PADI Divemaster Course/Internship
Get your professional dive career off to the best start with UDC’s world class Divemaster program!
Join the Premier Career Development Center in the Caribbean/Central America for your professional training….
The Divemaster program welcomes you to the ranks of a PADI dive professional. Take the first step in your dive career and come join us at Utila Dive Centre in Honduras for your training. A wonderful change in lifestyle awaits! The Divemaster rating is the most sought after professional qualification in the dive industry and the internships develop your leadership abilities by training you to supervise dive activities and assist instructors with student divers.
At Utila Dive Centre, you’ll assist courses and learn specialized aspects of dive planning, since our facility can also offer PADI technical training and more specialties than elsewhere in the Caribbean or Central America.
As a PADI Divemaster in training (DMT), you want to make sure that you get off to the best start with your dive career. Every dive operation differs as to what it can offer on its program, the philosophies behind its diver education programs, its business principles, its staff, and its conservation efforts within the dive community. We don’t claim our boast to be the best or the biggest. There are other much more commercial, bigger and more business orientated dive schools where you can undertake your training, but we prefer a more personalized, real world approach. Whilst we take a fun approach to training and have a great social aspect to our center, we’re not a hostel/’party style’ Career Development Center. All our Instructors and Divemasters were once in a similar position so we understand and want you to be as informed as possible before making the decision to ‘GoPro’ and with a fleet of 5 dive boats we guarantee you more time in the water than any other Career Development Center in the region.
The fact that 80% of our DMT and Instructor candidates are referred to us by ‘word of mouth’ shows the commitment, comfort and quality that we put into our professional courses.
Worldwide recognized PADI Career Development Center (not just a pseudo CDC) with most qualified and field experienced staff in the Americas
30 year unmatched record (100% pass rate) of training over 6000 professionals with unmatched global network
Additional support manual (Utila Dive Centre intellectual property) and training videos, makes your training easier!
Guaranteed pass and remediation
One of the few PADI Career Development Centers in the Caribbean with 2 Course Directors and minimum rating of PADI IDC Staff Instructor as your mentor with marine biologists on staff
Unlimited daily diving, log hundreds of dives with us, not just promised but delivered and honoured! We’re the only CDC in the Caribbean with 5 dive boats.
Only facility offering regular specialized dive trips to Cayos Cochinos and Roatan
Over 80 dive sites around the island
Only PADI rebreather training facility in Central America- enjoy a subsidised rebreather try dive with the DM course
With the most experienced technical divers/staff and only trimix backmount/sidemount technical dive training facility on Utila, learn as much from interning in our facility with so much specialized training taking place, as much from the course itself.
Exclusive Government licensed Coral Nursery and PADI Coral Nursery maintenance specialty course at special rates for our interns!
We offer unlimited diving for life as part of our Divemaster and Master Scuba Diver Trainer Internships and when we mean unlimited for life, we mean it!
Alumni frequently come back, many years down the line, to continue to enjoy the free diving for life that we include as part of our professional-level internships and with the largest fleet of the fastest boats on the island, we’re always able to accommodate all of our students, past and present!
Even on the most popular of days we’re able to send a boat dedicated just for our interns to ensure they can get as much diving in as they like!
Unlimited diving means just that with UDC – Unlimited!
The program consists of 3 separate modules, knowledge development, watermanship and practical assessment training. During knowledge development you’ll learn about supervising both students and certified divers, risk management, dive careers, in addition to gaining theoretical diving knowledge about physics, physiology, skills and environment, equipment and the recreational dive planner. You’ll also put your practical training into developing an underwater map of a local dive site.
There are 2 options for completing your training with us:
Option A: ‘Practical Training Exercises’
For candidates who start the program with at least 50 dives but have time constraints so the program can be completed in approximately 21 days.
Option B: ‘Internship’
For candidates who have more time available as we schedule this option over a minimum of 4 weeks (though we can extend for as long as you like) and include a pre-week of diving and coral reef surveying to get you to the necessary number of dives required to start the course.
