What’s a day like in your Divemaster training – Brian’s story with Ocean Lovers
After completing the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course at Ocean Lovers, I soon returned home to Texas, but there was one thing that I could not get out of my mind – and that was returning to Taganga in order to continue learning and diving in the beautiful waters of Tayrona National Park with Ocean Lovers.
Soon after, I fully decided to return in order to complete the Rescue Diver course along with the Dive Master course. The fun and interactive staff, the very affordable and competitive pricing, and the abundance of dive locations are a few of the reasons that I chose to return to complete the courses at Ocean Lovers.
After I returned to begin these courses, I was given a day to reacclimate to the water to have a few fun dives. Soon thereafter, I began with the rescue course. This was an intensive three-day course that was both challenging and rewarding, and it left me feeling excited to officially begin dive master training.
The dive master training took about a month and a half but I never felt rushed or delayed. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and the adequate amount of time was given in order for all of the concepts to be mastered. Each day I arrived to the dive shop at 7am. Immediately I began helping with various duties such as loading the scuba tanks into the cart to be taken to the boat for the day, preparing the dive equipment for the instructors and their students, and also helping out with teaching the basics to students. But it wasn’t all work in the morning. There was always time for a smoothie from the street along with some coffee and jokes. Again, the casual atmosphere really made Ocean Lovers a pleasant and enjoyable place to be.
From around 8am – 1pm each day, we were in the ocean diving. Between dives during the surface interval, the dive masters typically would help distribute snacks/juices to everyone on the boat and possibly help clean up trash in whatever beach that we were stationed at. Never hurts to help the environment and that is one thing that is abundantly clear and important to Ocean Lovers, the environment. Each day was different as I was involved in all of the various courses with students along with achieving my own requirements for the dive master course. One day I could’ve been helping with the Open Water Diver course while the next I may have been working on my underwater mapping skill at 30m. This really helped keep every day interesting.
In the afternoon, I usually tried to go to the gym and then return to the dive shop with my lil chihuahua (Mango) for a bit to spend some time there. This time was used for things such as to learn about servicing the equipment, help students with their studies, or to work on my own studies. Of course, there was usually a beer in my hand to help with the Taganga heat!
Then, when the course was completed, it was a bitter-sweet time. I was super excited to have completed it but also sad to be ending my time with Ocean Lovers. However, the final objective, the snorkel test, was definitely one of the most fun challenges. The guys cooked an awesome meal (barracuda stuffed with veggies and covered in beer) that I’ll definitely never forget. It was a great night and a great way to say bye to everyone.
One of my favourite experiences with Ocean Lovers was the ability to be apart of an ocean cleanup day. We spent a Saturday morning along Taganga beach filling sacks of trash to be removed from the bay. It was a really nice experience to have and I look forward to doing this again in the future. Another great opportunity that Taganga offers is that since the town is so small, I was able to meet various people in the community. No matter where I walked, I was always able to find a friend in the streets. I never felt alone and felt that it was a very welcoming community. All in all, this was a fantastic opportunity and I’d of course do it over again given the chance!
