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*NEWS* Photos Must See!
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The
Length of a Typical Diving Life Day What is a typical length of
day in the diving life internship program? Good question but not one that is
easy to answer as each day can be very different indeed. The question was asked
so frequently however, it had to be addressed. The daily schedule can be
very varied indeed depending on what part of the dive career internship the
diver is attending to and also – just how much the diver wishes to get
involved. We have divers attend the
diving life program from all over the world and with very varying reasons for
attending the dive training program also. We have the gap year divers that wish
for a fun and educational year out. We have divers attend the programs to become
the very best possible diver with no intention of actually using the
qualification to teach scuba diving or work as a divemaster.
Then we have those that are fully committed to entering the dive industry
and are looking at the dive training and experience to gain access into diving
employment. Due to the varying reasons
dive students attend the training we do not expect any working from the
students. Our job is to train the student divers to the very peak of their
potential but not gain free labour. With divers that are here for pleasure or
for personal achievement maybe hands on experience is not for them. Maybe the
diver feels that they’ll be working in the future they can gain all experience
then (usually this is leaving things a little too late). Any divers that wish to
remain in the passenger seat and pleasure dive and train - this is no problem -
nothing is expected of them. All facets of operating a busy dive center can be
learned and excellent experience gained by those that do wish to gain the most
from the training and gain scuba employment. This ranges from running trips,
organizing the boats (tide charts, dive sites, dive and boat briefings and roll
calls etc), assisting with courses, leading dives, working with students in
problem areas…the list goes on. Again –Allowing the divers to get involved
in many areas for experience – it makes the “show me a typical day”
question even harder to answer. Let’s look at some of the
typical days of a diver beginning the professional dive training internship from
a non-diver status. Ideally on entering the
program the diver will embark on the PADI
Open Water program as soon as possible. Once the diver is trained to open
water diver level this allows the dive to actually get out diving any time they
want for pleasure diving and experience. The Open Water training is
based over 4 days. The first day is either fully classroom or broken into a
50/50 split with the morning session being classroom with the afternoon being
swimming pool work. The swimming pool sessions (confined sessions) are excellent
fun and a great way to become familiar with basic (and new) dive skills in a
very controlled environment. The first 2 days of the Open Water are dedicated to
classroom and swimming pool exercises. The final two days of the open water
course are putting all of the skills and knowledge together to make 4 dives in
the ocean. The day begins at
approximately 09:00am and will complete approximately 16:00 depending on the
day’s logistics and also which island was dived during the open water dives. Once trained as an open
water diver, the diver might not wish to continue directly on with further
training – no problem at all – in fact we like to see a few dives for
experience prior to continuing on further. The diver is welcome to jump on any
one of our 4 boats that is visiting dive sites open to open water divers. –
Basically now the diver will be able to pleasure dive – that’s right, jump
on the boat and take a days diving when ever you wish. Customers diving daily
and not in the diving life program pay $75 per day for the diving – all of the
internship have un-limited diving included at no cost – make use of it:-)
Getting in a good amount of pleasure dives is also a great opportunity to get
used to all of your brand new personal scuba
diving equipment that is supplied to keep with the program. The PADI Advanced Open Water Course follows the O/W course and is a two day course with minimal academics. The course is conducted entirely on the boat and there is no classroom work involved. You'll get the mandatory deep (approximately 30 meters) and navigation dives but you get to elect 3 other dives from a long list. Maybe you fancy a ship wreck dive, drift dive, naturalist, search and recovery dive or a peak performance buoyancy dive to really get you off on the right fin. Again – the days are set from approximately 09:00am through to 16:00. EFR (Emergency First Response) is
next. This is a one day medical and emergency course teaching you all about CPR,
handling emergencies and the use of defibrillation technology and the use of a
defibrillator solution to help caregivers treat sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)
quickly and effectively wherever it occurs. NOTE: Your instructor will advise when he
deems you eligible to take the rescue diver course. Once you have current EFR
skills you get to apply these in the Rescue
Course. This is where your blinkers really come off. You get to learn
many skills and much knowledge over the 4/5 days in tune to prevention of
problems and accidents and if they are to occur then how to solve them. You'll
learn that there is no specific right or wrong way to make a rescue but there
are some definite "do-nots". After this course you'll be more in tune
with checking on your dive buddy as well as looking out for yourself. The PADI Rescue Diver Course is run over 4/5
days and is superb fun. The academics for one day are very interesting indeed as
it really is an eye opener. We usually have 1 day classroom and 1 full day in
the swimming pool confined session to ensure that all are 100% on the essential
skills and knowledge prior to taking the to the ocean. The final 2 – 3 days are spent in the ocean
making many rescue dive scenarios – this is definitely the most rewarding
courses up to this point. Again – the Rescue Course begins approximately
09:00am and will be complete at 16:00 each day. Once the rescue diver program is complete it
is a very good idea to continually practice your skills learned with a dive
buddy. You will have many dive buddies within the program. You will get to know
a set of divers very well through the training and pleasure diving together or
in groups that interact. With the Divemaster the next program on the
PADI progressive ladder we need to start working towards the pre-requisites to
begin. Mermaids require the dive interns to have a minimum of 50 logged dives in
order to being this part of the training. Although PADI stipulate that a
divemaster can be signed off at 60 dives – Mermaids like to raise the bar
slightly. To have a minimum 50 dives prior to entering the dive master program
allows the diver to have that much more knowledge in diving to base opinions,
thoughts and decisions within the course. As we have time to build on the dive count and fitness for the divemaster swims – we can get on and take any specialty courses that are included within the program. You might have a list of 5 specialty courses to take and hence taking them at this point sustains interest as learning with every dive but also allows a dive count to be increased at the same time. Mermaids CDC Pattaya, Thailand offers a whole range of specialty courses – they can be exchanged. A sample list of specialty courses is below:
Mermaids CDC offer an entire range of dry side specialty courses also as below:
Generally specialty courses are 1 – 3 days
in length (Mostly 2 days). Again the start times are generally You will be invited to join one of our
divemaster content courses where you work very closely with an instructor on the
content of the divemaster program and also the swim tests and the exams. (There
are 8 examinations including Physics, Physiology and the dive planners (the RDP
(Recreational Dive Planner) and the Wheel). At the end of the course you will
have all of the knowledge and skills base to expand upon during the next few
months whilst working towards your dive instructor exams. The Divemaster
course training expands all of your diving, rescue and diving theory skills.
With the skills and knowledge in mind – we can then use this to expand upon
the divers’ experience, mentor skills, and overall ability to control dive
situations. You'll get to lead dives, take tours, give boat and dive briefings,
assist working instructors with dive courses and generally get the feel for what
goes on in a busy dive center - you are now on the path to the first scuba
diving professional level and being a diver role model. About our typical day? Whilst taking recreational diving courses, studying in the classroom, in the
swimming pool or taking pleasure days diving
(any time you like) – the start time is approximately
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