Choose from 4 Distinctive Specialties
You won’t find these unique programs anywhere else!
In addition to our well structured and comprehensive Divemaster program with unlimited diving and the coral watch surveying, we are now offering all our candidates a choice of 1 additional PADI distinctive specialty (included in pricing), authored and exclusive to UDC and approved by PADI, which results in a certification in one of the following areas:
Coral Nursery Maintenance Specialty
The purpose of the PADI Coral Nursery Course & Maintenance Specialty is to teach you about the different methodologies involved in reef restoration projects, techniques to clean and maintain the nursery and finally the proper way to survey and monitor the restoration project. Our Utila Coral Restoration Nursery is a Government licensed and approved project in the Caribbean Bay Islands, part of the Mesoamerican barrier reef system and with world famous scuba diving, and Dolphins and Whale sharks. As of 2019, the Utila Coral Restoration Project has outplanted more healthy fragments onto the reef than any other reef restoration project on the island – and its not even close!
Caribbean Dolphin Awareness
This specialty course is a non-diving specialty of interest to both divers and non-divers. The course describes the general distribution of dolphin species spotted locally in the Caribbean. It allows participants to learn about dolphin anatomy and physiology, their behavior in their natural habitat, with little or no impact on their environment. Participants begin the course by reading the Dolphin Awareness Distinctive Specialty handout which will be supported with instructor-imparted classroom sessions.
We will run a boat trip to search for dolphins, observing their behavior in the wild, and applying knowledge acquired in the classroom. During your time with Utila Dive Centre you will be apply this knowledge on subsequent dives, and document/video record dolphin behavior and share this knowledge with others. This specialty choice is ideal for Divemasters or Instructors with an interest in ecology, marine life and conservation.
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Tec Support Diver
This specialty ‘Tec support diver’ is a diving specialty, with lecture based knowledge development, 1 Confined water training session and 1 Open Water training dive. The course is designed to give our Divemaster candidates the knowledge, skills and techniques to safely support technical divers on decompression diving, using air, trimix, enriched air mixes and pure O2, in accelerated decompression dive profiles. During the specialty class you will learn to safely oversee technical diving activities and provide both surface and in-water support, with an understanding of the equipment and configuration, dive profiles, and hazards of technical divers and the profiles they execute.
You will also learn to:
- Carry up to 2 stage cylinders and safely supply these to technical divers during decompression stops (within recreational limits).
- Respond to and handle rescue situations and emergencies involving technical divers executing decompression dive profiles.
- Communicate with technical divers on decompression stops or/and with other support diver at the surface.
This specialty choice is ideal for Divemasters or Instructors interested in technical diving, or who will be working in a region where technical diving is a popular diving activity.
Adaptive Diving Partner
This is a diving specialty and is designed to further your knowledge of supervising, assisting and diving with divers who have disabilities. During this course we will cover the skills, knowledge, planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and risks of assisting a physically impaired diver on and below the surface. This specialty course includes a classroom session and 1 confined water session with an open water training session.
Upon completing the PADI Adaptive Diving training, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate practical knowledge and planning procedures that make the physically impaired divers’ experience safe and fun.
- Assist the physically impaired diver plan and implement their dive plan to safely dive within depths and conditions as good as or better than those which the diver has been trained.
- Identify the hazards of assisting physically impaired divers and demonstrate the techniques and procedures required to minimize those hazards.
This specialty is ideal for Divemasters and Instructors who will be working in areas which are popular with divers who have disabilities, or wish to provide support to scuba diving activities for divers with disabilities, particularly veterans. This training is also valuable for all Divemasters and Instructors as it will expand your own creative thinking in working with all certified divers and students within safe recreational diving limits.
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Since 2010, we’ve partnered with PADI’s Project Aware and the University of Queensland to integrate our 4-week PADI Divemaster internship with the PADI PROJECT AWARE CORAL WATCH PROGRAM. You’ll learn to assess the condition of corals, record their health, and upload the data to a scientific database. This valuable program will improve your understanding of coral reefs and you’ll make a valuable contribution to the Coral Watch program and to the international understanding of the condition of reef systems in the Caribbean.
