PADI is the organisation Dutch Mermaid trained up to Divemaster with. In this section you’ll find PADI training related blogs and vlogs. Besides doing all her regular PADI courses, the Dutch Mermaid also completed over 10 PADI specialties and frequently writes about her experiences with the PADI education system.
One of the best decisions I ever made in my life was to learn how to Scuba Dive. Once I was underwater, in full equipment I thought to myself…. why did it take me so long to take this step? I learned to scuba dive when I was 25, in a town called Ocho Rios, in Jamaica. Learning the theory from a hammock So when you take your first course, usually the Open Water course, there’s quite a bit you need to study! Many people choose to already do the…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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