ECO Divemaster Internship

Sustainable Scuba Diving safeguards the future of the dive industry and the marine environment.

We know that tourism activities have a huge effect on our ocean, but there are ways to do it better. A PADI Eco Center, we teach you how to plan and lead dives under the Green Fins conservation management approach. More than that, we teach you how you (and your future divers) can give back on every dive.

Our Eco Divemaster Internship is intense; 80 dives, 16+ snorkelling surveys and 12+ knowledge development and practical workshops over 8 weeks.

We work 9am-5pm six days a week (+ 1 night dive each week) training for coral restoration, crown of thorns removal, megafauna monitoring, coral health monitoring, underwater clean-ups, shark conservation, turtle conservation, fish identification and, of course, PADI Divemaster training.

You will work with our students, divers and coral restoration volunteers to gain valuable experience in coordinating and leading eco tours and delve deeper into coral restoration with our team and Marine Biologists from our partner NGO, Atoll Marine Centre.

It’s not all work though, you will have plenty of chances to fun dive too!

Included in your Internship:

4 x Reef Guru Restoration Diver Specialty Course Dives

20-25 + Additional Coral Restoration Dives

2 x PADI Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty Course Dives

2 x PADI AWARE Shark Conservation Specialty Course Dives

Megafauna Monitoring and Identification Workshops

1 x PADI Dive Against Debris Specialty Course Dive

7 + Additional Dives Against Debris

REEF Fish Identification Workshops & Surveys

2 x CoralWatch Coral Health Chart Specialty Course Dives

16 x Coral Health Snorkelling Surveys

Working on our active coral restoration site, you will learn all the theory and skills needed to be a coral gardener before practicing, refining and learning how to teach coral restoration to students and volunteers. You will work over different restoration structures; artificial frames, table nurseries, rope nurseries and trees, learn how to find and transport corals of opportunity from shore and from a boat and learn how to construct and deploy frames yourself - ensuring that you have all the skills needed no matter where you end up in the world.

Through the PADI specialty training, you will also learn all about turtles, sharks and rays with theory workshops and dives - knowing how to protect, conserve and monitor our ocean and the creatures that live there, as well as Fish ID though the REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) curriculum, undertaking surveys in species and abundance and sharing data on the global database. The PADI CoralWatch Coral Health Chart Specialty will teach you how to monitor the health of coral reef, and we will share all our tips and tricks to get useful megafauna identification photos and where to upload them.

Cleaning our reefs is the first step in restoring them. The world has an unprecedented trash problem and one of our biggest projects at Aqua Dive is our Dive Against Debris mission. Every week we undertake a Dive Against Debris where we usually remove around 30-50kg of trash in a single dive. During your internship you will undertake the PADI AWARE Dive Against Debris specialty, learning more about local and global marine debris problems, what should and should not be removed from the ocean and what happens to our trash and how and why to survey the rubbish we remove. After that you will practice teaching these skills to others and will leave comfortable and confident in running your own Dive Against Debris events.

20 + PADI Divemaster Course Training Dives

12 x Knowledge Development Workshops

Additional Equipment Maintenance Workshop

16 + Recreational Fun Dives

Life-Long Mentoring on Your Diving and Conservation Career!

Of course there will be dedicated Divemaster training dives too! You will learn all you need to know to work in recreational diving, from briefing and leading customers, dive planning and equipment maintenance, to helping assist instructors on courses and running ReActivates and Discover Scuba Dives. You will fine-tune your diving skills, sharpen your rescue skills and expand your knowledge of the underwater environment and dive theory through presentations and workshops. In addition you will be shown how to maintain equipment and how to use a compressor to fill tanks - a great skill for any diving CV but don’t worry, you won’t be stuck filling tanks while you are here, there is far too much diving to be done. But it’s not all work, we aim to do a minimum of 2 fun dives every week.

Becoming a dive professional can be a little daunting, when you leave us we will keep in touch, helping you to refine your CV and look for dive and conservation jobs wherever you end up.

What does an average week look like?

