Course overview

Begin your dive career with the PADI Divemaster course, the first professional rating, based at Khao Lak beside the Similan Islands. You build stamina and supervision skills on local reefs and, conditions permitting, on national-park day trips and liveaboards, learning to guide certified divers and assist instructors across some of Thailand's most demanding sites.

What you’ll learn

• Guide certified divers safely on real dive sites
• Assist instructors with student divers in confined and open water
• Master dive-theory, physics, physiology and decompression theory
• Demonstrate all 24 skills to demonstration quality
• Conduct dive-site mapping, briefings and risk assessments
• Run the dive-leadership stamina and rescue-assessment exercises

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 18
• PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification)
• PADI Rescue Diver certification
• Emergency First Response (primary and secondary care) within 24 months
• At least 40 logged dives to begin and 60 to certify
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician

What's included · What's not

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Theory & assessment

   Dive-theory exams, course orientation and the watermanship stamina evaluation.
2. Day2
   Skills & rescue

   Demonstration-quality skills workshop and the dive-rescue assessment.
3. Day3
   Practical workshops

   Dive-site setup, mapping and search-and-recovery exercises on Khao Lak's local reefs.
4. Day4
   Leadership internship

   Assist on real courses and guide certified divers under instructor supervision.
5. Day5
   Certification

   Final assessments, professional-conduct review and PADI Divemaster certification.

Verified through iDive

Every partner school in the iDive network is vetted on safety, instructor credentials, equipment standards and student feedback. Talk to a iDive dive pro on WhatsApp for current availability and reviews specific to Similan Islands.

Frequently asked questions