"The way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."
– William Feather
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DIVEMASTER INTERNSHIP
by Paul “Law” McKenna #449483 and Rob “Order” Duttchen #448540
The Dive Master (DM) certification is the first rung of the PADI Professional ladder. In scuba diving, it is the point when you move from being a recreational diver to being a dive professional. Like any endeavour in life, where you train and how you approach your training will make the difference between becoming a true professional and merely obtaining a certification.
Attitude
"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." – Henry Ford.
Come to your DM internship with a desire to learn! There are many skills, techniques and tricks that will make you successful in the DM role. To maximize your learning during your internship, you must approach every day, every task, and every opportunity with a desire to grow. Ask yourself, what can I learn from this?
Daily tasks like checking equipment, mopping the shop floor, emptying the garbage, operating the compressor station, and hauling tanks are not likely going to challenge your intellect. But these tasks are teaching you the grind of the day to day life as a dive professional. You are learning what working in the dive industry is. If this is what you're hoping to do, embrace every task. A positive attitude, coupled with an understanding of why you're doing this work, will go a long way to making even the most mundane task have meaning.
Preparation
"Chance favours the prepared mind" – Louis Pasteur.
No one will make you come for DM training, having pre-read the DM course manual, watched the PADI DM video, having sought out online or YouTube resources. How, or what, you do to prepare is totally up to you. Ask yourself this. What kind of DM would I want to dive with, and what kind of DM do I want to be?
Purchasing your PADI DM Crew Pack will allow you to pre-read the course material you will apply during your internship. You can highlight the answers to your knowledge reviews and condense the course material into study notes that you can use to prepare for the two exams on the DM course. The online resources by PADI Multi-Platinum Course Director Will Welbourn https://goprocaribbean.com/divetheory will provide you with a solid foundation to tackle your DM exams. Will's courses instruct the material and foster a solid understanding of the subject matter required as a dive professional.
By arriving for your DM course prepared, you will reduce academic stress through familiarity with the course material. Preparation assists not only in completing your knowledge reviews during the course but by allowing you mental bandwidth to learn and process all of the intangible practical skills you are taught daily during your internship. Is it possible to come in without preparation? Absolutely, but remember you are becoming a professional; prepare like a professional! You may not be able to pre-learn everything, but everything you pre-learn will help you be the best you can be.
Teamwork
"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each individual member is the team." - Phil Jackson.
Achieving your DM certification is an individual achievement, but you won't be doing it alone! Almost every component of the DM internship requires you to operate effectively as part of a team. From being a dive buddy to being the last one out of the water at the end of a dive, your individual role is one part of the larger operation.
When you are tired after a long afternoon of diving, it's the team that will be there to help you unload the boat. When you can't quite master a skill in the skills circuit, it will be a teammate who comes alongside to help you hone the elusive element. At first, you will be the beneficiary of the teamwork. As you find your footing in the program, you will move between helper and helpee. As your time as DMT draws to a close, you will pay forward to new DMTs the helping hands that made you successful. You are working toward an individual goal, but you cannot achieve that goal without the team.
Be Proactive
"If you want to know your place in this world: you find your path by walking it.”
– Maya Angelou.
As a PADI Professional, you are a leader. Good leaders seize the initiative. It may be acceptable for a dive customer to look around at what needs to be done, knowing someone else will do it. As a DM, your job is to assess what needs to happen and make it happen. Learn the routine, daily jobs and expectations and proactively work to complete them; without being asked.
Look at the training calendar for the day, is there equipment you can get ready to facilitate the training? How many people are scheduled for the boat? Can you pull the required tanks? Do tanks need to be filled? Exercise initiative, fill the tanks, load the boat and be the one who makes things happen, rather than the one waiting to be told what to do.
Enjoy Yourself
"While accomplishing your dreams, don't forget to enjoy life too."
– Unknown
Our DM course ranged in age from 18 – 66, from high school educated, to a legal degree, from Europe, North America, and Central America. We were all there with singleness of purpose, coalesced around a community that we built together. Nothing mattered, not our background, education, race, religion or gender. We were there to dive, enjoy the tropical weather in Roatan, socialize, study, grow, and develop as budding dive professionals.
Along the way, we had laughs, frustrations, challenges, victories and the occasional defeat. In it all, and through it all, we had FUN. We laughed at inside jokes that emerged from the day's activities. We laughed to celebrate the success of finding the boat on a dive lead or at the failure of not finding it! We laughed at Molson, the Coconut Tree Pug, as we navigated around him, perched at the top of the stairs obstructing us as we carried the SCUBA tanks back from the boat. We celebrated together with a sense of accomplishment after completing the equipment exchange test. We made memories of people, places, and things that come along once in a lifetime. Don't be so focused on the destination that you forget to look around and enjoy the ride.
Dive Your Dream
"True motivation comes from achievement, personal development, job satisfaction and recognition." – Fredrick Herzberg.
The learning you take from your Divemaster course, coupled with the memories, will stay with you for a lifetime. You will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment as you join the ranks of the PADI community of dive professionals. Treasure the experience, work hard and apply yourself, and your time in DM training will be a highlight of a life well-lived. Good luck and good diving