Category: IDC Koh Tao News

The New Revised PADI IDC Course has been long-anticipated by many PADI Members and Course Directors. PADI listened very well to their members and The New Revised PADI IDC Course now brings major updates and changes that will make an already successful IDC course even better!!

So why did we have to change to the New Revised PADI IDC Course? Well the most important reason is that we are now living in a digital age where most people have access to the internet and are using devices like smartphones or tablets. Even in most
remote places, people have a network connection these days. This gives an incredible opportunity to finally move away from the hard copy paper manuals and go digital.

If you join the New Revised PADI IDC Course you will now have access to the PADI IDC Digital Crewpack with PADI’s eLearning. This make learning easier, very eco-friendly, all devices supported, you can now start preparing for your IDC instantly when you sign up, and of course as a PADI Platinum Course Director my all time favourite; I can now track my students and help them even before they arrive!

On top of the major change to make the IDC Crewpack Digital, PADI also changed the way we conduct live presentations and a few changes of the in-water sections of the New Revised PADI IDC Course – In this article you will read the major changes and differences in the New Revised PADI IDC Course. We will discuss:

• Updated Skill Circuit
• New IDC Lesson Guides
• eLearning vs Live Presentations
• More Real Life Workshops
• Swims are updated
• More Rescue Scenario Practice
• IDC Training Video’s have been added
• Updated PADI Course Director Manual and Guide To Teaching
• Updated Classroom, Confined and Open Water Presentations
• New IDC Digital Crewpack with eLearning!!

New updated Skill Circuit during the New Revised PADI IDC Course

The PADI Skill Circuit in New Revised PADI IDC Course has finally been updated. The last revision of the PADI IDC Course was in 2010. This meant that the Skill Circuit skills in the IDC were reflecting the PADI Open Water Diver Course skills in 2010.

However in 2013 PADI revised their Open Water Diver Course and added a few new skills. This change was amazing and greatly improved the quality and safety of the already successful Open Water Diver Course, but these new diving skills where not added or changed in the PADI Divemaster or IDC Skill circuit. Therefore many people are now pleased to see that in the New Revised PADI IDC Course the skill circuit has been updated to reflect the current PADI Open Water Diver Course skills.

Also as an addition, to get a 5.0 (highest score) some of the New Revised Skill Circuit skills need to be demonstrated in a neutral buoyancy position to emphasize protecting the reef. You can still choose to kneel on the floor, but then your score will be a bit lower.

Here are the skills for the New Revised PADI IDC Course Skill Circuit:

1. Equipment assembly, adjustment, preparation, donning
   and disassembly
2. Pre-dive safety check (BWRAF)
3. Deep-water entry
4. Buoyancy check at surface
5. Snorkel-regulator/regulator-snorkel exchange
6. Five-point descent, using buoyancy control to stop descent
   without contacting the bottom
7. Regulator recovery and clearing*
8. Mask removal, replacement and clearing*
9. Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use (stationary)
10. Alternate air source-assisted ascent
11. Free flowing regulator breathing
12. Neutral buoyancy, rise and fall – using low pressure inflation
13. Five-point ascent
14. Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent
15. Orally inflate BCD to hover for at least 60 seconds
16. Underwater swim without a mask
17. Remove and replace weight system underwater
18. Remove and replace scuba unit underwater
19. Remove and replace scuba unit on the surface
20. Remove and replace weight system on the surface
21. Surface dive while skin diving and clear snorkel using blast
    method upon surfacing
22. Disconnect low pressure inflator
23. Re-secure a loose cylinder band
24. Perform an emergency weight drop

* To earn a 5, diver must demonstrate skill while neutrally buoyant.

Evaluation Scoring Criteria:

1 – participant unable to perform exercise
2 – exercise performed with significant difficulty or error
3 – exercise performed correctly, though too quickly to adequately exhibit (or illustrate) details of skill
4 – exercise performed correctly and slowly enough to adequately exhibit (or illustrate) details of skill
5 – exercise performed correctly, slowly and with exaggerated movement (appeared “easy”)

Are you looking to improve your PADI Skill Circuit Demonstration Skills during the Divemaster or IDC Course or are you looking for some extra teachings tools then SUBSCRIBE to our IDC Training YouTube Channel today!

New Lesson Guides – Revised PADI IDC Course

One of the most amazing updates is the eLearning Section of the PADI Digital Crewpack. The eLearning IDC Presentations can replace most of the old live IDC Presentations to save more time.

However many people still like to listen to a PADI Course Director and/or many Course Directors like to still teach some IDC presentations live. For this reason PADI made sure that you can still teach all IDC Presentations live in the classroom. What is great about this New Revised PADI IDC Course is that PADI changed and updated the IDC Lesson Guides to reflect the current day and to give it a much more cleaner look.

