What is the Dive Internship Accommodation Like?

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August 19, 2013

One of the most frequent questions that we get about the diving internship is “what is the dive internship accommodation like?”. After all you are going to be spending a long time with us with the different dive internships lasting from 2 weeks all the way up to seven months and longer if you decide to stay and teach for a while with Buccaneer Diving or do PADI Instructor continuing education courses.

What is the Dive Internship Accommodation Like?

Ok in a short answer to the question, the dive internship accommodation is provided at Distant Relatives Eco Lodge in Kilifi which is a charming Eco-friendly backpacker resort where you will be amongst friends and have a place to relax and study during your time away from the dive centre.

Distant Relatives is located right on Kilifi Creek and reached from the dive centre by a boat across the creek, unless you want to take the longer way around via the road. You can swim in the emerald waters of the creek or in the resort’s swimming pool. Other common facilities at Distant Relatives include a communal kitchen for cooking your own meals if you would like, reading room, and large communal area with sofas and a bar where you can relax with other divers and travellers after a day underwater.

We recognise that interns are on different budgets and might want different privacy levels and we can cater for all types on our dive internship accommodation packages. Distant Relatives offers four different types of accommodation.

Tent

For those of you who are adventurous or want their own space but are on a tight budget then Distant Relatives has its own safari tented camp area with large tents equipped with two single beds, lamps, carpets, bedside tables and mosquito nets. This gives you the real feeling of Africa and being closer to nature.

Dorm

The most popular choice for GAP year interns and the more sociable interns, there are two eight-person dorms at Distant Relatives set inside beautiful thatched makuti roofs. The beds are very spacious and super comfortable and the openness of the dorms provides an extremely airy and relaxing environment.

Single Rooms

For those of you who are looking for a little more privacy, for a small amount more you can have a single room equipped with an en-suite shower and a large double bed with the option to add a third bed if you are travelling with children.

Family / Group Rooms

If you are a group of friends or a family who would like to share a room then there is the option to have the family room which is equipped with one large double bed and a set of bunk beds. The family rooms have their own shower and toilet enclosed in a charming private courtyard.

All rooms and beds are equipped with mosquito nets and provide a relaxing place for you to chill when you are not diving. Distant Relatives’ location by the sea really makes this a dream setting.

Check out the photos below to get a better idea

divemaster internship accommodation- safari tent

divemaster internship accommodation- swimming pool

divemaster internship accommodation- communal area

divemaster internship accommodation- private room

divemaster internship accommodation- ensuite

divemaster internship accommodation- dorm room

divemaster internship accommodation- bar

Why a GAP Year Dive Internship Could Improve Your CV

By

Mark

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July 30, 2013

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PADI coral monitoring specialty diver course

So you have decided to take a GAP year between school and university, after university or a career break. The dive internships offered by Dive Pro Africa give you a structured program to make sure that you actually get something constructive out of your GAP year, which can improve your CV when you look to gain employment later. Potential employers and university admissions tutors cannot fail to notice you when you can put down some of the experience and qualifications that you can acquire during your GAP year diving experience in Kenya.

An example of things you can add to your CV

Fully qualified in first aid and CPR
Fully qualified Divemaster/ PADI Diving Instructor with teaching experience at a busy dive centre
Customer service experience at a popular tourist venue
Familiarity with emergency response plans
Work with African communities
Worked and interacted with people of many nationalities and cultures
Work in African wildlife management programs and marine conservation programs including supervisory roles

These are just some of the skills that you can acquire but other skill keywords that you can pick up by involvement in our programs could include organisation, using initiative, conducting research, teaching students, communication, motivation, self-discipline, responsibility, leadership, team work, languages, independent learning and conservation project work. All of these skills are looked upon favourably by employers.

Choosing your GAP year scuba diving internship in Kenya involves thinking about what you would like to get out of the program as obviously the different programs offer the chance to learn different skills. Contact us to discuss your different options which could include becoming a diving instructor or Divemaster, or perhaps working in marine conservation projects and learning to manage wildlife on a real African conservancy area. If you have a specific program that you would like to do then we can tailor it for you. Really we want you to get the most out of your GAP year experience as possible and acquire skills that will be useful to you further down the line.

Cheap Scuba Diving Internship Packages Buying Guide

By

Mark

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July 28, 2013

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Ocean Tribe and Buccaneer Diving boast years of experience running PADI professional and marine conservation courses, course packages and internships. We would like to bring to your attention a few things that you should look for when signing up and paying for cheap scuba diving internship packages as there is a large selection of them out there and not all of them are what they seem at first glance. At Ocean Tribe we want to make sure you are aware of ALL the costs of a scuba diving internship and not getting halfway through a program to find that you have extra payments to make for manuals, fees or diving experience for example. This is why we use internship calculators up-front and make sure you understand what is included and what you should account for in your own personal spending money.

