Looking for pro dive school recomendations

[lukich79]

I recently visited Thailand and got my advanced open water certification at a really professional dive school (all 4 diving) in Patong, Phuket. They were really professional and I wouldn't hesitate continuing my training with them. The only issue for me is the locality, I would prefer spend my internship somewhere a little less hectic. 3 months in Patong could be a head f**k.

I have 16 logged dives and want to get trained up to dive instructor level.
At a professional academy, somewhere interesting, somewhere quiet, but not too quiet if that makes sense....

 

[MichaelWallentin]

A less hectic place would be Krabi, Koh Lanta and/or Khao Lak. You'll find plenty of good and professionel dive centers around, who can set up a great internship for you. Your internship should include more than just becoming an instructor. Sales training, dive center management and equipment knowledge and repair are just a few, but also important skills to have.
Your next course would be the EFR and Rescue Diver, followed by the Divemaster Course (you need 40 dives before you can start this one). Consider to do a specialty course package to increase your knowlegde and dive skills. These can be done as normal courses or as part of a PADI Instructor Development Program (IDC).
I do run a dive center in Phuket, but feel free to ask for more details regarding the other destinations. If you need a list of dive centers use the shop locator on PADI website.

Best of luck to you !

 

[TheWartHog]

At a professional academy, somewhere interesting, somewhere quiet, but not too quiet if that makes sense....

--------------------------------------

How about the Gulf of Thailand? Thailand diving doesn't just consist of the Andaman Sea.
The islands there are great too, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan amongst others - for a pro dive op. try Master Divers in Koh Tao.
3 months living in Koh Tao (or the other Gulf Islands) will probably work out cheaper too.

Good luck.

 

[lukich79]

Really appreciating the advice there lads...

Should have mentioned that I would prefer padi certification over SSI

Thanks Micheal, Taking onboard your advice re sales skills, etc..
maybe Koh lanta is too quiet for me, I would like somewhere with a little bit of madness, perhaps Aonang???

Warthog I would consider gulf of Thailand no problem, I visited there in 2011.
That school you recommended looks great, except it SSI.

Would an Internship in Koh Tao really work out cheaper???

I am all Ears!!!

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Hi there!

We are a dive centre based on Koh Tao. Just to let you know, although they teach a lot of SSI courses, Master Divers do offer the PADI DM course and progression to Instructor as well. They are an excellent dive centre - many of our staff actually freelance between Master Divers and ourselves so we canfirst hand assure you of the quality of training you'd get there. If you drop them an email they will give you all the information you need (info@master-divers.com).

As far as interning goes, I cant speak for other destinations in SE Asia, but I can tell you that neither we or any other centre in the Tao that we know of offer DM internships. Mainly because most businesses - including ourselves, have a set of full time staff that run most courses, guiding and maintenance on a day to day basis. Also for small businesses there's simply not very many odd jobs around and anything that does need doing is done by our staff when they're not with customers. Because of the low cost of local employment here, much of the tank filling and labouring work is done by local Thai's or Burmese, so again there is no benefit to taking on volunteers to save employment costs. You may find this becoming a recurrent theme in many Asian destinations. Europe and Australia though, totally different story due to higher overheads and staffing costs.



Good luck and enjoy your DM, its an awesome course with lots of cool travel and employment opportunities afterwards

If you need any further information feel free to contact us.

 

[Bubble Junky]

Check out Koh Phi Phi too... It's a busy dive location with plenty of students coming through, so you'll get plenty of opportunity to assist on courses...

I run IDCs on Koh Phi Phi, so feel free to PM me oe e-mail (info@go-pro-in-paradise.com) if you need more info...

 

[MichaelWallentin]

Really appreciating the advice there lads...

Should have mentioned that I would prefer padi certification over SSI

Thanks Micheal, Taking onboard your advice re sales skills, etc..
maybe Koh lanta is too quiet for me, I would like somewhere with a little bit of madness, perhaps Aonang???

Warthog I would consider gulf of Thailand no problem, I visited there in 2011.
That school you recommended looks great, except it SSI.

