Utila Dive Centre|GoPro|Professional training|Utila Bay Islands Honduras|Caribbean and Central America

padi courses

Andy/staff at UDC did an awesome job with training, organization and accommodating our dives with boats and understanding staff.

David Stover
USA

courses

Professional Dive Training at Utila Dive Centre, see what sets us apart.....

Your Dive Career starts here.....

From this moment on, the Utila Dive Centre can lead you through your career in diving and scuba education. As the premier PADI Career Development Center in the Caribbean and Central America, and also a 5 Star resort, we have the highest rating awarded to an Instructor Development Center and have been voted #1 Instructor Development Center by PADI in 2011 and 2010 (unprecedented!!!). Our resident Course Directors and staff instructors can provide expert guidance and professional instruction from all levels, from beginner to technical Instructor, and we offer the broadest range of specialty training than any other facility in the Bay Islands, not just PADI programs but also technical diver training, sidemount, rebreather classes and marine ecology training, plus DAN programs.

Check our PADI Divemaster and Instructor 'GoPro 3.0 special' for our new offerings and specials in 2013, we're now not just the best quality program in Central America and the Caribbean, but we're also the best value!

New for 2013 International Yacht Training

We're also offering International Yacht Training programs that can be taken concurrently and in conjunction with our Divemaster and Instructor internships. The IYT/PADI Dive Boat Mate is being offered and scheduled in conjunction with our PADI Divemaster and MSDT internships, and we will be offering training all year round and e-learning is best completed independently prior to arriving on Utila and supported with our Instructors remedial training. IYT Dive Boat courses The IYT Dive Boat Mate course allows our PADI pro's to start tendering and driving boats as second command, logging sea time and once an individual has completed 180 days (4 hours = 1 day) of sea time, as dive boat crew, they are eligible to take the IYT Coxswain Boat Captains course, which we also offer at Utila Dive Centre. For candidates who are training to become PADI Instructors with us on our MSDT program, there is also the option to qualify as an IYT/PADI Dive Boat Mate Instructor, thereby increasing your own employment prospects and that of the future PADI Divemasters you train, and increasing your earnings potential and own maritime teaching experience.

Please see the following section for more information on our IYT Dive Boat programs.

There's never been a better time to train as a PADI Divemaster or Scuba Instructor, with a growing dive industry worldwide, but also in recent years the expansion and growth of the yachting industry and recreational superyachts, makes this the perfect compliment to enhance your dive training and employ-ability in dive resorts, and on day boats, liveaboard vessels and super yachts worldwide.

New for 2013 - IAHD Adaptive Teaching programs for dive professionals

For our Divemaster and Instructor candidates we are now offering IAHD (International Association of Handicapped Divers) dive partner and dive professional programs at special subsidised rates (see Divemaster and Instructor sections for specific offerings). This is unique to Utila Dive Centre as the only IAHD Americas facility in Central America/Caribbean, and learn how to work with divers with disabilities and increase the rewards of scuba diving for others, and your own employ-ability as a dive professional.

New and improved for 2013: Global Diving Network

Our upgraded preferred partner prestige card, UDC is a member of the Central America TrekCATS program and the Global Diving Network, and you'll receive reduced rates and preferential treatment at members throughout Central America, and also with our preferred partners worldwide.

Utila Dive Centre and GoPro Utila have now formed a referral scheme with the following dive operations worldwide and growing;

• Emperor Divers, Egypt, Red Sea (5 resorts and live-aboards)

• Poseidon Divers, Dahab, Egypt, Red Sea

• Buddha View, Koh Tao, Thailand

• Blue Season, Bali, Indonesia

• Eco-Divers, Manado, Indonesia

• ProDive Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

This scheme is in addition to our local Central/South America referral scheme 'TrekCATS', and all our students and divers receive a membership card, and reduced rates (5-10%)/preferential treatment at any of these quality dive operations.

When you take your training with us you'll receive your Global Diving Network/TrekCATS membership card that benefits you regionally in Central/South America and worldwide, and also entitles you to equipment reductions in our dive store.

Many IDC facilities and Course Directors may make claims of job placements and networks but this can only be built after years of established training at the highest level and no other dive operation in the Caribbean, Honduras and Central America is committed to your success, and opportunities during and after your time with Utila Dive Centre.

