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SanzeKuhne

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Currently located in Cambridge, as far from the se
Hey all,
(brand new here, blows bubbles to other divers and wannabe divers!)
Am currently AOW, 11 dives under my belt, and am going to Egypt in the summer to do a DiveMaster internship in Dahab with Fantasea.
As uni doesn't seem the thing for me, I'm really interested in getting more involved in diving, in terms of behind the scenes as well as in the water. As far as I understand my main task is to get up to dive instructor and go from there, in order to get onto management etc, is that so?
Also, in the meantime, can anyone recommend any dive related work I can do to start developing the skills, such as working in a dive shop etc?
Any experience that you guys may have, I'd love to hear! Good/bad stories, also anyone been diving with Fantasea?
Cheers all!
 
SanzeKuhne:
Hey all,
(brand new here, blows bubbles to other divers and wannabe divers!)
Am currently AOW, 11 dives under my belt, and am going to Egypt in the summer to do a DiveMaster internship in Dahab with Fantasea.
As uni doesn't seem the thing for me, I'm really interested in getting more involved in diving, in terms of behind the scenes as well as in the water. As far as I understand my main task is to get up to dive instructor and go from there, in order to get onto management etc, is that so?
Also, in the meantime, can anyone recommend any dive related work I can do to start developing the skills, such as working in a dive shop etc?
Any experience that you guys may have, I'd love to hear! Good/bad stories, also anyone been diving with Fantasea?
Cheers all!

Are you PADI certified? I believe you need to get the rescue diver certification first before proceeding to DM. You also need to have 20 logged dives to start the DM class and 60 before certification. This is with PADI, Im not sure with out training agencies

You are on the right track since you also want to be involve the behind the scenes. A Divemaster internship with a dive operation is the way to go.
 
Welcome to the board SanzeKuhne,

To have a goal to become a DM or instructor is great, but do yourself a favour, dive more before doing anything like that. Thinking of becoming a DM with 11 dives, is just crazy. 9 of those dives have been training. Technically, for DM you need 20 dives to start and 60 to finish. You also have to do rescue course first.

Take your time. there is absolutley no need to rush dive training, take time to become a diver and learn the ins and outs of your equipment, diving in different conditions, reading books, and just generally being a regular diver. If after a while you feel that DM is for you fantastic! Go for it. But too many instructors and DM's these days have not enough pure diving experience, and dont turn out to be very good professionals.

So think about it, take your time, and enjoy.

HTH

Scubafreak

SanzeKuhne:
Hey all,
(brand new here, blows bubbles to other divers and wannabe divers!)
Am currently AOW, 11 dives under my belt, and am going to Egypt in the summer to do a DiveMaster internship in Dahab with Fantasea.
As uni doesn't seem the thing for me, I'm really interested in getting more involved in diving, in terms of behind the scenes as well as in the water. As far as I understand my main task is to get up to dive instructor and go from there, in order to get onto management etc, is that so?
Also, in the meantime, can anyone recommend any dive related work I can do to start developing the skills, such as working in a dive shop etc?
Any experience that you guys may have, I'd love to hear! Good/bad stories, also anyone been diving with Fantasea?
Cheers all!
 
Hi,
yeah i'm PADI qualified, and in the internship package i get another 20 dives, EFR course, Rescue Diver course and DM on top. It's gonna be really intense I know, but it's my starting point. Then I'm hoping that I can go and work abroad a little, and also get my dives up. Prob is, here in the UK where I'm based there's only pools that you can really dive in (I live in East Anglia) and I'd prefer not to dive so much here, which is why I'm gonna make the most of Egypt.
My OW course was done in really bad conditions with visibility being about 1-2metres, and I still kept at it, so I'm hoping I'll be OK. In the winter my mate's organising a trip to Malta, and over xmas am gonna go to Sweden and do a dry suit course and some dives there!
Cheers for the advice!
 
I'll chime in with the folks above. As somebody who finished his DM in November, I can tell you that there's a lot more to being a DM than just passing the courses that lead to it. Your fellow divers expect their DM to be knowledgable and experienced in diving under lots of different conditions. They expect you to be able to offer expertise to work through their own issues and answer their questions.

You need to take your time, explore your new sport, learn its nuances, and move through each stage after mastering the skills of the stage before it. The last thing you want to be is a DM in name only. I've dived with DMs and instructors that hadn't mastered the basic bouyancy and navigation skills, and they were the subject of ridicule among our local club.

Good luck with all of your dives, and I wish you all the best in your training.

Safe ascents,
Grier
 
First save your money you are going to need a lot. Go out and dive more and do your rescue cert unless part of internship. Stay in good shape.

Learn in theory the dive lessons youll be taking als take a sales course because at the level you are going for you may be expected to be a good salesperson in the shop.

You'll probably need to service gear also. It hard to make a career out of what you plan on doing unless you are part owner or full owner in an operation or just doing it for spare change or are working many hours.

Best of luck
 
SanzeKuhne:
Hey all,
(brand new here, blows bubbles to other divers and wannabe divers!)
Am currently AOW, 11 dives under my belt, and am going to Egypt in the summer to do a DiveMaster internship in Dahab with Fantasea.
As uni doesn't seem the thing for me, I'm really interested in getting more involved in diving, in terms of behind the scenes as well as in the water. As far as I understand my main task is to get up to dive instructor and go from there, in order to get onto management etc, is that so?
Also, in the meantime, can anyone recommend any dive related work I can do to start developing the skills, such as working in a dive shop etc?
Any experience that you guys may have, I'd love to hear! Good/bad stories, also anyone been diving with Fantasea?
Cheers all!

If you're interested in becoming an instructor because you want to own or work in a dive shop then you'd be better off to study how to run a business.

If you want to teach divers then you need a whole lot more diving experience first. not just numbers of dives, but I mean like getting your own skills squared away and making sure that you immerse (literally and figuratively) yourself in the sport.

Just out of curiosity, what's motivating you to go pro so fast? You're just getting started.....

R..
 
I think that gaining some expereince before taking courses is beneficial because it allows you to apply the coursework to real life. If you are less concerned with the in water things there a variety of books which you can read. Business courses in my opinion will outweigh the benefits of dive courses.
Learning differentgear and trying different gear will also be helpful in making purchasing decisions and making recommendations to your customers.

Good Luck and All the best,

Paul
 
WOW thanks SO much for all the replies!! That's really nice of you all to come up with so much advice so quickly:)
Basically, the reason I want to get to a higher level so fast is because I'd like to gain the knowledge early on- this doesn't mean to say that I'm gonna jump straight into being a full-time DiveMaster immediately, but as far as I'm aware, the better my understanding of diving and all of the physics etc behind it, the happier I'll be diving. So don't get me wrong, I'm not looking at becoming the owner of a dive club next year (I'm only 22 this summer!!!) but just looking into my options for the future, and finding out more about the behind-the-scenes. I think this summer will be a great experience as it'll be the first time I'll be able to see what goes on behind.
Keep your ideas coming, and thanx so much again to the peeps who've already replied!
 

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