Which Dive School?

[Tommp]

Hi Everyone! Im new here so a little bit about me first. My names Tom and i'm 21 from England. I have always loved the idea of scuba diving and when i was younger did my padi seal team and since then have done several 'Discover Scuba' dives whilst on holiday, sadly have never gotten round to doing my OW though. A few months ago i decided that i want to travel, and after speaking to several friends decided on Thailand, then saw a few adverts for dive internships and decided to do my Divemaster or IDC course whilst in Thailand. After alot of searching i finally landed on Koh Tao as my final choice. I have emailed several of the dive shops there that offer internships to see what information was available/group sizes and such, and was just wondering what other peoples personal experiences are of these shops.
So onto my questions, how much money would i need spending wise each month to live comfortably and not miss out on some of the other activities. How much is long term accomodation there, am i better off finding my own when i get out there, or do i go with the dive shop's suggestions. Finally, what are peoples personal experiences of Buddha Dive, Crystal Dive, and Davy Jones Locker dive shops, or what others would you reccomend?
Look forward to hearing from you guys, thanks in advance.
Tom

 

[lord khram]

I simply can not recommend such courses, there are numerous threads on this forum discussing the pro's and con's of such.
My recomendation as always is to split your time and training between different shops and at different resorts and you will gain far more broad based experience than doing everything at the same place.
You can do everything at your own pace, and you are not paying a large sum of money up front for something you may not even complete, you could commit to a shop and not get on with the staff, or any number of other things could go wrong.
In my experience as a diving customer, many such 'dive professionals' I have encountered that followed the route you are considering are simply second rate. You need to look at the reasons why you are considering such a course, if you simply want a few months jolly in Thailand with a group of likeminded people then it may be ok for you, but if you are serious about a career in the dive industry, forget it.