Our team of staff is the most experienced in the region, and there is no substitute for experience at the level of becoming a dive professional. Through our ongoing support many of our former candidates have progressed to become resort managers, Captains of live aboards and SuperYacht personnel, even PADI staff, and several have even graduated from our Instructor courses and gone on to become Course Directors, both locally and afar.

Continued in 2013: Coral Watch

Following the success of our introduction in 2010, 2011 and 2012 of the Project Aware 'Coral Watch' coral reef surveying program with our 4 week Divemaster internship, we're pleased to announce this will continue through 2013 with continued support from Project Aware, the University of Queensland and Utila Dive Centre. You'll learn to assess the condition of corals and record their health, and upload to a scientific database. This valuable program will improve your understanding of Coral Reefs and you'll give back a valuable contribution to the Coral Watch program and to the understandiong of the condition of reef systems in the Caribbean. Check www.coralwatch.org to see proof of our Divemasters being the highest contributors of data worldwide.

You'll also get the opportunities to participate in our 'Dolphin Survey' specialty, written by our team of environmentalists, approved by PADI and used by the University of Mississippi's 'Marine Mammal Cognitive & Psychology Behavioral department'. This program, along with our Beautiful Oceans Science Diver courses, UCME specialties and Whale shark awareness specialty, from PADI's Project Aware, are now available to all our professionals in training. This training is unique to Utila Dive Centre and we'd love for you to join us in our weekly Dolphin and Whale shark surveys and research, and help make the environment around Utila, a better place for divers today and in the future.

New for 2013: Discover Tec Workshop

As a technical diving facility, the Utila Dive Centre, runs monthly technical diving courses. You'll get the opportunity to be trained as a Tec Support diver, and learn about the logistics of technical dive mission, and provide valuable support and assistant to our technical diving Instructors and students. We're the only facility in the Bay Islands with an approved Tec Support diver specialty and Sidemount specialty (we wrote the courses)!!!! We're also the only facility in Central America and the Caribbean to offer PADI rebreather courses and run monthly try dives on our rebreathers and sidemount configurations for our Divemasters, again setting you apart for the future.

Once a month at Utila Dive Centre we run a 'Discover Tec/Future trends' workshop at the Utila Dive Centre where we bring out the toys and you'll get to have a try out with technical doubles, side mount configurations and also rebreathers. This is complimentary for all out interns and professionals and allows you an introduction to these exciting trends in scuba diving. As you travel and dive locally and worldwide, you'll notice technical, sidemount and rebreather diving growing in popularity, and whether or not these specialised diving activities appeal to you, it is important and extremely valuable that as a PADI Divemaster you understand technical dive planning procedures and supervision, and you never know, this introduction at Utila Dive Centre might just wet your appetite for more!

IDC Online learning

For candidates who are already certified as PADI Divemaster prior to arriving on Utila for your IDC there have been changes to the curriculum, that from January 2010, now allow you to;

1) Study and pre-assess your dive theory online.

2) Study 9 of the course presentations online which can be used to save time from the course and start 3 days later than our 'Live delivery' IDC with the start date on the Saturday evening at 5pm.

The course will then end one week later on the Sunday (with EFR Instructor course) and then a day's fun diving on Monday prior to the IE on the Tuesday/Wednesday, allowing you to leave on the Thursday am flights. This takes just 13 days for the complete Instructor course, EFR Instructor and 2 day PADI Exams, and even less if you arrive on Utila already certified as a PADI Assistant Instructor.

There is an additional charge for this each of these options, that deliver convenience and value enhancement to the IDC, and this is paid to PADI. Please contact us for more information to register for this option or click here PADI Scuba Instructor course to learn more about our IDC.

Whilst our courses and programs, philosophies, and teaching techniques are often attempted to be imitated, they are never matched or surpassed, read on to learn more abaout our great programs and then 'Contact Us' for more details. You can also read more on our dedicated professional training website GoProUtila, and please join our online communities on YouTube and Facebook to see the real deal and regular updates.

Utila Dive Centre

'Often Imitated Never Surpassed'