florida keys internship advice

[uminchu]

Hi friends,
I'm sort of new to all this. But i've found you people are extremely helpful and friendly. So, here goes!

I'm relatively new to diving, but my toes are thoroughly wet... i'm making a move back to the states from Japan, and feel it is a good time to try and do something that seems worthwhile. I want to see if i could be a good instructor.... but if i wanted to do that i'd want to do it as an internship...

I would appreciate all your experiencial advice to help me...

Is the rainbow reef internship a good place to start? My final goal is Hawaii... but baby steps right?

 

[Matteo]

geographically speaking, Hawai'i would be more in line with your baby steps approach than Florida, seeing as how you are now in Japan...sorry I can't be of more specific help, but here are my thoughts nonetheless...the Keys will certainly have many more opportunities for you in terms of internship/IDC programs, but if you wanted to be patient and wait for the right opportunity in Hawai'i I'm sure you could work something out with one of the ops there...then again, I'm biased as Hawai'i is also my long-term goal!!!

 

[uminchu]

thanks for your reply Matteo,
Although i'm in the Japan now... i'm returning to the US next month... What are you doing in the keys now? Are you an intern?

My final goal is hawaii... but i'm willing to put in my time. Tell me what it's like in florida...
i'd appreciate any help!

 

[Matteo]

I don't live in the Keys, but do try to get down there as often as possible....I've never personally dove with Rainbow Reef, but have heard good things about their operation...basically there are more dive ops than you can shake a stick at from West Palm Beach all the way to Key West...I'm not an intern myself, just taking the slow boat for now...I'll have Rescue completed in a few weeks, looking to start my DM candidacy in the spring, and hopefully head off to IDC in early 2008 while trying to accumulate as many dives/experience possible in between...if you do your homework, you can find plenty of "internships", but beware that they most likely will not be paying positions....you will be basically working in exchange for air fills, dives, etc...and will even then probably have to come out of pocket for part of the classes/materials, living expenses, etc...good luck and let us know if you have any other questions

 

[uminchu]

Matteo,
I'm beginning to find that out myself. But rainbow offers board, no pay... of course food, materials and so on are not included.

I'm trying to find if i can "make" enough to cover living expenses and lessons with another organization. I just need enought survive and not go too much into debt.

I've been searching around looking for different shops on here, and just random google searches. But it's being particularly fruitful. I've just started emailing places that look good and asking if they have something like what i want. Is that bad? I'm sending like an "me" introduction... worse that can happen is i get no reply, right? I hope i'm not crossing the line with that. What do you think?