Jump into… Divemaster Training
The tank carrier, the equipment holder and finder… the credentials on the CV of a good Divemaster?… Only joking… and I actually am. In honesty, this is one of my biggest bugbears. Divemasters being used as the person to do all of the odd jobs that nobody wants to do, as a ‘learning’ experience, with the excuse that ‘we have all been there’ as if it is a right of passage.
The Divemaster course should be fun. After all to continue the succession of diving, we need new divers. To get new divers, we need new instructors. To get new instructors, we need Divemasters to enjoy what they do and want to progress. It’s the circle of diving!
How was your Divemaster course? Can you relate to this… I know I can. Being the person in 2 degree water before anyone else in the middle of winter, helping the student divers kit up, before the instructor came in after finishing a hot chocolate. A factor to once again prevent divers from wanting to take their Divemaster course here in the UK and head abroad for it, after all carrying tanks in the sun whilst getting a tan sounds a lot more appealing in itself.
The Divemaster course is one of my favourite PADI pro courses to teach. The excitement that divers have taken their first steps of the pro ladder. Ready to put their passion towards teaching the next generation of divers. Watching the pride on a persons face when they have passed and taken out their first group on a guided dive, enjoyed by all… priceless.
There may be many of you devastated that your diving career was put on hold due to Covid, as your Divemaster internship has been cancelled abroad, but the UK has so much to offer too, and it’s not all sitting in lectures and diving in no visibility in freezing cold water. I can only speak about our own Divemaster course held here at Vivian, but I am sure many other UK centres will offer similar…. Just not better (only messing, love you all!)
Just like abroad, our Divemaster courses involve assisting on courses, having a 5 star IDC centre will likely allow more exposure to different courses, as more of them will be taught there. In turn meaning that you experience different skills and teaching techniques. There is experience assisting on shore and boat dives, learning briefing, navigation and dive planning techniques… I mean, doing the Divemaster course has to be a good choice just for this reason… free dives out to explore the UK coastline as part of your course… who wouldn’t want to do that! And then there is the theory, which can now be completed online, giving you the opportunity to learn whilst you are working from home during lockdown. So if becoming a Divemaster was on the cards in 2020 and 2021 and was put on hold. Maybe consider the UK as your Divemaster location for 2022!
Clare began Duttons Divers at just 19 years old and a short while later became one of the world’s youngest PADI Course Directors. Find out more at www.duttonsdivers.com
