Best Places in the World for Dive Master & Instructor Training?

[Wibble]

To be a master of diving you need to have some experience. The minimum should be a few hundred dives across a range of different circumstances.

Go diving! Get the basic skills. Do the basic courses - AOW, Rescue Diver. Practice! Do the specialities; make sure you are competent especially with your core skills: buoyancy, trim, finning. Can you put up an SMB blindfolded -- yes, really!

You need to know the difference between a good and bad dive leader looks like. Then you can become the good one.

 

[Centrals]

. Can you put up an SMB blindfolded -- yes, really!

I cannot and see no reason why I would even what to contemplate the idea! It is too dangerous because of risk of entanglement.

 

[jadairiii]

However, we are thinking it would be easiest to stick around the same area for all of them, either all around the Caribbean or all in Asia, Australia, etc..

Really depends on where you are coming from. If you live in the US then the obvious answer would be South Florida. From Palm Beach to the Keys you have 1000's of opportunities to learn and "work" while training, 1000's of opportunities for open water, wrecks, confined water, etc. Add to that living accommodations from camp grounds to living in 5 star condos on the beach, depending on your budget.

Once you earn your cards, then S FL is a spring board to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and beyond. And if you are from the US and your plans completely fail half way through, at least you are not stuck in some third world country (or some place on the other side of the globe) with no money and no way to "get home".

Life, like diving, requires bail out plans. Good luck.

 

[Centrals]

I would never call Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand as third world country!

 

[Scraps]

I recommend:
1) You take the previous advice seriously about how hard the path will be. For me, diving is a second career that is possible only because my living expenses are covered by resources from my previous career. All I ask of my diving career is that it pay for my diving hobby and an occasional vacation--it barely does that. I know plenty of dive professionals whose reputations, experience, and credentials far exceed mine and who are struggling to make ends meet.
2) You get trained through OWSI instead of stopping at DM. It's much harder to get hired anywhere without an instructor credential. If all you can do is DM, you will be living on tips only.
3) You get your training at a facility that is large enough to hire both of you--and that you consider every day of training to be a job interview. It is very hard for new instructors to get jobs without a network. My employer does not consider hiring anyone who doesn't come recommended by someone in his network. Your network will be the dive center where you train. Big training centers hire only their best graduates: make sure you and your husband are the best in your class at attitude and effort every day.
4) You both be fully committed to living a scrappy lifestyle--spending next to nothing and taking any gig jobs your skill sets make available.
5) You consider how green the grass is on your side of the fence. I have a daughter who is a stylist at a high-end salon. I don't know any dive instructors who make what she does or have a benefit package like hers.

Best wishes,

 

[Centrals]

Over last 20 odd yrs I have met a lot of Western of all trades in many countries in SE Asia. Most of them are/were very happy with their lives and some of them(female and male) have even settled down with the local. Of course there are/were failure but that is normal isn't it?
There is nothing wrong to explore and experience something completely different to your own culture. It really opened my eyes with all those yrs of backpacking in Asia and S. America.
You only live once. Money is important but there are experiences that money cannot buy.
Go for it before it is too late.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Over last 20 odd yrs I have met a lot of Western of all trades in many countries in SE Asia. Most of them are/were very happy with their lives and some of them(female and male) have even settled down with the local. Of course there are/were failure but that is normal isn't it?
There is nothing wrong to explore and experience something completely different to your own culture. It really opened my eyes with all those yrs of backpacking in Asia and S. America.
You only live once. Money is important but there are experiences that money cannot buy.
Go for it before it is too late.

Meeting people while traveling won’t make you their confidante. Putting on a happy face is part of the business.

If the OP is going to pull the trigger, there should be a “get the hell out of dodge” funds (a minimum balance) that never gets touched unless they are going to get the hell out of dodge. If they need those funds to continue, they use it to get home.

 

[Wibble]

I cannot and see no reason why I would even what to contemplate the idea! It is too dangerous because of risk of entanglement.

Then you're doing it wrong! Seriously, most skills should be possible blindfolded, OK with some exceptions!

As far as throwing up a bag, imagine you're in a silt-out conditions and you need to get the heck out of Dodge; being able to put up a bag without thinking about it should be straightforward -- control the reel, control the bag, etc. It's a hell of a lot easier if it's a CO2 or crack-bottle bag though! Personally I'd never use an open-ended bag; use the suit-inflate hose.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

imagine you're in a silt-out conditions and you need to get the heck out of Dodge.

I dive in the Puget Sound and I have trouble imagining this in my area, unless I'm within 5 feet of the bottom and an open water course was conducted in that spot earlier. Boat diving, never. There is value in being able to deploy a DSMB with either a spool or reel with the eyes closed, due to the task loading and loss of visual reference for maintaining depth. Those that are able to do so are able to maintain a consistent breath cycle.

 

[Centrals]

Then you're doing it wrong! Seriously, most skills should be possible blindfolded, OK with some exceptions!

As far as throwing up a bag, imagine you're in a silt-out conditions and you need to get the heck out of Dodge; being able to put up a bag without thinking about it should be straightforward -- control the reel, control the bag, etc. It's a hell of a lot easier if it's a CO2 or crack-bottle bag though! Personally I'd never use an open-ended bag; use the suit-inflate hose.

Really!
I have never been in a situation in OW that I could not see my hand 6'' away from my eyes and that was for very short time when someone kicked up some silt very near to me.
Inside a wreck yes but not in OW.
Silt out in open water!!! Where is the silt came from and what type is that? Those "silt" associated in cave has no place in OW. Current will carry them away long before it has time to settle and accumulate and waiting to be disturbed.


Open-end or closed-end? Personal preference.