Would an Internship in Koh Tao really work out cheaper???

I am all Ears!!!

I find both Koh Tao and Phi Phi Islands a bit too hectic for my liking, but nice in some other ways. It's true they have plenty of courses to follow, but again! That is just one part of your internship. When it comes to living expenses, I would dare to say, that Ao Nang is way cheaper that both Koh Tao and Phi Phi islands. While a decent bungalow in Ao Nang is around 7 - 9.000 THB a month, a similar will be double of this amount in "Tao" and "PP" (I'm talking about a decent bungalow and not a little room).

There are 2 PADI IDC Centers in Ao Nang. Kon-Tiki Krabi and Aqua Vision. At Kon-Tiki your contact person is Malene Jensen at manager@kontiki-krabi.com and at Aqua Vision it is Andy Black (sorry don't have his e-mail)

 

[mala]

kata is just up the road.(10k?)
I can reccomened rumblefish who have a shop there.

 

[lord khram]

I recently visited Thailand and got my advanced open water certification at a really professional dive school (all 4 diving) in Patong, Phuket. They were really professional and I wouldn't hesitate continuing my training with them. The only issue for me is the locality, I would prefer spend my internship somewhere a little less hectic. 3 months in Patong could be a head f**k.

I have 16 logged dives and want to get trained up to dive instructor level.
At a professional academy, somewhere interesting, somewhere quiet, but not too quiet if that makes sense....

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/th...ernship-idc-course-based-around-thailand.html

Here is a link to a previous thread discussing pro's and con's of internship courses, you may find some useful information. You will find my thoughts in post No 2 of this thread, you will deduce from that post that I am not a fan of such courses.

Get out and have a look around at a number of DC's before you commit your time and money to one, you say you did your initial training with a ''really professional'' school, that may well be the case, but with only 16 logged dives what are you comparing them to? Don't make the same mistake many have done in the past to commit your money and time to a single DC only to find out later everything is not as you first thought. If you genuinely want to become an instructor, you do not have to do all your training with only one DC at one location, you can add variety within a time frame to suit yourself.

Here is a link to another thread you may get some useful information from.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/th...ourse-director-roger-smith-expelled-padi.html

I know this DC and their behaviour are not typical, but it does demonstrate that what appears to be and claims to be a 'professional' DC, behind the scenes things might not be exactly as what you first see.

 

[lukich79]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/th...ernship-idc-course-based-around-thailand.html

Here is a link to a previous thread discussing pro's and con's of internship courses, you may find some useful information. You will find my thoughts in post No 2 of this thread, you will deduce from that post that I am not a fan of such courses.

Get out and have a look around at a number of DC's before you commit your time and money to one, you say you did your initial training with a ''really professional'' school, that may well be the case, but with only 16 logged dives what are you comparing them to? Don't make the same mistake many have done in the past to commit your money and time to a single DC only to find out later everything is not as you first thought. If you genuinely want to become an instructor, you do not have to do all your training with only one DC at one location, you can add variety within a time frame to suit yourself.

Here is a link to another thread you may get some useful information from.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/th...ourse-director-roger-smith-expelled-padi.html

I know this DC and their behaviour are not typical, but it does demonstrate that what appears to be and claims to be a 'professional' DC, behind the scenes things might not be exactly as what you first see.

Had a read through that previous thread and thanks for the heads up there.

Perhaps I should not go for an instructor internship, I take onboard the advice given.

I will explain my situation a little more precisely and maybe you can advise accordingly.
I work in aviation on a freelance basis around Europe.
I work long hours and get reasonable pay.
After my recent scuba adventures I had an Idea.
Maybe I could work as a Scuba instructor/divemeaster for like 4 months and make enough to live hand to mouth.
Then in the winter I can return to Europe to make some decent money contracting in the aviation sector.

So maybe I could go this year, travel around a few areas, get a few specialisations, at different dive centers and then return to do a divemaster course at one of them.
The following year I could potentially return and do instructor training... well that's the rough plan anyway.