During your time here, you’ll also be able to take part in some the unique programs UDC offers. These are programs that were developed to give you an in-depth look into a specific area of focus and allow you to grow as a diver and professional. Check them out below:
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After you are certified you are welcome to stay with us for as long as your time frame allows. You can assist our Instructors and certified divers in their dive experiences, giving you valuable experience and more dives (did we mention we’re the only PADI Career Development Center in the region with 5 dive boats,so can actually offer and deliver unlimited diving?!) This experience and a work reference from our PADI Career Development Center and 5 star resort will make it easier for you to find your own position.
If you plan on traveling to other dive resorts in the world, then it’s possible our Course Director and IDC Staff Instructors, through their own experience of working all around the world, can help and counsel you on teaching in differing environments and help guide you in the right direction and you’ll also receive reduced rate diving at our preferred partners in Central America, the Red Sea, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.
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Though PADI requires that an Instructor holds the bare minimum rating of ‘Open Water Scuba Instructor’ in order to train Divemasters, at Utila Dive Centre our Instructors have to be at least an ‘IDC Staff Instructor’ in order to train a Divemaster. This means your tuition will come from Instructors that train Instructors and Assistant Instructors. Our staff have received recognition from PADI for their teaching efforts and numerous ‘certificates of excellence’.
Our 3 resident in-house PADI Platinum Course Directors (the highest Instructor rating) have each taught on 4 different continents (unlike many Course Directors with limited teaching experience to one region) and personally oversee all of our professional training programs and closely work with our Instructor team in a dynamic fashion, so our courses are constantly evolving and improving, the end result being a better trained dive professional.
Our Instructors and support team are multi-lingual and come from cultures as countries and cultures as diverse as the USA, Chile, the UK, Honduras, Spain and France, with world-wide diving experience. This gives us a unique advantage in making our internships much more real-world, rather than boring you with too much traditional academics and allows you to draw and learn from years of diverse teaching experience.
Is my internship extended beyond 4 weeks training to an unlimited time frame?
Do I have 3 Platinum PADI Course Directors overseeing my training?
Can I get tuition in other languages, if needed?
Will my group size be smaller than that of 4 candidates?
Can I assist on PADI courses and dive after my certification is completed for additional experience?
Can I dive for free if I return to my training facility?
Will I have an on-site confined water training area and swimming pool at my availability for additional skill development and extended practice?
Will I have an opportunity to be involved with environmental conservation and a dedicated Coral Nursery?
Is the dive facility I want to be trained in able to offer the complete system of PADI ‘continuing education’ including Instructor programs, tec diving, coral nursery conservation and PADI specialty training in Wreck diving, Night diving, Deep diving, ScubaPro Technician course, Gas Blending, Adaptive Instruction and IYT boating classes?
Are my Instructors able to help me with career advice and are they well connected in the local region and in other dive resorts around the world?
Does anyone have a preferred partner program and special rates at quality dive operators elsewhere in Central America, Red Sea, Asia and Australia?
Am I confident my Divemaster program will be professional, knowledgeable, interesting, real world and fun and that unlimited diving is not just offered, but honoured with the most state of the art fleet of dive boats?
Has PADI recognized my dive facility and Instructors with certificates of excellence and recognition?
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If you can answer yes to all the above then we hope that you’re able to join us in the near future for the beginning of an exciting time starting your dive career as a PADI professional. Remember, it’s important that you feel 110% comfortable with the facility and people where you undertake your dive training, so we hope this gives you an idea of what we have to offer you as an intern and GoPro trainee at Utila Dive Centre. Unfortunately, the one thing we cannot give you an idea of is the great ambience and atmosphere that exists at Utila Dive Centre. Probably one of our biggest assets is intangible, no matter how well equipped our facility is, no building, boats, classrooms, or equipment can match the care, attention, service and quality that we put into every PADI program and all the staff at our resort who work so hard to achieve it.
