Help me choose a DM internship!??

[nath1772]

Hi Guys

I'm currently planning, or trying to plan, my DM internship for later this year. I've been in touch with a few centres in Vietnam / Indonesia / Malaysia

I'm 27 and will be travelling with my other half, so looking for somewhere that is much more focused on the DM side, than the partying. In honesty I really couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck on a couse with a load of 18-21 year olds who are only interested in getting wrecked every night, rather than learning the ins and out of the dive indutry.

So, to that end, I would really appreciated any who can recommend a PADI centre, that offer a 3 Month + Internship, catering for someone who has all the time in the world to commit to learning the inductry, professionally.

The courses I have seen so far have been in Nha Trang, Bali, Sipadan amongst others. I'll have the luxury of being able to check the places out before I commit also.


I would prefer somewhere with fewer DM interns, one to one tuition and as much hands on experience leading dives and assisting as the candidate can take on

I know quite a few of the dive centres are on SB - so please get in touch if you think your set up could work for me?

Thanks in Advance,
Nathan

 

[nath1772]

Almost forgot to say.... The diving must be good and interesting!!

 

[Torben]

Hi there,

First of all, look forward to the course it is so much fun and a lot of cheap diving

I did my internship at crystal divers Bali, and this was an amassing place, for me at least. Back then (2006) it was a smaller divecenter, now grown a bit, I still think they keep it to small groups. There was a lot of hands on training and following divers and courses. The whole interhship was done nice and personal, I'm still in contact with my the owner and staff form back then. And when going back to bali, it's like coming home form a long vacation.
I can only give my best recommendations to them.

Good luck in your search.

 

[nath1772]

Hi Torben - thanks for the Reply, Bali is one of the places i ave been keen on, I've looked at Blue Ocean Bali.
I'll check Crystal divers out.

How did you find the lifestyle in Bali?

 

[Bubble Junky]

For Bali, also check out Big Fish on Lembongan...

A couple of other centres worth looking at in Asia include Lumba Lumba on Pulau Weh, Khao Lak Scuba Adventures in Thailand...

 

[scubafied]

I did my DM and IDC with Blue Season Bali last year and thoroughly enjoyed the program. Bali as a country is amazing and there's really nothing bad about it, except for the corrupt police but that's not endemic to Bali. It has a huge variety of conditions throughout the sites so you'll get training in just about any condition you could think of with the exception of ice. Blue Season is a PADI CDC with 4 Course Directors at your disposal that all have years of experience in the industry, diving and training in a huge variety of locations/conditions. As far as the ratio of instructors to students, I find it's usually pretty random and all depends on how many people want to take the course, especially when you travel abroad.

With the PADI DM course you may actually be better off with more students in your class. They recently changed the program and you are not supposed to be assisting with actual students nor leading dives until you have actually completed the certification. They now use your fellow DM trainees as mock students, so the more there are the more problem situations you may be able to experience during your training given how inventive people get during the dives.

Blue Season has a BBQ once a week for the interns and staff, other than that any partying that happens is off property from the shop and is done solely at the discretion of the interns. Go if you'd like, don't if you'd rather not. In my experience most people went out one night a week together when they had the next day off. All other days were spent studying or just dinner and a couple beers and then back home. It was an intensive program usually running anywhere from 8-14 hrs a day depending on where you dived that day which is why most evenings were fairly calm.

Regardless of where you choose to do your course there will be people that are there for the partying more than the training, there will be someone you don't like training alongside you, there will be ins and outs of the dive industry that you will wish did not exist and were not part of the internship and training but most importantly there will be you, getting out of it exactly what you put into it and everything else is just another experience that will make your professional foundation that much stronger. As a dive professional you don't often get to choose who signs up for a fun dive or for a course so the more you are able to adapt to those people or situations the better off you'll be to offer an incredible service. Good luck with whatever you decide and safe diving.

 

[Bubble Junky]

They recently changed the program and you are not supposed to be assisting with actual students nor leading dives until you have actually completed the certification. They now use your fellow DM trainees as mock students, so the more there are the more problem situations you may be able to experience during your training given how inventive people get during the dives.

Not to be pedantic, but you CAN still work with 'real students' during the DM course. There are now many 'Workshops' where you work with fellow DM candidates, but you still need to assist on courses and lead certified divers too. With this assisting it is still permissable, and indeed in my eyes more beneficial, that this is done with 'real students' rather than as a role playing exercise...

 

[scubafied]

"Not to be pedantic". Really? a: one who makes a show of knowledge b: one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge. Seems to me that's exactly what you intended to do.

What I should have said was that while you may be able to and will most likely do some of the training with an Instructor that's working with real students, you should be prepared to do some/most of it with your fellow DMT's.

 

[Rogersea]

"Not to be pedantic". Really? a: one who makes a show of knowledge b: one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge. Seems to me that's exactly what you intended to do.

What I should have said was that while you may be able to and will most likely do some of the training with an Instructor that's working with real students, you should be prepared to do some/most of it with your fellow DMT's.

No I dont think it was nit picking, I think that the manner in which you presented the info was factually incorrect. Nowhere in the manual does it state you can not work with "real students" in fact for most instructors it is the preferred and IMHO the best method. What you cant do is use a DMT to increase Ratio's or to Perform other activities that a "certified" DM does(because they are still in training).

So for the OP you should ensure where ever you go that you will actually be working with actual students.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Bubble Junky]

So for the OP you should ensure where ever you go that you will actually be working with actual students.

And with instructors who know the standards...