Things You Should Check When You Sign Up for So-Called Cheap Scuba Diving Packages

What PADI courses are included as part of the package? Do they meet the requirements to get you to the dive level you wish to go to?
Does your internship price include a NEW PADI diver/instructor manual/crewpack for each course?
Are the fees to PADI and DDI included in the internship price?
Do you get equipment to rent or is a set of new equipment provided in the internship?
How many dives are included as part of the scuba diving internship package? Certain dive courses such as Divemaster (60 dives) and Instructor (100 dives) require you to have logged a certain amount of dives
Will you need to provide any of your own equipment such as an underwater camera?
Can accommodation be included as part of the internship price?
Can PADI specialties be included as part of the internship price?
Is the dive center offering the internships a PADI 5 Star IDC center or PADI CDC which is permitted to run PADI IDC programs?
Is there an opportunity for you to gain work experience as a dive professional at the dive center?
How long is the internship? Do you have time to realistically complete the training comfortably?
What is there to do in the area the dive center is located in for when you are not diving?

These are just some of the questions that you should be asking when signing up for a scuba diving internship or package as you want to ensure that you know as much as possible before parting with a lot of money for these programs. Ocean Tribe can answer yes to all the questions above and provide a further list of frequently asked questions about our scuba diving internships. All dive internships and adventure packages have an internship pricing calculator on the page to allow you to custom design your internship and make clear exactly what you will get. Check out our range of diving internships in Kenya that we offer including marine conservation, underwater photography, PADI Divemaster and PADI diving instructor internships.

PADI Course Director in Undersea Journal- Diving for the Disabled

By

Mark

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June 17, 2013

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Dive Pro Africa is proud to announce that our PADI Course Director Mark Slingo was featured in the most recent edition of the PADI Members Quarterly the Undersea Journal. In the article Mark talks about the benefits of scuba diving for handicapped divers. Scuba diving has recently been thrust to the forefront of rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities as it takes away many of the restrictions that people encounter on land such as being confined to a wheelchair.

Much of Mark’s work in scuba diving over the past few years has been devoted to assisting more people with handicaps to try scuba diving and become certified, as well as training fellow dive professionals to work with scuba divers with handicaps. Mark is actually a wheelchair user himself after an accident in 2005 left him confined to a wheelchair. He had just left university and been certified as a PADI Instructor, however did not let the wheelchair stop him and continued to teach PADI courses and take more instructor-level certifications until he attained the rank of PADI Course Director, the highest rating of dive professional that you can hold in PADI. He contends that actually in the water he is better than many of his able bodied peers and loves to pass the gift of scuba diving on to other in similar conditions. Read more about learning to work with scuba divers with disabilities below by clicking on the article thumbnails.

Go Pro- Become a PADI Divemaster or Instructor Video

By

Mark

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June 13, 2013

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PADI has recently made a video of why you might want to become a scuba diving instructor or PADI Divemaster. It shows a PADI diving instructor talking about why teaching scuba diving in a tropical location is a dream job for her. Why not give yourself the opportunity on GAP years or as a full career change? Buccaneer Diving offer full PADI Dive Instructor Internships and PADI Divemaster Internships to get you that qualification to have the dream job on a tropical island. For those of you who just have time to do the go-pro courses then we offer PADI Divemaster, PADI IDC and instructor continuing education courses such as specialty instructor and IDC Staff instructor. Live the dream! Go Pro…..

Best Scuba Diving Movies – Learn to Dive

By

Mark

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June 11, 2013

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We were talking to some diver recently and asking the reasons that they originally got into scuba diving and the result was aside from the obvious answers of wanting to see the underwater world and marine conservation, many said that they had seen it on TV in movies when they were younger. So that got us to thinking. What is the best diving movie of all time? Was it the James Bond thriller Thunderball that enticed our PADI CD Mark Slingo as a boy to want to learn to dive or perhaps the more recent Fools Gold. Anyway we asked around and attach the trailers of the most popular choices for best scuba diving movies below. Feel free to comment and add others but these ones should be good enough for you to go away and watch and immediately want to get in the water and dive!

Into The Blue (2005)

Starring: Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Josh Brolin

Fools Gold (2008)

Starring: Matthew Mcconaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Ewen Bremner

Thunderball (1965)

Starring: Sean Connery, Adolfo Celi

The Cave (2005)

Starring: Cole Hauser, Daniel Dae Kim, Piper Perabo

The Abyss (1989)

Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn

Dark Tide (2012)

Starring: Halle Berry

Men of Honor (2000)

Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr, Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron,

Scuba Diving for the Disabled in Kenya and Zanzibar

By

Mark

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June 11, 2013

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Scuba diving is one of the best activities that a person with a disability can take part in, with a number of boundaries are immediately broken down. There are very few disabilities that actually prevent you from taking part in diving and in the past our PADI Course Director Mark Slingo has taken paraplegics, quadraplegics, people with muscular dystrophy, amputees, Downs syndrome and other disabilities scuba diving.

Mark is himself a wheelchair user following an accident in 2005 when he was a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor having just graduated from Newcastle University. He didn’t let being a paraplegic stop him and rose through the PADI teaching levels, teaching hundreds of students and eventually becoming a PADI Course Director meaning that he can train other divers to become PADI dive instructors. Mark has now made it one of his missions in life to help as many people in his position get into scuba diving and see the wonders that it can offer people. He points out that in the water he is the same if not better than able-bodied people and wants to train as many instructors as possible to work with disabled divers so that they have more options and places to dive around the world.

