Whether it's taking a break before university, a sabbatical or just a life break in general, the options you have for your gap year are endless. It's an exciting period in your life where you can pursue other passions, develop valuable life skills or just have a bit of fun. If your passions lie in the ocean and you love to travel, becoming a PADI scuba diving professional is the perfect option for you. Even with no scuba diving experience, you will be able to start a career in the diving industry, travel and build your social circle whilst doing something incredible.

Need a bit more convincing? Here are the reasons why you should sign up for a gap year PADI Divemaster Internship and why this may end up being the best decision of your life.

It's not a secret that scuba diving isn't the cheapest sport in the world, but it is an investment that does pay back. The internship only lasts up to 3 months and after that you can start working as a professional diver and earn money. Working as a PADI Divemaster gives you excellent foundations to explore more exciting and longer term diving career opportunities out there. So work and travel really start to go hand in hand.

A popular choice and our recommended route to take after completing your PADI Divemaster Course is to enroll straight into an Instructor Development Course (IDC). Although working as a PADI Divemaster is great as you mentor, motivate and lead other divers, becoming a PADI Dive Instructor enables you to teach scuba diving. This comes with a much more sustainable income and more job opportunities to take all over the world. Also, if you work in countries where living costs are low like the Philippines, you can really build funds to travel with.

Being a PADI professional means that you are eligible for a number of benefits. This includes invites to webinars, meet ups and scuba diving events which help to build your diving business and knowledge as well as access to job opportunities worldwide through the PADI Pro site. New PADI Divemasters and Instructors are in demand all year round as there is always a scuba diving season somewhere. Ultimately, there is a world of opportunities ahead of you that could change your life beyond your gap year and it starts with making that first move, joining a PADI Divemaster Internship.

Throughout the PADI Divemaster Internship, you are in the diving industry and are part of the transformation and hospitality business. With this, you will have hands-on experience through working as part of the team in a dive shop. This will teach you a lot and allow you to gain many transferable skills. Some of these include:

By simply being around the dive shop, you'll also pick up great skills. For example, you can help the dive manager with tasks like admin, finance or customer relations. Marketing and social media is also amazing to get involved in, you can even build your brand or create content for the dive shop and attract potential customers this way. You could get into underwater photography or ecotourism as well. If you have interests in the industrial side of diving, you can learn to repair equipment or fill tanks in the compressor room. Lastly, if the dive shop you work at is also a marine research centre, you can be an ambassador and volunteer. Basically having an enthusiasm and willingness to learn in a dive shop will open a window of opportunities and could be the start towards other careers.

Although it is 100% valid to take a full time break in your gap year, you may want to have a bit more structure to keep yourself busy and your brain active. You will be able to reinforce and build on your studying techniques and working habits. All PADI programs operate on a systematic structure, incorporating both theory, practical learning and exams to test your knowledge. But it's not as serious as it sounds. What's great is that all courses can be done on your schedule and all the theory links into practice to help you to become a safe, confident and well-rounded diver.

Furthermore, having a PADI qualification is hugely beneficial if you are going to do a marine science degree/ diploma, or thinking about it. Having a PADI Divemaster qualification means you are already a dive professional and will give you a head start in this career.

What is also great is through PADI, there are many paths to take that help to build your education and training. Having these paths can be a great motivational tool to help you stay on track and see how far you wish to go:

PADI offers a wide range of diving specialities that you can take. This helps to build on your scuba diving knowledge and enables you to explore deeper and more challenging dive sites, use different types of scuba equipment and be more environmentally aware. They could also ignite a passion in a part of diving you were not aware of e.g. Underwater Photography. Each speciality lasts only a few days and are all structured with a theoretical part, some with dives, others being dry courses. If you decide that sharing knowledge becomes an interest, become a dive professional starting from PADI Divemaster. Here you'll mentor and assist students and be a role model in the dive community. When you feel confident enough with your skills, you can move on to completing an Instructor Development Course (IDC) and become a PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor. Another great path to go down to remain in education, get into teaching or even take your first steps, going all the way to teach instructors and have a business plan as PADI Course Director.

"If you want to master something, teach it" Yogi Bhajan

Another route to go down is marine conservation and research. Most opportunities tend to be volunteering projects, but you could receive subsidised living to train to be a research assistant and get involved with valuable marine research. It's a great path to go if you have plans to study marine sciences or become a marine conservation scientist.

Some projects allow you to be involved in fish tagging, coral surveys or collecting and reporting debris. However in order to take part in these, you need to be a diving professional which means you must be at least a PADI Divemaster. At this level, you are a safe and confident diver and can be relied upon to focus on the tasks of the project and execute them correctly. Some reason for this is that from the PADI Divemaster, you'll have better dive skills like buoyancy control, have the ability to access more challenging dive sites and also have a better awareness of the impact you have on the marine environment around you.

Most importantly, becoming a dive professional means that you really get to scuba dive for a living which is cool to say. You will be part of an amazing community of divers, all sharing the same passions for the underwater world and where you can make friends for life. You can scuba dive in any place that has a body of water, meaning that you will most likely be living the ocean/beach life. Most of the scuba diving locations are located within the coral triangle in South East Asia. The Philippines is the cheapest place in SE Asia to do your PADI training, including the PADI Divemaster.

At Dive Pro Career, we are located in the beautiful beach town of Moalboal where you can really live the island paradise lifestyle. As well as competitive prices for our PADI Divemaster program, living costs are low here and it's a great option to take especially if you are on a budget for your gap year. We have more information on this on our Cost of Living and Tips page. Dive conditions in Moalboal are easy with little currents and warm temperatures all year round. Dive sites are all filled with beautiful healthy corals and tropical marine life and can be explored within a 20 minute boat ride from the dive shop. We have a dedicated team to accompany and support you throughout your diving training career and help you get the most out of your gap year so you can guarantee to have the best year of your life.

If you are curious how your daily life could look during your gap year, check out our blog post here: What Does a Day in the Life of a PADI Divemaster Look Like?