Aussie Divers Phuket – PADI Divemaster – December 2019

I first discovered Aussie Divers when I was on vacation in Phuket back in December 2017. I made a spontaneous decision to try diving and signed up for the Open Water course. It was an amazing 3 days. My instructor was great; he made learning the equipment fun, and then we got into the big blue. As expected, I fell in love with my newfound underwater world! So glad that I took the plunge. But now I was hooked and needed more.

Fast forward 2 years to December 2019. I had been living in Okinawa Japan, had 10 dives logged, and had completed my PADI Advanced Open Water and PADI Rescue Diver courses. As PADI Open Water Instructor was now my goal, getting my PADI Divemaster certification was the next step. While the diving in Okinawa is beautiful, and there are lots of great dive shops, there was never any question as to where I wanted to return for my PADI Divemaster training.

I opted to stay in Phuket at the dive center for 3 weeks over the Xmas holiday to do my Divemaster Training; the “high season”, or busiest time of the year, as I would soon learn. I will be honest; it was hard work! I was up at 6:00am every morning handling customer equipment and would consistently work 10-12-hour days. That work gave me a better appreciation of the industry though. My thought process changed from the sport of diving to the business of diving. All in all, though, I still had a blast. I was in paradise, out on a boat, in the beautiful sea, diving, every day!

Mentor

It also helped that I had a great mentor, Tom. He took me in from day one, showing me almost everything that I know about being a divemaster now. He took extra time after the day’s diving was done to work with me on subjects that I was not picking up as fast. And he taught me the most important thing that I needed to work on during my skills tests: slowing myself down.

The atmosphere at the shop was great as well. I made friends with all the instructors there. Lots of experience, from all over the world. Everyone would get together after work for dinner most nights, and just hang out and laugh. There was a family-like camaraderie amongst the staff, for sure. It was nice having everyone there for my final exam, the dreaded “snorkel test”.

I would highly recommend Aussie Divers Phuket for anyone looking to get in the water, from PADI Discover Scuba Diving to Open Water, to Divemaster. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic has put the entire world of travel and diving on pause; once things start opening again though, rest assured I’ll be on the first flight back to Phuket to start my Instructor Development Course with Darren at the shop.

Thanks Darren, Ash, Simon, Tom, and everyone else at the shop for the awesome working holiday. Hope to see you all again later this year!