Best place to do DM in Asia?

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phil_c
phil_c

Hi,

I am hoping to start my Dive Master somewhere in Asia in October and I have dived a fair bit of Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Indo, so I know which of these dive sites are good. But I was wondering if any of you guys could suggest good dive shops in Asia to do my DM with, as I am just as intersted in the level of instruction and quality of teaching I will get as the quality of the dives.

As I did my Rescue Diver with scuba junkies on Sipidan and even though it was cheap, and the dives were amazing at times, I think I kind of wasted my money as I didn't get the most out of the course. I have read the posts on scuba junkies and the same was true when I was there, about equipment failures etc.

I did my OW and AOW with Ban's on Koh Tao and they were very large, but the instructor I had was excellent and spent time with people if they were struggling. So I was thinking of going to somewhere like that again.

Any suggestions and experiences would be a great help.

Cheers

Phil

Edited by: phil_c

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limbo1
limbo1

Phil,

You point out the obvious, without realising it maybe. Although Ban's is one of the biggest, if not the biggest dive centre on Koh Tao, by many referred to as a 'cattle school', you still had a good experience, because your instructor was good.

And that's what it all boils down to, find a good instructor and you'll have a good course. Secondly it's important to do the course with a shop that has a good infrastructure.

Why not pick a destination and once there, check a few shops, possibly fundive with your faves, talk to the instructors and that way pick your fave shop at your fave location.

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eskil
eskil

You already have some experience from Koh Tao. While it isn't the most amazing dive site in Asia, the place is very nice to live, and diving around Koh Tao is easy and safe. I did my DM with Phoenix Divers, and it is a very nice place to take it. They have some of the most experienced instructors on the Island, excellent new equipment and have a high focus on safety. The school is much smaller than Ban's but still large enough that you will have something to do every single day if you want to.You will also take part in running the shop so you will learn much more about being a DM than what alot of the other schools offers.

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missye100
missye100

How about Big Blue? thats a great dive school and i know the DM that were qualifying there when i was there had an amazing time.

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eskil
eskil

Big Blue is a good dive school as far as i know. I have only visited them once as part of my dm course and i got the impression that they are proffessional. Big Blue is one of the largest schools though, so it will be a different experience than the medium size schools.

You could do some fun dives with different schools before you decide though. Or just stay in Koh Tao for a week or something speaking to different instructors at different schools, and other divemaster trainees.

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