Starting a divemaster career

[Sebastiaan van Dorst]

Hey people, i would like to ask some questions regarding starting a professional diving career.
Since I'll need to wait a year before i can start my profession at home I would like to focus on becoming a dive professional for a year.. I'm 26 years old and this has always been my dream.

I have done about 10 dives only.. and ive only finished my open water PADI (3-4 years ago). If i would like to do a full course to divemaster and also want to make my profession out of it. Are there a lot of options to start this at a diveschool as internship? Where it's more like a traineeship, so that i'll work there afterwards which makes the course maybe even free?
Or should i rather take a course somewhere and find a job after?
As far as I've seen a course will cost me around 1000-2000 dollar ?

What kind of tips and advices could you guys give me on how i should start this carreer and where?

Thanks in Advance, Sebastiaan, from The Netherlands

ps: I've been diving on Curacao, Indonesia (real short) and near the "Blue Hole" in Egypt.

 

[Macan]

The best Divemasters are those who have real experience in a variety of conditions. You build experience by diving more and more and making sure you learn from every dive. You only have 10 dives today, do more dives, hone your basic skills then get your AOW. Do more dives again and then take your Rescue course. Do a lot more dives, then start your DM course. Building experience takes time. Be patient. Keep your dream of being a Pro alive, but build towards it one dive at a time.

 

[sheeper]

Hi Sebastiaan. I know several DMs and Instructors here on Florida's Treasure Coast that come from the Netherlands (i even worked there myself a few years back) and I have a couple of Dutch diving buddies. My Dutch friends' did most of their training on the various Dutch Caribbean islands. But only after some significant dive experience.
l love teaching DMs but i encourage my DM students to first get as many meaningful dive certs as they can AND experience as many different kinds of diving as they can. By the time someone starts their DM with me, i expect perfect buoyancy skills and a good understanding of different kinds of diving.

so go diving...a lot. go thru your advanced open water, your nitrox, your rescue. do some full specialities like deep, wreck, navigation. go dive some more. find a job in Bonaire, Aruba, Curacao and work and dive. Then go do that DM course.

I see too many people go from new diver to DM in a couple of weeks. Their skills and knowledge are lacking and i would never allow these DMs to work with me, my students or any any boat i'm responsible for. Get the experience.

 

[darrenlowjq]

Most of the replies you get will be rather similar, get more dives before starting, and understandably so. As a graduate of a zero to hero program, I can tell you in hindsight that I had no business being responsible for anyone else's safety when I started my DM training. I have no idea how good your fundamental skills are but if you are going to be responsible for other divers, you need to have sufficiently good skills to the point that diving is pretty much on autopilot so you can focus your attention on the divers you are entrusted with.

Besides, to start the PADI DM program standards dictate that you need to have clocked at least 40 dives (which is too low a bar in my opinion) and AOW + Rescue won't get you up there from 10 dives so you have to go do some more diving anyway.

 

[RJP]

Are there a lot of options to start this at a diveschool as internship? Where it's more like a traineeship, so that i'll work there afterwards which makes the course maybe even free?
Or should i rather take a course somewhere and find a job after?
As far as I've seen a course will cost me around 1000-2000 dollar ?

If you're interested in pursuing a DM Internship program... check this thread out:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/going-pro/512038-one-way-evaluate-dm-internship-programs.html

 

[TMHeimer]

I agree about getting as much diving in as possible before taking the course. I signed up having 158. Getting a lot of dives in varied locations and conditions is of course a plus. Logic does say that perhaps even more important is to get a lot of experience in places/conditions where you want to work. Ei., I don't lead dives on the wrecks here as I have not dived them enough to be any kind of expert. There are many threads on DM courses and getting work in the "Going Pro" forum. I think you have to be signed up for a course and get a reference to join and participate there (I used my shop owner). There are many opinions about how difficult it is to make a decent living even as an instructor (there is a glut of Instructors & DMs)--You're probably aware of this situation. Good luck.

 

[Frosty]

Sorry dude but pretty much exactly the same response from me--Get more dives in

 

[Nasser]

Apart from developing your divining qualifications and experience, consider what destinations you would like to work in. If for example you're considering the Red Sea (you mentioned diving in Dahab ), this is a very high density tourist area and competition among DMs and instructors is fierce. Most work on a freelance basis and the ones who do get hired not only have considerable diving experience, but have excellent language skills. This is more important than most people trying to get into the business realize... If you can speak 3-4 languages and cater to a wider clientele that typically frequent the destination, you will have a considerable advantage.

So diving skills, language skills, and people skills are the complete package that operators are looking for.

Best of luck.

 

[flyin01]

Have you thought about comercial diving? The pay is much better.

 

[hroark2112]

One other point of view.

With 10 dives under your belt, do you really know what it's like to be a dive pro? I think lots of people think it's going to be all about leading awesome dives in beautiful, exotic locations and teaching bikini clad supermodels how to be a super cool diver. If only it were like that in real life!

Take some time to become a good diver. Get really good and comfortable in the water, get good with your gear, find a local dive shop to spend time learning what it really is to be a dive pro. Get experience in all kinds of conditions and get really comfortable in good and bad conditions. Hang around the shop, volunteer to help out with classes, learn how to fill tanks and maintain gear.

If you get to this point and still want to be a divemaster, go for it.

Above all, while you're doing all of the above, have fun!