Utila Vs Roatan

[sylius]

Hello everyone
greetings from Toronto.
My partner and I are wanting to complete a dive master internship. We are rescue divers (padi) and want to take it to the next level...
any and all suggestions would be welcome.
we have also toyed with the idea of learning in Thailand/Indonesia as well.

Thoughts?

 

[PatW]

I have done both. The south side of Roatan has walls, decent corals. Quite a few smaller fish but virtually no large predators like snappers and groupers. If you get on a dive site near the outflow from a harbor, the reef can be dead. I think that is from phosphates and nitrates.

Utila is an out island. Utila town is on the back packer circuit and is about partying and cheap, I always went to the west side of the island. There is a very good mix of dive sites on Utila. There are some nice walls. There are muck dives. And there are a couple of sea mounts. The corals are in really good shape at some of the sites.

Both places have a pot load of sea horses. You see a bunch of morays. And there are toadfish.

The people are nice at both places and the dive masters were all good.

Utila is a bit harder to get to. You can fly into Roatan and take Island Air over or you can go to the mainland and take the ferry over. I hear that the mainland is rife with crime but the Bay Islands are fine.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Both great destinations diving wise. Utila has really deep walls that descend straight into the abyss. Roatan diving has reef formations and swim-throughs. Given the right season, Utila has whale sharks. Topside attractions are more in Roatan.

It will be a tough choice. I recommend Altons in Utila. Very well run DM program.

 

[sylius]

Capt, what are the chances of seeing Whale sharks if you are staying in Roatan?

 

[Stout]

I've never been to Roatan so I can't compare the two islands. I have, however, been to Utila 7 times.

Is your focus more on diving and learning the job or simply getting the card as fast as possible ?

I'd be looking for a dive shop that's going to have you in the water as much as possible also one that offers a dive for free after completing your course such as Utila Dive Center.

PADI Divemaster internships & courses with Utila Dive Centre | GoPro Bay Islands Honduras | Caribbean and Central America

I'd be trying to spend as much time as possible doing the course, (I did mine over two months) so you can get as much experience in before trying to market yourself as a DM.

You'll be mostly working, looking at other divers. Checking out the underwater environment, not so much.

I'd thought about redoing my DM as a "cheap" way of getting lots of dives in what's a relatively more expensive market and I found that lots of dives just weren't going to happen in the way they did on Utila.

I've actually heard UDC DM candidates complaining about "too much diving" seemed they were more interested in drinking beer and watching youtube videos.

Pick your destination then walk around interviewing dive shops.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Capt, what are the chances of seeing Whale sharks if you are staying in Roatan?

Close to none. Most whale shark action happens in Utila from March to April.

 

[sylius]

stout and capt.
thank you for the info.

we are interested in diving a lot.
Its going to hopefully be paying hobby more then a career, but it we retire early for our daily grinds it may turn out differently.

we have the feeling that to do the sport right you have to learn to do it right. Learning coupled with a hell of a lot of diving seems to fit that bill.
We are past the days of partying, but a little time off to hit the beach or do some sort of additional activity is a good priority for us.
If we 'walk around interviewing the dive shops' what is the likely hood of signing up for a course internship on the spot, especially for a couple?

 

[Stout]

The first question you need to ask yourself is....where do you plan on doing this paid hobby ? If it's Toronto and in cold water, you want to do your DM in cold water and develop a relationship with local industry. Every local dive shop I talked to, before I headed south to do my DM ( 14 years ago ) told me they take a rather dim view of tropically trained dive professionals.

As for pulling into a tropical destination, whipping out the card and asking for work ? I've never seen that happen.

On Utila what typically happens is a DM graduates and then waits in line for a position to open up, usually with the shop that they did their course at and, to be frank, there's a heck of a lot of DMs and instructors looking for work at any given time with preference given to instructors willing to work as DMs

It's really more of a lifestyle position.

On Utila, no problem starting any time you want. Technically you're a customer and the shops want the business.

Sorry if I'm starting to sound like a downer here but the big factor is really how much time you have to do your course. If you're planning on doing the course in as little as three weeks then you might be better off simply going diving and picking the DM/Instructors brains on the boat. If you have something like 6-8 weeks then taking the course may be the better way to go, bang for buck wise.

 

[laurenceh]

march - may is prime whale shark season on utila but most every year we also see them in september and december/january.
UDC (utila dive company) has a renowned dive master (i did mine there) and instructor training program but Altons and pretty much every other dive co will give you plenty of good in water experience.
i think the main difference between the two islands are the typical age and nationality of the visitors, on Utila it is generally between 20-35yrs and they are from all over the world, particularly europe, israel, scandinavia and australia. on Roatan the crowd tends to be older 40-65yrs and are mostly from the u.s. and canada.
on Utila you will do a lot of assisting instructors teaching open water and specialty courses, on Roatan you'll tend to do more assisting with already licensed divers on their annual dive vacation and cruise ship passengers in for the day.

 

[sylius]

stout. -
you are not being a downer at all, every bit of information is valuable to us!!
its a work in progress for sure. we are going to be planning a two month break from reality and giving as much as we can to learning.
as for a paid hobby, there are only a handful of dive shops in the Toronto and the competition for employment is tough.
Some from within the community have said it's possible that when you are travelling you may be able to approach a local dive shop and help out for a few weeks...exchanging help for dives..so to speak.

We currently each have careers and we don't foresee finishing our dm and waiting around for a job, however if we can work part time in one of the shops in the Toronto area.

as far as booking dive excursions and picking the minds of the dm's .. that way would be too costly I imagine at usually 50-70 per dive it would add up quickly.. if we were to dive almost every day for a month or more..

Laurnceh-
thank you for the info. we actually fit into the later category and sound like we belong on Roatan..lol we have the heart and desire of the Utila crowd...and really want to swim with Whale sharks..
as far as the work, we are good with either..