PADI Divemaster

Is your interest in scuba diving as deep as the seas? If so, you can turn your passion into a living by becoming a Divemaster.

The pinnacle of non-professional recreational diving, the PADI Divemaster Course focuses on developing genuine leaders who mentor, motivate, and teach others in the community.

The Divemaster course builds on everything learnt so far but giving particular attention to teaching how to both safely and effectively supervise diving activities and assist with others’ education. A Divemaster learns to assist in a wide range of scenarios, alongside learning to direct some themselves. This is the first taste of a professional diving life.

A good Divemaster is invaluable in a dive center: handling much of the day to day, assisting student divers with their courses, advising certified divers on everything from the best dive sites to local laws and, of course, doing lots of diving!

During the course, you will learn:

• the roles and responsibilities of a PADI Divemaster,
•  to conduct certain PADI courses, the requirements and skills of the adventure dives, and to complete a review of Dive Theory
• to ensure diver safety and handle risk management,
• to understand the physical and biological characteristics of the aquatic world,
• to handle the business and administration side of diving.

It takes at least 10 days to complete the course, though the longer spent around the dive center learning the business of diving from your instructor, the better. Many students choose to complete an internship over a few months, or indeed the period of an entire season. Initially they assist at the dive center whilst completing their course, gradually taking on more responsibility (under the watchful eye of our instructors) as they progress and learning invaluable extra skills along the way (such as the repair and maintenance of dive equipment). Many choose to go on to complete the PADI DSD Leader course and return for more than one season.

Who can enrol?

To enrol, the PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Rescue Diver courses (or equivalent) must all have been completed, and a minimum of 40 dives logged, be 18 years or older.  

At the time of certification, the participant requires at least 60 logged dives, and to have completed EFR Primary and Secondary care training within 24 months.

What will be taught

The PADI Divemaster course can be split into numerous sections, each with their corresponding theory (taught initially through eLearning online or Divemaster video and manual) and practical aspects, before discussion and demonstration by your instructor:      

• The role of a Divemaster and how they conduct themselves
• Waterskills Development (including basic skills such as timed 800m swims, and more complex components such as diver rescue scenarios or underwater equipment exchange)
• Dive Skills (including the teaching and demonstration to a student of the 24 fundamental dive skills)
• Practical Skills which each Divemaster must *ahem* master (everything from dive site briefing, set up, management and emergency plan, to mapping)
• Divemaster-Conducted Programmes (learning to undertake or assist on PADI programmes such as the ReActivate or DSD courses)

Learn more about the Divemaster course

Choose the eLearning option for studying the PADI course theory