It is not just Mark saying this now. Scuba diving has been recognised as a valid rehabilitation sport for people following an injury and has been adopted for recovering US military veterans through the Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (SUDS) and other diving for the disabled programs such as Deptharapy in the UK.

Contact Buccaneer Diving for your diving for the disabled experience or if you are a diving instructor wanting to learn to work with disabled divers then check out our Disabled Divers International Instructor course training program which is run with Mark.

MV Dania- East Africa’s Number 1 Wreck Dive Site

By

Mark

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February 15, 2013

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The MV Dania is a ship wreck located off the coast of Kenya which was sunk deliberately by Buccaneer Diving in 2002 to form an artificial reef and wreck dive site. 10 years on and it is still the best wreck dive site in the area.

Brief History

The vessel MV Dania, started its career as the MV Rodriguez and was built and launched in Hatlow, Norway in 1965 and registered to the Honduran port of San Lorenzo in Central America. She was used in Central America until the mid-1980s when she was moved to ply the Gulf and East African trade routes. She was renamed in 1993 and converted into a carrier for livestock to move cattle between the Southern African countries of Mozambique and South Africa and the island of Mauritius.

The MV Dania was decommissioned in 2001 and due to be taken to India. Buccaneer Diving proposed that the vessel be sunk as an artificial reef. The ship was then put into a private berth in Mombasa, Kenya in June 2002, where it was subjected to stripping, cutting sealing and cleaning to prepare it for sinking, free of contaminants and diver friendly. Once preparations were completed they were inspected and approved by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) biologists so that the sinking could go ahead.

The Sinking

On Sunday 25th October 2002 the ship was towed to the designated site, which was located 1.5 km off Bamburi Beach, positioned outside the natural reef. Once in position the Dania was scuppered and slipped beneath the waves at 13:05. The ship landed in a straight-up position and was fitted with marker bouys and moorings for boats to attach to rather than anchoring. In addition an “isolate danger buoy” was positioned over the centre of the vessel and cautionary buoys mark the fore and aft of the reef.

Watch the video of the sinking below and contact us to arrange your dive on the Dania when you come to Kenya.

Why do my GAP Year in Kenya or Tanzania?

By

Mark

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February 11, 2013

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So you have graduated from school or university and are looking to take a year out before moving on to the next stage of your life. Well then why not come and experience the wonders that East Africa has to offer and get a worthwhile qualification and experience out of it.Think about a GAP year in Kenya.

Gap years have changed over the past few years with regard to the prospects that they can offer people in terms of life experiences. To benefit your future prospects, it is no longer acceptable to just go and have fun travelling around. Colleges and employers like to see that you have used your time in another country and culture effectively. Well we looked at this and decided that there is no reason that you cannot do something worthwhile and have an awesome experience at the same time.

Dive Pro Africa @ Buccaneer Diving offer a variety of internship packages and adventure experiences with our partners at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy area near Nanyuki and 3 Degrees South sailing school in Kilifi. All of these projects involve interaction the local community and involvement in marine conservation, assisting with tourism program’s or wildlife management conservation in Kenya.

All of our program’s are based around a core scuba diving program, many of which allow you to go to the professional levels of PADI Divemaster or diving instructor. Many PADI courses can be counted towards college credit in certain countries and professional qualifications such as minor teaching qualifications.

The courses are based out of the Buccaneer Diving dive bases in Kenya and Zanzibar, Tanzania unless you are involved in the wildlife management program, in which case a period of your internship will be spent on Ol Pejeta Consevancy working with the African wildlife there including rhinos and chimpanzees.

The diving in East Africa is superb with a number of national marine park sanctuaries. There is a massive array of marine life which includes the giant whale sharks at certain times of the year. Buccaneer Doving also sank a former cargo ship the MV Dania to create Kenya’s first wreck dive in 2003, Wah now after 10 years underwater is a rolling wreck dive and artificial reef.

The other wonders in Kenya and Tanzania are also a great reason to base yourself here for your GAP year. To name a couple there are the numerous wildlife havens such as the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Masai Mara and Aberdare national parks, adventure sports activities such as white water rafting, mountain biking, and mountaineering to the walkable peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, and of course interaction with the local people. There really is too much to do to list it all here.

So what are you waiting for? Do something awesome and worthwhile with your year out and check it our internship packages for the adventure of a lifetime in Africa.

Scuba Dive Diani, Kenya

What is the Dive Internship Accommodation Like?

What is the Dive Internship Accommodation Like?

Tent

Dorm

Single Rooms

Family / Group Rooms

Why a GAP Year Dive Internship Could Improve Your CV

An example of things you can add to your CV

Cheap Scuba Diving Internship Packages Buying Guide

Things You Should Check When You Sign Up for So-Called Cheap Scuba Diving Packages

PADI Course Director in Undersea Journal- Diving for the Disabled

Go Pro- Become a PADI Divemaster or Instructor Video