DM Internship - where to go?

[fless1]

Hey everyone

I am PADI Rescue Diver with 400+ dives and have just taken voluntary redundancy. Hoping to rent house out (anyone want 1 rent 1 bed semi in Essex?) then head out to Asia to do DM, IDC.

Can anyone suggest a great dive center with professional staff, with good diving and good accomodation (and a good bar!)

I have min 6 months (poss a year depending on how long I can rent and how long the cash lasts), and want as much training and to get as much experience as poss then to hopefully get job somewhere - so might train in Philippines then look for work in Thailand for example.

Has anyone had experience with Thresher Shark Divers on Malapascua? Some friends of mine say that one of the partners (Andrea) is a bit of a bitch, but that may be from an altercation they may have had and not a true representation of Andrea and her organisation.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hoping to be out there by August.

 

[Arizona]

Hi Fless,

In August Koh Tao and Pattaya should factor into your Thai consideration. Both offer cheap accommodations. Pattaya diving will not be as good as Koh Tao IMO, but the conditions are excellent for training. It will come down to your personal choice if you want to stay in Pattaya that long considering the lively entertainment vs. something less in your face/wild. If you can visit both locations and meet instructors/Course Directors to get a feel of who would like to work with that would be best.

Good luck,

AZ

 

[Agus Bali]

Hey,

Try to do it in Bali if you come in august and you'll have a chance to see the Oceanic Sunfish or Mola-mola during the internship.
Check out at Air Diving Avademy or Scuba Schools Indonesia.
Accommodation, food, drinks are cheap and the weather also will be nice at that moment.

Have fun,
agus

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

Hi Fless1,

Since you have six months, you should consider going the distance and becoming an instructor. We offer a 3-month package to take you from Rescue Diver to Opwn Water Scuba Instructor. Our Aquanauts Complete Internship is all-inclusive, with courses, materials, accommodations, unlimited diving, testing/certification fees and more.

Of course, we also offer a DM internship for 2 months.

See our full offerings and details at the link below!

 

[Bubble Junky]

Enjoy your diving with Lumba Lumba Diving Centre, Pulau Weh (Weh Island), Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

 

[scubapimp2009]

Hi Fless,

Please email me on garethbrown07@hotmail.co.uk I have some costructive advice regarding your DM internship. Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Gareth

 

[red_barbarian]

First you need to pick a region you want to work in. Do a search of the Asia boards and you find a lot of info on what you'll find while diving. In helping you make your choice look at the cost of living and how that cost allows you to live. I'd suggest you narrow your area choice down to 3 areas, then pick a couple of what look like recommended dive ops in those areas. Get them to email you photos of the place you will be living, if they arrange for housing at all. Find out what it costs to eat the food you will be eating, if you can eat only local food it's a different cost than English style food. Since you want a bar nearby, ask how much beer is in the local places the dive guys hang out in.
Secondly, pay close attention to what kind of training you will get, and what kind of job placement they have. Ask for references of instructors that went through that program, and are working somewhere else. Check those references.
I'm not affiliated w/ any dive shop or area so I'll give you so opinions;

Thailand
Pattaya - B- training, expensive to live in, C diving
Koh Tao - C- training, medium living cost, B- diving
Koh Phi Phi - B training, expensive to live, B- diving

Indonesia
Bali - B training, expensive, B diving
Manado - C+ training, medium cheap, A+ diving

Vietnam
Nha Trang - B+ training, cheap, C+ diving

Philippines
Subic Bay A training, expensive, A for wrecks C- for everything else

I have only included locations I have personally dove and often enough that I got to observe / dive with several ops. This brings up what kind of diving you want to do and later instruct in. If your interests are in wreck diving then your locations of interest will be far different than if you want to marine creature photography. If you want contact info for any of the above regions for op's I would recommend and why feel free to PM me.

 

[diverdel]

moalboal on the island of cebu maybe a good option its the cheapest
place in philipines to do dm . the diving is good mostly walls not many big fish
good macro turtles and the if your lucky a whale shark. good shops are
blue abyss, visayer divers and nelsons diveshop
topside is good fun 4or5 nice beachbars on panagsama beach.if your staying
a while your get agood deal on accomodation cheap places are mollies
pacitas and the cottages opposite sunshine pension. another good thing
about moalboal is its only 2.5 hours from cebu city so you can get your
cityfix

 

[philip2711]

Can't help you on any of the subjects relating to DM internship but have just returned from a week in Moalboal and TSD. I jump to Andrea's defence - she runs a very professional outfit, emphais on customer care and attention and very safety conscious. Great crew on 3 dive boats that do everything for you if you let them......
I can see that she can be tough, but there is normally a reason; one example, on one of the dives we had a so called DM from Hungary. He came out without a computer, ignored repeated warnings from his DM guide that NCD limits were being exceeded - in fact he went deeper when most people were calling the dive - pointing simply to his pressure gauge that he had a fair amount of air left...... On return, Andrea spoke to him to see if he was in anyway apologetic for having risked guides safety or acknowledge that he had done anything wrong. When he refused, Andrea basically said - "you want to dive, fine, but not on my patch" and threw him off.
Give me that kind of 'bitchiness' any day where safety and customers security is concerned.
Should also add that on my first day two interns were in process of completing their own internships (one guy from UK, and one girl from Sweden) and although I did not talk extensively with either, my impression was that they loved being there - both the laid back Malapascua and the well run and organised TSD.
I did too

 

[mokeoc]

Back to Basics Diving, World Class Dive Locations, and Excellent Dive Training….Bali ! ! !

I’ve began diving a while ago. For years as a casual “tag along” uncertified diver (my bad), and later as certified Open Water diver. I dove mostly in the US, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands. I fell into the customer rut of “ hello, welcome to our large, sterile dive operation”, with the usual very large "built for diving" dive boats, "giant step" water entries, dive sites cleared of all hazards, and big stainless steel ladder water exits. Except for interesting "walk in beach dives" in the Caymans, I felt more like a herded cow than an explorer of a great underwater unknown.

Then I found Scuba diving in Bali, Indonesia. My first dive operator selection was suspect - the equipment was lacking, the operation rushed, but the underwater "vistas" were stunning. Before my next trip to Bali, I got serious and did some research. I chose the Bali based, PADI 5 Star rated, Bali Scuba Company. I also decided to undertake PADI Divemaster Certification. What an undertaking, and what a difference a great dive company makes. I booked my training with Bali Scuba, I ordered a PADI Divemaster Crewpack (lots of books, lots of studying), and I started.

Bali Scuba Diving - while my Americas diving experiences had been large dive boats, giant step entries, sterile dive sites, and big ladder exits. Bali Scuba Diving was much more interesting: the Tulumben wreck dives (USS liberty, torpedoed 1942) were rocky beach walk in dives, at Padang Bai we dove from local "jukung" outrigger boats not more than a meter wide (equipment donning was in water), and when diving Manta Point (yes we did see a giant manta) we used a V hull speed boat and back roll entries. The Ped area drift dives were steep slope "real drift dives" with current well in excess of a knot where we launched SMBs so as to not get wacked in the head by other in area speeding boats. My Divemaster training was all internship - lots of real students to train, lots of real certified divers to lead. My Bali Scuba instructors (Knut, Fandy, Munjone, and Thierry) were demanding and wonderful to learn from.

I've been asked "Why go all the way to Bali to train? "
Because in Bali the diving is more interesting, more challenging, and that makes it better training and more fun.