Where to do DM-course?

[NL1983]

Hi All,

I am quite new to the forum and if this is the wrong place to post, please let me know.

Background info - Couple going pro
We are a Dutch/French couple end 20s early 30s who are going to "go pro" . Our aim is to make diving our living and the focus is to do so in SEA / South-Pacific. Currently we are (nitrox) AOW-divers with (when we will start the course - early 2013) ~150 - 200 dives under the belt, with dive experience in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Egypt, Australia, Ecuador, France, Croatia, The Netherlands (majority in SEA though).

Long-term we would like to become Instructors and eventually run a dive-resort and/or start our own.

DM-course requirements - the whole nine-yards
Short-term we want to find a place that suits our needs for a DM-course with the following requirements:

• Professionalism -- as we are aiming to become party-DMs on the occasional summer-holiday we are looking for a good professional learning school
• Beautiful diving -- the course is not only about the course, we want to enjoy diving while doing the course, therefore we are looking for a good diving spot
• Internship -- as we do not just want to pass the exam and go, but really gain experience and test and progress our new skills, we would like to stay and work for the same school for at least a couple of months
• Cost -- cost is always a point but not the main one at this point, if a course being twice the price of another one offers a better and more complete experience and includes more of our requirements, it might be worth the price
• Completeness -- as for the longer-term we want to be as autonomous as possible it would be good if the course includes or could include non-diving aspects as: gear repairs, engine repairs, compressor knowledge etc

Question - where to do the course?
We made a short-list of places / countries that have our preferences and we would love to get input / opinions from people here why (not) to go to certain places and where exactly to go to

Palau
+ great diving
- Not sure if it has good non-liveaboard diving (quite essential for DM-course), Might be quite expensive

Mabul
+ We have quite some experience with Scuba-Junkie, like the crew, the place and athmosphere
- would have to look for big minus, small one is the food and the fact that it seems to be a pure UK-based clan

Indonesia (e.g. Bunaken, Ambon, Raja Ampat)
+ Beautiful diving, great locations
- Have seen little real professionalism, Visa requires us probably to leave country every 1-2 months, no work usually due to Visa limitations

I know Koh Tao is a big DM - Instructor machine, but I don't think that will be something for us.

Sorry for the length, just wanted to give you a good feel for our considerations...

 

[DevonDiver]

I'd suggest looking for a dive center that was small enough to offer 'real' inclusion into the teaching/working team. The bigger centers that run 'rolling DM programs' tend not to fully integrate trainee DMs into the operations - which means trainees miss out on much valuable experience.

I worked at Scuba Junkies previously - they are well set-up for the 'fun diver' market and the DMs had a lot of fun. I'd recommend them, but you won't get much experience in the 'operations management' side of work, or maintenance/compressor/equipment repair type of work. Likewise, they don't do much in the way of 'advanced diving' - so there's little scope to gain experience of technical diving etc (if that interested you). As you know, the diving is great there - but most of the DM work/training will be on Mabul/Kapalai sites - with trips to Sipidan very infrequently because of the permit situation (staff still require permits, which are valuable). Of course, the visa situation in Malaysia is excellent also.

Koh Tao generally has a reputation for 'sausage factories', which IMHO are only a good option for gap year diving-dilettantes. There are some decent schools there though - check out Master Divers, as an example of a great school. Visa situation in Thailand is ok... due to the ease of renewing a tourist visa via 1-day 'border run'.

 

[Bubble Junky]

Take a quick look at Lumba Lumba on Pulau Weh and Khao Lak Scuba Adventures in Thailand too... Both offer good training and have good diving too...

 

[NL1983]

Thanks for your responses DevonDiver and Bubble Junky.

Sounds like good advise to look for a smaller resort, as you mentioned the chances of getting integrated into all aspects of the daily work are probably higher.

We will check out LumbaLumba (despite a previous comment of myself, that was before I read more about the entire story and read both sides of the story), probably this August!

In case you have experience with other small resorts with good, professional and friendly managers / owners please let me know and I will look into them as well.

Again, thanks for the responses

 

[Bubble Junky]

The are benefits of bigger shops too - such as getting the opportunity to work with different instructors... Different instructors do things in different ways, and you can learn a lot from seeing differing approaches to various situations... Personally I don't like the idea of DMTs only ever working with one instructor...