On this page we'll take a look at the unique opportunities & experiences you get taking your gap year / diving internship with DJL Diving on Koh Tao, Thailand.

We'll discover what's special about Koh Tao island & talk about the advantages of learning with DJL Diving.

Witness Fantastic Marine Life around Koh Tao, Thailand

The coral reefs & pinnacles around Koh Tao, Thailand are home to an amazing variety of tropical marine life.

By taking your scuba diving internship on Koh Tao, you'll get to see masses of colorful reef fish such as butterfly, angel & parrotfish, plus wrasses, triggerfish and more.

We've got lots of larger pelagic species - trevelly and barracuda plus you can see even bigger fish such as Giant Grouper and decent sized bull & grey reef sharks. There's also cuttle fish & squid around the Koh Tao Dive Sites.

The highlight for many divers are the massive [harmless] whale sharks which visit Koh Tao. Around the island we've seen whale sharks up to 7-8 metres in length. Spectacular!

In addition to the Koh Tao dive centre DJL opened up a second dive centre over in Koh Lipe which is on the west coast of Thailand in 2011, so this means that we can also offer you the chance to head over to Koh Lipe to experience some different dive sites and diving conditions whilst taking your Internship.

Real Responsibility | Be Part of our Dive Team

At DJL Diving, you will become a critical member of our dive team.

You'll get real hands on experience dealing with customers and assist in the running of DJL Diving.

DJL Diving is a busy dive shop. We're not 'enormous' but we are a dynamic, vibrant PADI dive centre, dealing with many customers on a day-to- day basis.

By taking your Gap Year Diving Internship with DJL, you'll be helping out with customer logistics, delivering briefings, guiding certified divers around the Koh Tao Dive sites and assisting with new divers in training.

You'll get real working experience and get a great insight into how the dive shop runs. Expect to graduate as a strong PADI Divemaster.

If you want to work in diving after graduating as a PADI Divemaster, we'll help you take your first steps seeking employment as a dive pro.

A Very Experienced International Diving Team

Our dive instructors are some of the most experienced in Asia.

The DJL Diving instructors have taught all over the world. Two of the senior instructors have more than 15 years experience working in diving - even our youngest instructor [23 years old] has over 4 years experience teaching scuba diving.

Our instructors have previous working experience all over Thailand, Asia & Europe. This brings a wide breath of diving knowledge to the DJL Diving Team.

Each instructor has their own areas of interest - combined this gives us a massive teaching resource. In addition to the core elements of your dive internship we can provide:

- Technical Deep Diving
- Instructor Training
- Wreck Diving
- Powerboat / small boat handling
- Compressor & Boat Maintenance
- Digital Underwater Photography & Videography
- First aid / CPR / Oxygen Administration
- Search & Recovery

Most courses are taught in English, but we also provide courses in Spanish, Dutch, French & German.
Doing your Divemaster Internship here, you'll be mentored by one instructor [who'll make sure you're looked after] but will get the opportunity to work with all our instructors. Taking your dive internship with DJL, means our experienced team of instructors can give you the best possible chance of becoming a great dive pro. Plus you'll have a great time learning.

Koh Tao is a Vibrant Beach Resort Destination

One of the most important things about spending time oversees is the people you'll meet.

Koh Tao gets a lot of visitors from all over the world - it's a vibrant beach resort with a great atmosphere. European, North & South American, Scandinavian & Asian - we get customers from all over.

By taking your scuba diving internship with DJL Diving on Koh Tao, you'll get to meet an enourmous variety of people from diverse backgrounds.

A Divemaster Internship on Koh Tao has a truly international flavour!


Standing Out from the Crowd' | DJL Dive Boats

In this part of the world, most people dive from converted fishing boats. There are many reasons for this - the boats are affordable to buy and convert for diving, plus the Thai's have a lot of experience driving and maintaining them, which makes life easy.

The DJL 'Big Boat' is a 16 metre converted fishing boat - we've fitted tank racks and tanks to accommodated around 20 divers, added an onboard air compressor so there's no heavy carrying plus included all the other necessary item [emergency oxygen, western toilet, sun deck, cooking/drinks facility . . .].

Even better we also have a very high speed Rigid Inflatable Boat. Weighing only about 650 kg, it's propelled by twin Yamaha outboards at speeds up to 36 knots - putting that in perspective that's approximately 6 x faster than most of the other boats around Koh Tao. This gives us a really exciting option for experienced divers - you can get out to the best dive sites fast, plus have a great option for dive exploration trips.

Taking your PADI Divemaster internship with DJL gets you diving off both our boats.



Dive Exploration & Deep Wreck / Technical Diving

The biggest unique feature of DJL Diving is our commitment to wreck & technical diving, exploring for new wrecks and dive sites.

We're passionate about dive exploration, and are always active running exciting diving expeditions. This rarely makes any money but is the reason many of us at DJL work in diving. There's always something new & exciting to discover.

You wouldn't enrol for a course at a University that doesn't conduct research - we apply the same principal to diving. Dive exploration keeps everyone interested and maintains a dynamic, exciting environment to work & learn in.

Doing your gap year / PADI Divemaster internship with DJL gives you the chance to get involved. You can start off by diving our local wrecks, then eventually get involved in the exploration.

Over the last few years we've located and dived many lost shipwrecks throughout Thailand & beyond. To read about our latest dive expeditions check out the news bar at the bottom of this page.

Great Diversity of Koh Tao Dive Sites

With regard to diversity of dive sites, Koh Tao has a lot to offer. Close to the island we have shallow coral reefs, where you can see lots of tropical reef species. Further out we've got isolated pinnacles, that host our bigger fish such as the Chumphon & Southwest Pinnacles.

Even more remote we have deep shipwrecks, such as the Unicorn & Torpedo [Thai Cargo Ships] or a Japanese WW2 Schooner. With DJL you get the chance to dive these wrecks.

The distance to our dive sites is short, so this allows a lot of scuba diving options - we run at least 2 dive trips every day. We make an big effort to rotate around the dive sites so you see more!


12 Month Diving Season [Gulf of Thailand]

The size and position of Koh Tao Thailand mean that we are lucky enough to have a 12 month scuba diving season - no matter what the weather conditions, we can always dive on the sheltered side of the island.

Even when the wind does blow, our location in the Gulf of Thailand means wave heights remain mostly low.

We are open all year round, so whenever you want to take your scuba internship is fine!

We prepare you for if/when you decide to take the next step and become a Open Water Scuba Instructor

When the latest changes to the PADI Divemaster course came through our team looked at the changes that were made and decided that yes these changes did make sense for people who wished to take the Divemaster course as there was additional information that was in the course that wasn't essential for a Divemaster.  However as we are also an IDC Resort Peter our Course Director here saw that it would mean that people who were going to later on take the Instructor course would find the Instructor course much more difficult having not learned a lot of the information during the Divemaster course.  So for this reason our Divemaster program does include a lot of additional information so that the transition from Divemaster to Instructor will be a lot less painful as by the time you have completed our Divemaster course not only will you know a few things that Divemasters trained at other dive centres won't you'll be ideally positioned to take the next step to become a Diving Instructor.