Active Coconut Tree Divemaster Interns

Becoming PADI Pros in roatan

As we start into Summer 2018 we introduce to the staff an additional 6 divemaster interns ready to embrace their 6 week long journey into becoming a Padi pro.  They will soon be tested with academic studies, practical applications, skill circuits, dive briefings and leads, night dives, compressor maintenance and tank filling and of course meeting and greeting customers as they come into the busiest shop that west end has to offer. 

Good luck to the divemaster interns for the start of 2018.

This is our 2018 Street Hockey crew.

Added 7 new divemaster interns on Febuary 14th, 2017 to our team leaving us with 15 current interns.  Here at Coconut Tree we specialize in the pro side of teaching and have a 6 week program designed just for pro candidates.  If your checking on where to do your training and you come across shops that explain to you they only carry a small amount of divemasters its because they do not have a program designed for you.  Our course is challenging and fun at the same time leaving you with plenty of experience to start your IDC with us.

Coconut Tree Divers divemaster interns practicing their equipment exchange on the deck. 

The day to day duties of the divemaster interns at Coconut Tree Divers.  Wether your helping fill scuba tanks after the morning dives, or sitting down and getting some one on one instruction from one of the instructors, there is always plenty to do when it comes to training. 

Tying of the boat is one of the divemaster interns duty when the boat comes back from the dives, be sure to learn your clove hitches and other knots!!

The first week as a DMT (Divemaster intern)

by Henrik and Josh

The first day is the introduction. You get told a bunch of information and you won’t remember even half of it, but that is okay because it will come to you in a couple of days. They will show you around the shop, the classroom and the compressor room just to get you familiar with it. You start to meet everyone that you will work with for the next couple of months and also all the other DMT’s that share the same housing as you. The DMT house is nice with private rooms and bathrooms and a share kitchen, which is a nice excuse to cook meals together and be social. Even though you can’t remember every ones name, you will still feel warmly welcomed. You will also be assigned an instructor who will be your mentor during the divemaster course. I also got to dive – it was nice to be back in the water again after almost 3 months of surface time.

Over the next couple of days you will be shown how all the routines work. How to help a costumer, what to check in the mornings, how to fill the tanks, how to use the compressors, load and unload the boat, and of course the dive schedule. It only takes you a few days to get into it, and to change your feeling from “I have no idea what I am doing” and “I am just in the way” to “I am actually being useful right now.” I have now been here for one and a half weeks and already I am doing the routines like everybody else. Of course there are still plenty of things I still have to learn – such as tying the knots for the boat, but that will hopefully also be pretty easy in a couple of weeks.

I think the first week is the most horrible and the most intense. You arrive in a new country (and in my case, really far away from home) and everything is new for you. You are unused to the hard work (carry and lift tanks). You are unused to the sun and get sunburned. You are unused to the mosquitos and sandflies. You are stressed over all the new tasks that you just learned and all the things that has to be completed before you can go and do the easy part – dive. The first week is a really intense on your body. But it gets easier once you start to get used to everything, and it will probably be even easier in the future.

And then there also are all the things above and outside the diving and dive shop life that you have to get used to, like animals (both positive and negative ones). I love to be able to look at the clear sky in the night, just watching all the stars but I hate not being able to drink the tap water. To move all across the world was a difficult but at the same time a very interesting decision. I already know I will always remember my time fulfilling my dream of becoming a professional diver and living in Roatan, Honduras.

Thanks Henrik for some insight on the DM program, its a busy program and organized in a way that super exceeds all other DM programs on the island.  Plus we have the most fun!!!!

Henrik is pictured in middle wearing the orange t shirt.

heres another reason why we chose coconut tree divers to continue our training into a professional dive career.