What is the cost of the Divemaster course?

Often the biggest expense when doing prolonged professional diver training abroad isn’t the actual training itself, but rather the basic cost of living while doing it – meals and accommodation really start adding up over several months. Due to our remote location, at Marine Conservation Philippines all of this is necessarily included as part of the volunteer package. Additionally, to make fair comparisons it’s a good idea to look at the hidden fees – often cost of scuba gear rental, marine parks fees etc. are not included in quoted prices. Everything considered, in our experience doing divemaster training with Marine Conservation Philippines is generally similarly priced or cheaper that doing a similar length program elsewhere. The experience is very dissimilar however, but only you can determine if that is a good or bad thing for you.

How long you want to stay and spend on doing your DM-training depends on yourself and how much you’d want to get out of your training – Taking longer will make you better of course.Besides the cost of your manuals and materials, the cost of doing the divemaster training is the same as regular volunteers pay, so 450 USD weekly multiplied by number of weeks, which covers three daily meals, accommodation, all diving, gear rental, transportation, marine park fees, free tea and coffee, airport pickup etc.

Financially an eight week divemaster program could look something like this:

8 weeks accommodation, food, diving, gear rental, tuition: 8 x 450 USD = 3600 USD
Divemaster crewpack (manual and materials) 200 USD
PADI application fee (Paid directly to PADI, not MCP) 120 USD

A typical twelve week divemaster program for a candidate with no prior scuba dive experience could look like this:

12 weeks accommodation, food, diving, gear rental, tuition: 12 x 450 USD = 5400 USD
Open Water Course 85 USD
Advanced Open Water Course 85 USD
Rescue Diver Course 85 USD
EFR – first aid course 65 USD
Divemaster crewpack (manual and materials) 200 USD
PADI application fee (Paid directly to PADI, not MCP) 120 USD

Many divemaster candidates additionally do the enriched air nitrox specialty (65 USD) and/or the self-reliant diver course. (50 USD).