Byron Bay Australia - Zero to Divemaster Course

[OpenWater]

Hi guys,

I'm hoping to do the zero to divemaster course at Byron Bay Dive Centre - Australia in April 2008 (coming from the UK on a working holiday visa/gap year kinda thing)

Anyone have any experiences with this centre?
Any info you can give would be great, even if its not about this particular centre, diving course in general.


I'm going to do it through Real Gap/Real Sport, which is a laid back/not as intensive and rushed course that takes me from no experience to dive master in 10 weeks then help finding a job in Australia or Asia.
The way I thought was try to get a course that wasn't cramming as many students through the doors as possible, having had no proper scuba experience (did a small amount on holiday once in a pool and really enjoyed it) I want to be able to get comfortable diving and not too rushed (within reason), having spoke to the centre this course seems to be the right one for me, they seem a nice bunch and the actual centre looks great!

The course costs is £3699.
Some people have said to me thats a lot for the course..
However, it does include all my accommodation, transfer from Brisbane airport, medical, my own diving equipment to use and keep etc etc.


Any thoughts, advice and/or info?

Thanks,
OpenWater :14:

 

[TSandM]

Well, I won't say anything about the whole idea of this zero to hero class.

But I will say that Byron Bay has some spectacular diving. We didn't dive with that operator (we went with Sundive) but we had a fantastic time and I'd love to go back. If you're going to do an intensive course, it's a pretty fabulous place to do it. And the town is very (if a bit self-consciously) cute, and the beach is beautiful.

 

[OpenWater]

Thanks for the info. It certainly does look like a really nice area to spend a few months.

Feel free to give your opinions on the 'zero to hero' idea (just don't slate me for thinking on doing it hehe), I welcome constructive criticism and opinions. At the end of the day its what I feel is best for me, but I like to know other peoples views, the advantages of it and the disadvantages of this type of course (experience level on the course being the main factor I'm guessing where your coming from?), so please share


Cheers,
OpenWater

 

[boulderjohn]

Feel free to give your opinions on the 'zero to hero' idea (just don't slate me for thinking on doing it hehe), I welcome constructive criticism and opinions.

OK, I'll bite.

I'm not a fan.

I think you should go through stages and do some real world diving in different places in between those steps. It is hard for me to believe you can really build the skills you need that quickly. Since I have never experienced it myself, I guess I could be wrong, but....

 

[TSandM]

OpenWater, I got certified at a dive shop that runs many enthusiastic students through the whole educational process, from OW to instructor. They don't do "zero to hero" classes, but it's not unusual for someone who's been diving about a year and a half to make instructor. I fell so in love with diving that I was headed straight down that path.

Six months after I got certified, I took GUE Fundamentals. I was brought face to face with two people (instructor and videographer) who had diving skills that made all of my prior instructors look fairly unskilled. I was run up against a standard of performance that was so far beyond anything I'd seen before that I was dumbfounded. And I learned so much theory that I had never seen before, that it made me aware of the incredible limitations of what I had, up until then, been taught.

I backed off and decided, then and there, that although I want eventually to teach, or help with classes (I've taught everything I've ever enjoyed doing), I am so far from having the experience and the skill and the broad knowledge I think an instructor should have, that I have a long way to go before I offer to teach anybody.

I mentor. I go out with new divers and show them around, and hopefully show them an example of better skills than they have up until then been taught. But I don't instruct.

Broad experience; polished skills; solid theory. I think dive "professionals" should have those things. JMHO.

 

[Azza]

I did the Zero To Hero course...sort of..I was AOW with around 20 or so dives when I started...I finished with 120 dives and not much of a clue...most of the other guys on the course finished with 50 dives and even less of a clue...
If you don't give a toss about being any kind of experienced or well skilled Divemaster then go for it. Most backpacker jobs only want minimal experienced dive professionals anyway so you should be able to work your way around the world for a while...

I love Byron Bay and reckon you could do worse...

I too dived with Sundive and they were ok. I had a friend work for Byron Bay Dive Centre and she said it was a good idea to dive with Sundive.

Byron Rocks tho...Byron is one of the best places in the world

 

[OpenWater]

Ok guys, thanks for the input
It's appreciated.

 

[Azza]

Hey mate
If you want to have fun and see some of Aussie while doing it, then go for it...you wont find a better way of doing so.

If I was to do it all again I would have flown to Aussie to do my course....sun, sand, girls, bikini's....cant go wrong

Maybe look into Airlie Beach or the Whitsundays as well...Beautiful places...

 

[pwl]

Feel free to give your opinions on the 'zero to hero' idea (just don't slate me for thinking on doing it hehe), I welcome constructive criticism and opinions. At the end of the day its what I feel is best for me, but I like to know other peoples views, the advantages of it and the disadvantages of this type of course (experience level on the course being the main factor I'm guessing where your coming from?), so please share

i dived for 4 years (fairly consistently) before considering the DM course. i still think of myself as being a rank amateur.

 

[boulderjohn]

Six months after I got certified, I took GUE Fundamentals. I was brought face to face with two people (instructor and videographer) who had diving skills that made all of my prior instructors look fairly unskilled. I was run up against a standard of performance that was so far beyond anything I'd seen before that I was dumbfounded. And I learned so much theory that I had never seen before, that it made me aware of the incredible limitations of what I had, up until then, been taught.

I backed off and decided, then and there, that although I want eventually to teach, or help with classes (I've taught everything I've ever enjoyed doing), I am so far from having the experience and the skill and the broad knowledge I think an instructor should have, that I have a long way to go before I offer to teach anybody.

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I have been playing over this post for a while, and I thought I would ramble on about the ideas here for a while. (Warning--it may seem for a moment that I am taking something personally, but I am not at all.)

Perhaps the greatest of all German writers, Goethe, once said that he was fortunate to write in German, a country that then had no appreciable literary history. He said that if he had written in English, he would have constantly compared himself to giants like Shakespeare, and he would have frozen up and written nothing. Goethe was not Shakespeare, but he was pretty darn good, and the world would have been all the poorer if he had not written because of his fear of measuring up poorly to the greatest writers in history.

I myself am nowhere near as good as excellent divers who complete hundreds of dives a year under demanding circumstances. I have had pleasure dives recently with divers who are clearly better than I am. Some of the guides I used in diving the wrecks at Truk Lagoon last year had buoyancy skills at which I can only marvel, even though I think I am pretty good. I don't have much opportunity to dive caves, so I am not trained in that set of skills, and I would love the opportunity to learn from a skilled cave diver.

Does that mean that I am not worthy to teach receational diving?

I am confident that I have the skills it takes to teach students at all levels of recreational diving. I am a lifelong educator and athletic coach who has some skill getting people past their fears and teaching them the skills they need. I believe I have alll the skills I need for what I do, and I believe the students I teach do very well under my tutelage. My Colorado students will do well in the diving that 95% will encounter, assuming they do what is necessary to maintain and build on their skills naturally. Those who want to go beyond that 95% can get their training from someone qualified for that.

Similarly, although I never finished my Ph.D in English Literature, I think I was pretty well prepared to teach high school English. There are lots of people in the world who knew more than I did when I was teaching, but I knew more than enough for the level at which I was working.

So how about you? My guess is that you would make an excellent instructor, and your students will benefit greatly from working with you. You may not be as good as the greatest divers in the world, but how many people are that good, and why do you have to be?