Are you thinking about joining the professional ranks of scuba diving by becoming a divemaster? What does it take to be a good divemaster and what should you expect from a divemaster internship?
Top 10 features of a good divemaster
1. Love of the ocean
A divemaster internship really starts with a love for the ocean and a willingness to protect and preserve the environment. This passion will carry you through some of your challenging days.
2. Being physically fit
In the divemaster internship, you will have to pass a swim test that is timed as well as tread water. Beyond certification requirements, keeping physically fit will help you in your day-to-day activities and reduce your risk of DCS.
3. Educated
As a future divemaster and even during your divemaster internship, customers will come to you with a variety of questions such as how different pieces of equipment work, which equipment is best to buy, where can you dive with a certain animal, different types of dive sites, and how to conduct certain skills when you are assisting an instructor with a class. Because of this, a divemaster needs to stay up to date on all dive industry related equipment and procedures as well as specific courses that they will be assisting with.
4. Self-confident
During the divemaster internship, self-confidence will be gained by experience. You want your customers to be comfortable with you. This means your actions from once you meet them all the way through underwater and ending the day with them will be noticed. Professionalism and self-confidence in your abilities go a long way with making a diver feel comfortable. The best way to gain self-confidence is to dive. The more dives you make, the more comfortable you will become with anything you might encounter, especially with problems that may arise. Further gain confidence by exploring other dive sites and conditions around the world which will also help you answer customer questions.
5. Professional
Scuba diving is a fun sport. During the divemaster internship, you will cross over to the professional side of diving. Thus, you must present yourself in a mature and respectable manner. You must pay close attention to the divers that have been placed under your guidance. Their safety is your number 1 priority. Make sure divers are properly certified and comfortable in the environment they are diving in. Helping divers with gear, talking through diving conditions, and talking about concerns they have will all help ease a diver’s mind that you are in control and will take good care of them. All of the observations you quietly make while divers are near you will help assess their abilities even before they get underwater. This will increase their safety and peace of mind.
6. Consistent
In a divemaster internship, you will learn how to properly conduct a pre-dive safety briefing. These briefings are very important because they cover exactly the procedures to be taken to get in the water, while underwater, to get out of the water, and any emergency preparedness that might be needed. As a divemaster intern, these briefings need to be very consistent so divers can properly understand the procedures and follow them safely.
7. Knowledge of marine life
When people go diving, they have all sorts of questions about the type of animals, plants, and corals they see. It is your job as a divemaster intern, to not only point out these animals as you are diving, but brief divers on what they might see so they can also look out for them. You will need to know how to identify these animals to increase the enjoyment of a dive.
8. Attitude
People pay a lot of money to go diving in exotic places around the world. The last thing a paying customer wants is a grumpy divemaster. In the divemaster internship, you will learn to smile often, listen to your customers, always keep a cool temper, and have fun!
9. A team player
In the divemaster internship, you will be given a mentor. This mentor helps teach you the fundamental skills of being a team player. Most dive operations have several crew members to make a dive trip successful. These include divemasters, instructors, boat captains, boat crew, store managers, and store sales clerks. Together, this team of people is what can make or break a good dive operation. Even under stressful situations, remember you are never alone. You have a team of people ready and eager to help.
10. Explorer
Being a good divemaster entails knowing a variety of places to dive in the world and understanding how to dive in different conditions. The only way for you to do this is to get out in the world and explore. Once you complete the divemaster internship, you could always try working at different places around the world to gain experience.
3W Dive
Here at 3W, we offer a divemaster internship program that will help you achieve the top 10 features of a good divemaster. Our program offers unlimited diving, the possibility to stay up to 6 months, involvement in our day-to-day operations, real world experience for newly certified divemasters to work with actual customers, a personal instructor mentor, and a structured program to move you from divemaster intern to a fully certified divemaster. With us, you will have the confidence to go out and be an excellent divemaster anywhere in the world!
