You landed yesterday. You are at the shop at 8:00 in the morning.
This is week one.
Monday
Two fun dives in the morning to get your bearings. Pick a site. Find your way around. Log it properly. I will check your logbook tonight.
At 8:30, your first briefing. Not your briefing. Mine. You watch. I walk two Open Water students through the site, the skills we will practice, the hand signals, the emergency procedures. You listen to what I say and, more importantly, what I do not say. After the dive, I ask you what I left out and why.
Tuesday
You lead your first briefing. To me. Not to students. You brief a dive at a site you dove yesterday. I play the student who asks questions you did not prepare for. What is the maximum depth? What do we do if we get separated? Where is the nearest exit if someone has an issue at 15 meters?
Most DM candidates stumble on the third question. That is why we practice on day two, not day twenty.
The afternoon: your first skill circuit. All the Open Water Diver skills, demonstrated to the standard that a student would need to see. Your frog kick is going to need work. Everyone's does.
Wednesday
You shadow me on an Open Water training dive. Your job: watch the students, not the reef. Track their air consumption. Notice who is breathing fast. Notice who is looking down instead of ahead. After the dive, tell me what you saw.
This is the core of Divemaster: observation. Not performance. Anyone can demonstrate a skill. The job is seeing when someone else is not doing it right and knowing how to fix it before it becomes a problem.
Thursday
Rescue scenarios. You play the victim first, then the rescuer. Tired diver tow, unresponsive diver at the surface, missing diver procedure. We do this in open water at a site with mild current. It is not comfortable. It is not supposed to be.
The debrief is longer than the exercise. We talk about what you felt, where you hesitated, what you would do differently. This is where most candidates realize that Divemaster is not about diving. It is about responsibility.
Friday
You co-lead a guided dive. I am in the water with you, but you set the pace, choose the route, manage the group. Three guest divers who do not know you are a candidate. They think you are staff. Because from this week on, you are.
The afternoon: we sit down with your training record and map out the next three weeks. What you are strong at, what needs work, what the timeline looks like.
What this week is really about
It is not about skills. You already have skills, otherwise you would not be here. It is about the shift from diver to professional. From someone who dives for fun to someone other people trust with their safety underwater.
That shift does not happen in a classroom. It happens at 6:45 in the gear room when nobody is watching.
If this sounds like what you are looking for, the Pro track page has dates, requirements, and how to apply. We keep cohorts small. Four candidates maximum. Stephan teaches every session.