During your Eco Divemaster Internship you will have a mixture of boat diving, shore diving and classroom sessions. Mornings are usually for coral restoration work while in the afternoons you will be undertaking divemaster and specialty training dives and workshops, assisting on courses, briefing and leading fun dives (under supervision on an instructor), participating in and leading clean up dives or fun diving.

Saturdays is usually our day off so you can use this time to relax and explore the island, or join the staff and volunteers for an excursion (weather permitting).

The PADI Divemaster Curriculum:

    • PADI Divemaster eLearning.

    • Nine knowledge review classroom sessions of the Divemaster online manual chapters (these cover the role of a Divemaster, physics and physiology of diving, diving equipment and the environment, decompression theory and RDP tables, Divemaster conducted programs and the business of diving).

    • Final exams.

    • RDP / eRDPml workshop.

    • Preparing an Emergency Assistance Plan for a local dive site.

    • + Additional Fish ID, Coral ID & Coral Restoration workshops.

    • + Additional Dive Against Debris workshop.

    • + Additional CoralWatch coral health survey workshop.

    • + Additional Megafauna identification and monitoring workshop.

    • + Additional REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) survey workshop.

    • + Additional Equipment Maintenance and Compressor usage workshop.

    • + Complete the Reef Guru Coral Reef Restoration Diver course during your internship (e-Learning must be purchased separately).

    • Complete water skills exercises (swims, float, equipment exchange).

    • Pass a rescue diver assessment.

    • Complete a workshop and assessment of the 24 key diving skills.

    • Display active and positive participation in training sessions and show positive attitude and demeanour towards students, divers and staff.

    • Become a role model to student divers.

    • Show concern about the environment and propagate positive practices to protect it.

    • Prepare a map for a local dive site.

    • Assist with scuba maintenance and pre and post-dive boat preparation.

    • Brief and lead experienced divers on shore and boat dives.

    • Complete a search & recovery workshop and assignment.

    • Complete a deep dive scenario.

    • Complete a ReActivate Programme

    • Advanced Snorkelling

    • Discover Scuba Dive in confined water

    • Discover Scuba Dive in open water

    • Discover Local Diving

    • + Additional Dive Against Debris workshop.

    • Assist Aqua Dive instructors with their Open Water Course students during their confined and open water dives.

    • Assist Aqua Dive instructors in Continued Education courses.

    • Guide certified divers, under an instructors supervision, on their open water dives.

    • Fish ID, Coral ID & Coral Restoration workshops.

    • PADI AWARE Shark Conservation Specialty Certification.

    • PADI Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty Certification (unique to Aqua Dive & Water Sports).

    • Dive Against Debris Specialty Certification.

    • 7 + additional Dive Against Debris events.

    • CoralWatch Coral Health Chart Specialty Certification.

    • REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) survey workshop.

    • 16 + coral health monitoring snorkelling surveys.

    • Megafauna Identification and monitoring workshop and dives.

    • Complete the Reef Guru Coral Reef Restoration Diver course during your internship (e-Learning must be purchased separately).

    • 20-25 + additional Coral Gardening Dives.

    • Equipment Maintenance and Compressor usage workshop.

    • Minimum 18 years old.

    • Certified Rescue Diver.*

    • Minimum of 40 logged dives.*

    • EFR Primary and Secondary Care training completed within the last 24 months.*

    • Physical fitness confirmed by PADI Medical Statement, signed by a physician within the last 12 months.

    • Personal dive insurance.

    *If you do not already hold these prerequisites, we can put a package together for you to include the additional training.

Price: $4,195.00. Length: 8 weeks. Maximum Ratio: 4 students/instructor. Minimum Age: 18 years. Includes: Full equipment, PADI e-Learning & Divemaster Crew Pack, PADI Sea Turtle Awareness, Shark Conservation, Dive Against Debris & CoralWatch Coral Health Chart specialty certifications. Excludes: Dive insurance, Reef Guru Restoration Diver e-Learning (bought directly from Reef Guru) & PADI Divemaster fee (paid directly to PADI upon course completion).