Which is better, Aquanauts or Mermaids?

[lord khram]

I've sometimes thought about "checking out" for six months, going to Thailand, and doing one of these internships to
a) better my ability diving
b) get certified up the wazoo
c) to dive the beautifull waters of Thailand for a couple of months

I have no intention of every "going pro" so have wondered if this an appropriate day dream or not.

Great advice from Buadhai and Watboy. Thailand has so much to offer and so many great places to visit, thats speaking not only from the point of view of diving, why anyone would want to commit all their time and money to one location is a mystery to me. Particularly if you do not intend to go professional, why spend a significant sum of money to then have a large portion of your time commited to one shop, 'working' for them and visiting the same bunch of dive sites day after day. If you do not want to become a dive pro, and you do want to do some courses, look at technical training, at the end you will have a qualification that will be of use to you, as it can greatly increase the scope of diving that you can do, rather than one which you will never need or use. Also consider a liveaboard trip to the similans or Surin Islands, excelent dive locations. Get something out of it which will have benefit for yourself rather than paying your money to be a dive slave where the end reward is a qualification you do not need.
Even those that do want the qualification, do things at your own speed, travel around and see more of what Thailand has to offer, you will gain far more from your experience than staying in the same location with the same group of people.

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

Hey Oz,

There's no need to "Go Pro" to get a dive package such as the internships mentioned here. We offer both the non-professional Master Scuba Diver TRAINEESHIP and various technical diving TRAINEESHIPS as well.

Contrary to the assumpitons stated above, you do not "work" for us or anything similar in the non-professional programs. In the case of MSD, it's a 2-month dive holiday at hugely discounted prices -- basically the diving is free. You pay for just the courses, books, accommodations and equipment. Over 2 months, you can log up to 120 dives.

The traineeships also have no need to be consecutive, so, by all means, explore and dive around Thailand. But your base can be here with us and you can dive, keep your stuff in your accommodations and study up the Rescue Diver with specialties level. Or Go Tec.

See the DivingInstructorTraining.com website for the Master Scuba Diver program or the Tec site listed below for those packages.

I've sometimes thought about "checking out" for six months, going to Thailand, and doing one of these internships to
a) better my ability diving
b) get certified up the wazoo
c) to dive the beautifull waters of Thailand for a couple of months

I have no intention of every "going pro" so have wondered if this an appropriate day dream or not.

 

[red_barbarian]

To the OP, my background is I did my DM with a different shop in Pattaya, and my EFRI with Aquanuts. I also hold OC/CCR certs through tri-mix from other regions so I have some idea of what constitutes professional training. Before you commit to an internship do a dive or two with several shops and get a feel for the way they treat both their staff and customers. That may help you evaluate where you might be most comfortable spending your time. I would also encourage you to try other areas in Thailand. If your interest is in leading wreck dives you will probably make a much different choice than if your interest is in assisting with as many OW classes as possible.

In Pattaya I would encourage you to check out Seafari, Real Divers, and Adventure Divers.

My personal course experience with Aquanuts was they met the required standards in teaching the course material.

Best of luck to you in whatever you decide.

 

[Buadhai]

One final thing, don't forget your Hamlet. (Act III, scene II.)

 

[Bowmouth]

This thread reminds me a LOT of the "good ol' days" of bashing...

 

[Buadhai]

This thread reminds me a LOT of the "good ol' days" of bashing...

I guess it just demonstrates why the Thailand sub-forum (and only the Thailand sub-forum) has a pinned thread that starts out:

It has come to the attention of the staff that there seems to be a lot of bashing, name calling and mean spirited discussion in this forum.

I'm not sure why, but every Thailand-related discussion group I've ever participated in (aside from the heavily moderated ones like Teak Door) has, at times, descended into incredibly nasty bickering. This goes all the way back to the pre-forum days of Usenet newsgroups like soc.culture.thai and rec.travel.asia.

 

[lord khram]

Good advice again from Red Barbarian, seems to me most of the advice is following a similar track. Of course apart from that which is emanating from those trying to sell the internships.
We can all draw our own conclusions from that I think.

 

[lord khram]

This thread reminds me a LOT of the "good ol' days" of bashing...

But surely you must agree it is a lot more polite now.

 

[Bowmouth]

But surely you must agree it is a lot more polite now.

Yes, well, there's less of and :chairfight: and also not much of but it still looks to me like a

 

[lord khram]

Yes, well, there's less of and :chairfight: and also not much of but it still looks to me like a

LOL, not at all. Simply my opinion.