want to do your DM in Nha Trang I suspect you will be happy w/ either Rainbow divers or Sailing Club divers. Forget the rest. As the prior poster said, sharks and dolphin are never seen. The variety of nudibanchs there is as good as I've ever seen. The fish density is low compared to places like Bunaken, but comparable or better than Pattaya. The viz can be great or crap you'll get both. The most important thing in the end is who you do your training with. Go with someone that runs IDC's regularly and you'll be much happier. You'll be diving as a guide after that, you'll have plenty of time then to look around. Focus on who's teaching you not the price.

 

[Bubble Junky]

Send an e-mail to Pimalai Divers on Koh Lanta, they were looking for DM trainees to do the course at the start of the season, then work the rest of it. I worked there last season - great diving, great set-up.