| Costs | £2295 / $3248 (US) / €2587 |
| Group Size | 1 - 8 |
| Countries Visited | Ecuador |
| Dates | 26 Sep to 21 Nov 2010 26 Dec 2010 to 20 Feb 2011 06 Mar to 01 May 2011 15 May to 10 Jul 2011 24 Jul to 18 Sep 2011 |
- 02 Oct to 27 Nov 2011
- 11 Dec 2011 to 05 Feb 2012
Train to be a Divemaster & Learn Spanish in Ecuador: Full Itinerary
- If you have scuba diving qualifications already then don't worry there is a version of the course for you! The more qualifications you have, the shorter the course is. However if you want to spend more time, then why not do our surf and Spanish trip first for as short or as long as you want. Contact us to find out more....
If you have no PADI qualifications then;
Course Duration is 8 weeks
Get 80 hours of Spanish
Get qualifications in Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Divemaster.
Get upto 60 dives
Get experience working in a dive centre.
Cost £2295 / $3248 / €2587
If you have PADI Open Water already then;
Course Duration is 7 weeks
You should already have PADI Open Water and a minimum of 10 logged dives
Get 60 hours of Spanish
Get qualifications in Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Divemaster.
Get upto 50 dives
Get experience working in a dive centre.
Cost £1795 / $2516 / €2060
If you have PADI Advanced Open Water already then;
Course Duration is 5 weeks
You should already have PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water and a minimum of 15 logged dives
Get 40 hours of Spanish
Get qualifications in Rescue Diver, Divemaster.
Get upto 45 dives
Get experience working in a dive centre.
Cost £1495 / $2122 / €1885
If you have PADI Rescue Diver already then;
Course Duration is 4 weeks
You should already have PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, EFR, Rescue Diver and a minimum of 35 logged dives
Get 40 hours of Spanish
Get a qualification as a Divemaster.
Get upto 30 dives
Get experience working in a dive centre.
Cost £995 / $1414 / €1170
Ecuador
Week 1 - Learn to speak Spanish and become a PADI Open Water Diver
Our plane touches down in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we will be met and taken to our new home in the small town of Montanita. Here we will spend the opening week of our adventure learning Spanish, completing the PADI Open Water qualification and having amazing dives in the warm Pacific waters. Each weekday, four hours of intensive Spanish tuition will be fitted around the best diving times of the day. The lessons are designed to help us learn to speak Spanish in a natural and spontaneous fashion, by imitating the way people acquire their mother tongue. Each lesson focuses on developing our comprehension of the four main language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Learning to speak Spanish from the very first day and practising it in specially designed exercises such as role plays, situational dialogues and work projects, will not only improve vocabulary and accent, but also give us the confidence to actively use and improve our Spanish outside the classroom. Visiting the area’s vibrant markets and coffee shops, restaurants, etc will provide us with the opportunity to interact with native speakers whilst immersing ourselves in the area’s colourful South American culture.
Our diving week will consist of learning the PADI Open Water diving qualification. We will have lectures about the various subjects, such as dive equipment, dive planning, RDP dive tables, buddy hand signals and a lot more. We will spend some time studying on our own reading the dive manual, completing the knowledge reviews and getting the basic knowledge about diving which will be essential for building upon in the coming weeks. We will spend time in the swimming pool, where we will be taught how to put the equipment together, how to use buoyancy underwater, emergency procedures and learning a total of 20 different skills. At the weekend we will then do our four open water dives in the sea, where we will be taken by the dive boat and do our 20 skills in the sea and also have some fun and enjoy our first underwater experiences.
At night we can relax in town at the various bars, cafes and restaurants swap stories, tell bad jokes beneath the glittering array of Ecuadorian. When we are not learning Spanish or diving we can explore the area, snorkel, hire a surf board, swim in the gorgeous warm sea, explore the surrounding hills, soak up the colourful culture, impressive weather, amazing scenery and the gorgeous wildlife of Ecuador.
There’s also the opportunity to earn college credit (if relevant to you) along the way.
Ecuador
Weeks 2 and 3 - Continue to learn Spanish, qualify as an Advanced Diver and have some recreational dives
During our second and third weeks we will continue our Spanish course with 4 hours a day from Monday to Friday to expand our vocabulary, hone our grammar, improve our confidence and become more and more fluent in the wonderful language every day.
For our diving we will complete the PADI Advanced Open Water qualification, where we will develop five skills including underwater navigation, deep diving and three other topics that we can choose from, such as buoyancy control, underwater naturalist, plus many others. We will complete a total of five dives for the advanced course and this will allow us to become more relaxed when diving, and make us better divers. The advanced qualification is a lot of fun and gives us time to relax a little before we start the more challenging Rescue Diver and Divemaster qualifications. Week three will allow us o concentrate more on our Spanish and have some time off from diving apart from the weekend (weather dependant) when we will do some pleasure dives for fun rather than part of a qualification. We can spend the dives having a good look at the fish and other marine life in the Pacific Oceans treasure trove! When we are not learning Spanish and diving, we can hire a surf board, go exploring, or reading our dive books readying ourselves for our coming weeks of hard work!!
