Reef Divemaster: Marine Conservation Program in Dauin, Philippines
- Philippines
- Dauin
Frequently asked questions
This program requires participants to be at least 18 years old.
Yes, the program includes housing. Participants stay in hotels.
This program starts at $6,050 USD. For full pricing, visit the provider’s website.
This program is located in Dauin, Philippines.
You can apply to this program by clicking the "Apply Now" button.
The program fee includes accommodation, activities, airport transfers, equipment, meals, and wifi.
The program runs for 2 weeks.
About Program
No diving experience? That's where most of our Divemasters start. In 8 weeks you go from your first breath underwater to dive professional, while doing real reef conservation in one of the best places in Asia to learn to dive.
You train from Open Water through Advanced, Rescue and first aid to [PADI/SSI] Divemaster, with [60+] dives. Alongside training you join our Reef Check surveys, coral nursery and reef restoration work, and as you progress you help instructors run courses and lead volunteer survey teams.
Dauin is known for its macro life: frogfish, seahorses, nudibranchs. Guiding here teaches you to find small, well-camouflaged animals, a skill dive employers value.
Our Caribbean Divemaster graduates now work as instructors and dive staff around the world. In Dauin you train at The Dive Hub with instructors who also teach technical and rebreather diving.
8 weeks from US$6,050, accommodation and meals included.
Program Highlights
- Beginner to professional: every course from Open Water to PADI Divemaster, including Rescue Diver and first aid.
- 60+ dives: the experience employers look for, not the bare minimum.
- Real professional work: assist on courses and guide dives at a working dive centre.
- Conservation experience: Reef Check surveys, coral nurseries and reef restoration, a useful addition to any dive CV.
- Where it leads: our Divemaster graduates now work as instructors and dive staff, including on our own team.
2027 dates now open
Video and Photos
Program Impact
Divemaster candidates carry much of the day-to-day running of our conservation work. As your training progresses, you take on the roles that keep our projects going: leading Reef Check survey teams, supervising newer volunteers underwater, maintaining our coral nurseries, and helping make sure the data we collect is reliable.
Reef Buddy Philippines launched in 2026 in Dauin, in the Coral Triangle. Our regular surveys across Dauin's marine protected areas are building a long-term record of reef health, and the data our first Divemasters help collect forms the baseline that future surveys will be measured against. Alongside this, we are developing a reef restoration programme and using baited underwater cameras to establish which large predators use Dauin's reefs.
The impact continues after you leave. Reef Buddy Divemaster graduates have gone on to work as dive professionals and conservationists, including on our own team, and every Divemaster who learns to dive carefully around a reef passes those habits on to the divers they guide.
