PADI Archives - Dutch Mermaid

Finding a dive buddy in Bonaire

February 28, 2019March 11, 2019 Rianne

The last few weeks several people have contacted me and asked me how you find a buddy on Bonaire…. Realizing this is a hot topic I decided to do a bit of research and contacted several dive shops on Bonaire for their input! After reading this article you’ll know exactly how to find a dive buddy on Bonaire. When you’re on your own on a boat dive, you often get paired with another “solo” diver or if everyone brought their friends with the dive guide. But that doesn’t really work…

PADI Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty in Bonaire

February 26, 2019February 26, 2019 Rianne

One of the most fun dive courses that I ever took was the “Sea Turtle Awareness Distinctive Specialty” with Dive Friends Bonaire. Together with PADI and the NGO Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire this specialty was designed in 2014 and it’s a great way to learn about Sea Turtles in Bonaire! Before I tell you more about the PADI specialty in detail I’d like to take a moment to emphasize on the collaboration between several parties in Bonaire to make this course the success it is. First of all there’s Dive…

Dive Against Debris Dive

November 19, 2017December 31, 2018 Rianne

Last week I successfully “fished” up around 19kg of fish nets, as well as another 1kg of random trash like electric wire, pcv pipe, bags and fish hooks. The dive I did this on was a “Dive against debris dive“. My dive buddy, Johnny, was doing the corresponding specialty; PADI Dive Against Debris. I’m an enormous fan of clean up dives. I did two in the past, one in Bonaire and one in Costa-Rica. Besides those dives, I usually dive with at least one knife and always take with me…

PADI Self Reliant Diver Course

November 9, 2017January 22, 2019 Rianne

Ever since I certified as a PADI Divemaster I’ve been developing an interest in solo diving. When I say this out loud, quite a few divers immediately will remind me that you’re always supposed to dive with this buddy. Whilst this was the popular opinion for a long time, views are changing on this matter. In fact, there’s a positive development towards educating divers how to dive responsible on their own. One of these ways to become more skilled and knowledge able about diving on your own is the PADI…

My first 2 weeks of the Dive Master Internship in Costa-Rica

May 19, 2016February 9, 2019 Rianne

Dear Dive Master Diary, it’s been a while since I last wrote a blog. The Dive Master internship has officially started and it’s been interesting and diverse. We kicked off with a full day in class, divemaster theory. There’s a fairly sized PADI Dive Master Manual that every trainee has to learn, with a lot of physics as well. So the first 10 days that I got in Playas del Coco were mostly spent studying this Dive Master manual. There’s an exam to follow up on this Dive Master Manual that…

A mermaid struggling to clean a boat!

May 7, 2016January 22, 2019 Rianne

Well, this is a bit embarrassing, yesterday I had my first (and hopefully last) sea sickness experience. This is extra embarrassing because I grew up on a boat in Amsterdam and have spent my entire life around and on water. For those who noticed there’s a movie with this post, do not worry, there is no disgusting content on the video! 😉 The video is about boat cleaning, which directly gets me to the way I managed to get sea sick. By boat cleaning! Boat cleaning, part of the Divemaster…

Costa-Rica, I have arrived!

May 2, 2016January 22, 2019 Rianne

Today my Divemaster Internship has officially started! In this blog-post I’ll be writing about travelling to Costa-Rica and arriving at the intern house, where I will be spending the next couple of months. Right now I’m sitting upstairs in the dive shop of Rich Coast Diving enjoying the cool breeze of the fans. Today is my second day here in Playa Del Coco. The weather is amazing, right now it is 32 C / 90 F, the humidity is around 94%. I love it. Travelling to Costa-Rica My journey to Costa-Rica…

Finding the perfect divemaster internship

April 17, 2016January 22, 2019 Rianne

In less than 2 weeks I’m flying to Costa-Rica to start my PADI Divemaster Internship. During my Divemaster Internship in Costa-Rica I’m going to at least weekly blog about the adventures I get up to during my Divemaster Internship. I’m going to do my Divemaster Internship in Playa Del Coco with Rich Coast Diving. In this blog I’m telling you all about how I found the perfect PADI divemaster internship for me and how you can find the perfect divemaster course for you. As you might have already noticed…. there…