Ecuador
Weeks 4 and 5 - Develop your Spanish further, qualify as a PADI Rescue Diver
Now we are into our fourth week and developing into good scuba divers, it is time to introduce the PADI Rescue certification which will take a number of days to complete and will be our biggest achievement to date in our scuba diving adventure.
The rescue course is very demanding, so during this week we will not have any Spanish lessons and will concentrate 100% on the diving. The PADI rescue diver course will raise our diving knowledge and skills with theory lectures, swimming pool sessions and then open water dives. The course will teach us about self rescue and how to assist both conscious and unconscious divers on the surface and under water by administering first aid and sustaining lifelines. Topics covered will include self rescue, recognising and managing stress in other divers, emergency management, rescuing unresponsive divers and more. On week five we will scuba dive at the weekend and go on pleasure dives to see the amazing array of marine life the Pacific waters contain, including soft/hard corals, sponges, tube worms, spaghetti worms, Christmas tree worms, large hermit crabs, manta rays, cleaner shrimp, spotted morays, large snappers, groupers, trumpet fish, spotted drums, angel fish, and a whole host of other tropical reef fish. If we are lucky, we will also swim with majestic sea turtles in the crystal waters and catch a sighting of a butterfly fish stealing eggs from the sergeant major fish.
Ecuador
Weeks 6, 7 and 8 - Be a Divemaster intern, assist instructors in teaching clients, and qualify as a Divemaster
The final three weeks of our Yomps adventure will be the most challenging to the mind and body but ultimately the most rewarding, as we will learn and acquire all the skills and knowledge to be a fully fledged Divemaster. Working hand in hand with experienced dive professionals, we will concentrate on our internship and learn how to run a successful diving centre. This includes seeing to the maintenance of equipment, helping clients with their dives, aiding the everyday running of dive operations, and helping with a variety of other lessons at the dive centre. To compliment this learning we will also have specific Divemaster courses in order to pass our Divemaster qualification. Lessons cover a variety of subjects including physiology, physics, dive equipment, teaching skills, decompression sickness, how to map a reef, and even about the diving business. By acquiring an increasing number of diving skills, as well as honing the knowledge we have already developed, we will be able to assist instructors once we have qualified.
Putting our knowledge to the test, we will lead dives to explore the clear waters and see the beautiful array of Caribbean marine life. Our instructors will oversee and review our progress, providing a constant source of information, support, guidance, and safety. The final three weeks will conclude with a celebration to rejoice that we have (hopefully!) passed all the required exams and practical tests to make us qualified Divemasters. As the sun sets on our amazing aquatic adventure, we will depart with a fantastic knowledge of the Spanish language, life-saving skills, reputable diving qualifications, cameras full of photos from this stunningly beautiful part of the world, and the memories of a lifetime!
We will complete three phases in the PADI Divemaster programme:1. Watermanship and skills assessment
2. Knowledge Development
3. Practical Application
This involves training activities using various structured training sessions, simulated scenarios and internship sessions with actual PADI programs. These training sessions enable you to gain practical experience as an instructional assistant and a supervisor of open water diving activities, both as a coordinator and as an underwater guide.
- Extra Activities Available During Course
During your course there will be various opportunities to do some extra activities at an additional cost;
Ret a surfboard and have some lessons. At a reduced rate you can rent a surfboard and have a couple of lessons a week at £45 per week. Please request when making your booking.
8 day tour to the Galapagos Islands. Why not extend your stay and go on the amazing tour to the Galapagos Islands. Where you will spend time seeing amazing wildlife from the boat, horseback and on foot. ,A truly stunning eight days!
Yoga. Why not do some Yoga classes either on the covered pavilion or on the beach. Is it possible to find a more idyllic location for Yoga? I think not!!!!
Ecuador
Extra Qualifications Required -
To obtain your Rescue Diver / Divemaster, it is a requirement that you have a valid First Aid / CPR qualification that is accepted by PADI. Also it should be valid for at least two years when completing the course. If you do not have a qualification then you can either get PADI's Emergency First Reposnse (EFR) course at your local dive centre, or you can get this qualification when doing your Divemaster course in Ecuador. This is an additional cost of approximately $120. Please speak to your Yomps co-ordinator for more information.
Our Partners On This Trip -
We work in partnership with established projects, courses and expeditions. The information on our website comes from our local partners and we work with them to ensure the information is as accurate as possible. However, due to the very nature of the trips themselves the exact details of what happens on a daily basis can vary.
