Divemaster internship in Roatan

[halocline]

I would suggest a first trip to Roatan to do AOW and some dives. That way you can see if the island is a place you'd like to stay for a couple of months, and you can check out some of the dive shops. You can also get the encyclopedia of recreational diving and the divemaster manual, bring it home, and start reading. Then come back and do rescue right before the DM course. If you don't want to pay for two trips, I'd say just go there and do everything. If you do that, make sure you don't commit to a single shop for all the classes right away. Take AOW, if you have a good experience, go for rescue, etc.

There's nothing wrong with doing AOW and rescue at home then going to Roatan for DM, but you might end up wishing you had done rescue with the same set of instructors as the DM course, or at least pretty close together in terms of time.

Coconut tree turns out many more DMs than the other west end shops. There are some advantages to working in a bigger shop; there's a wide variety of instructor personalities to learn from (and deal with) and there are lots of different kinds of students, so you'll get a very good chance to learn a lot while assisting classes. The course director at CTD, Will, runs the DM program and has a lot to offer as a teacher. The shop is also kind of a social center in the West End, which means you're likely to make some new friends.

 

[CODMAN]

Book, if you are a slow book learner, I would suggest getting as many courses done at home as possible. Then buying the DM books before you go to Roatan and doing the academics beforehand (or as much of it as you can do on your own). The academics and theory of the DM course is impressive! If you do it once in Roatan, you will be spending many a night reading and studying rather than other interesting stuff.

When I did my DM course in the Philippines, I was glad to have all the book work over with when I got there. It made my 5 week stay much more enjoyable!

Of course, if this isn't possible for you, you can always do it once there. Whatever suits you best!

Just my 0.02$

Hi, I joined this site in hopes to get some information about this particular subject that you've all embarked on. I am planning to head to Roatan to do my Divemaster internship. I wondered if I should do my advanced and rescue here in Houston with a local shop or going from advanced to DM in one trip to Roatan. I am a slow book learner so theory may take some time to marinate. teehee I'am also debating between subway dive shop, reef gliders, dockside... Too many places !!!