The new PADI IDC Lesson Guide Topics are:

1. Orientation
2. Dive Theory Workshop
3. Learning Teaching Workshop
4. Confined Water Training Workshop
5. Open Water Training Workshop
6. KD Presentations Workshop
7. PADI System Workshop
8. RiskManagement Licensing Workshop
9. DSD Workshop
10. OWD SetUp Scheduling Workshop
11. Continuing Education Workshop
12. Sales Techniques Workshop
13. Course Close

eLearning vs Live Presentations – What is best during the New Revised PADI IDC Course?

This is a hard question to answer. I think it really depends on many factors like, the PADI Course Director, the students, available time, the dive centre, the location , facilities and many more factors.

I am a bit spoiled as I teach the PADI IDC Course at Sairee Cottage Diving on Koh Tao, where I have access to incredible training facilities only meters away from my classroom. This give me the option to use either choice in the New Revised PADI IDC Course.

Some presentations I now shift a bit to eLearning to free more time to present my real-life dive instructor workshops on land and in-water. But I still believe that some IDC Presentations/lectures should be conducted live by a PADI Course Director, especially presentations like Risk Management and Standards. I personally love that students can use eLearning to prepare extremely well before we start the IDC or the Presentation, and then I can complete it with my personal experiences in that field in a live IDC presentation.

I believe that PADI truly hit the Jackpot with this – to be able to use multiple options eLearning and Live Presentations gives us Course Directors unprecedented flexibility to teach our IDC courses in a way that is best for our IDC Candidates.

More Workshops! – Revised PADI IDC Course

One of biggest piece of feedback that IDC Candidates and Course Directors gave to PADI is that most of us felt there was not enough time and focus on “real-life” teachings in the old 2010 IDC Course. PADI has now changed that and in the New Revised PADI IDC Course you will do lot’s of on-land and in-water workshops to emphasize real-life teaching.

Here are some of the New Revised PADI IDC Course workshops:

• Learning and Teaching workshop
• PADI Systems workshop
• Dive Theory workshop
• DSD workshop
• Open Water Diver Course workshop
• Advanced Diver Course workshop
• Continuous Education workshop
• etc.

Every workshop in the New Revised PADI IDC Course is a bit different, but they all emphasize on IDC candidates working together in a team and learning how to teach each other like real diving instructors. The workshops in the New Revised PADI IDC Course are amazing!

Confined & Open Water skill presentation – Dry workshops

These great workshops are where IDC Candidates now practice their water presentations first on land. This is not only very effective in their learning process, but it leads to much better results on their in-water presentations and it causes some very funny scenes. Don’t forget the IDC Course should also be fun!

Swims are improved in the Revised PADI IDC Course

Before in the old 2010 IDC Course a IDC Candidate had to perform an 800 meter swim with mask, fins and snorkel. That has now changed in the New Revised IDC Course to perform a 400 metre/yard continuous swim, without swimming aids and using any stroke or combination of strokes. On top of that you now also need to tread water for at least 10 minutes, the same as in the PADI Open Water Diver Course.

More emphasis on practicing Rescue Scenarios during the New Revised PADI IDC Course

Already in the old 2010 IDC Course you had to conduct a Rescue Diver Course workshop, but in the New Revised IDC Course PADI added Rescue Diver scenario’s.

Here are the performance requirements for the Rescue Scenarios:

By the end of Part 1 of this workshop, at and in an open water site, the candidate should be able to:

• Demonstrate the organization, sequence and conduct of Rescue Diver course:
• Exercise 2 – Panicked Diver
• Exercise 6 – Surfacing the Unresponsive Diver
• Exercise 7 – Unresponsive Diver at the Surface

Brief and debrief one or more skills or tasks from Exercises 2, 6 and 7.

Demonstrate techniques that may be used to meet the performance requirements for Exercises 2, 6 and 7.

By the end of Part 2 of this workshop, the candidate should be able to:

• Perform a demonstration-quality rescue of a simulated panicked diver at the surface, in water too deep in which to stand, in either confined or open water.
• Perform a demonstration-quality rescue of a simulated non-breathing, unresponsive diver at the surface in open water that is too deep in which to stand.
• Participate as a rescuer, simulated victim, secondary rescuer or equipment handler in an open water scenario that includes:
  – Bringing a simulated non-breathing, unresponsive diver from the bottom to the surface (from not deeper than 9 metres/30 feet).
  – Providing aid at the surface while towing a non-breathing diver to an exit.
  – Removing a non-breathing diver from the water.
• Administering oxygen to a non-breathing diver while using a rescue breathing mask.

Of course you can still add more rescue skills in the workshop. I believe it is very important to spend some time in the IDC to teach a fantastic Rescue Diver workshop as, in the unlikely event of an incident, this can be life-saving down the road.

Knowledge Development Presentations in the New Revised IDC Course

The Knowledge Development Presentations are still quite similar, but PADI simplified and streamlined some parts like the Lesson Plan form which is now much easier for IDC Candidates to work with.

PADI now also recommends IDC Candidates use Digital teaching / learning tools and training aids in their IDC Knowledge Development Presentations. Personally I think this is awesome as we teach more and more digital tools in this present day.

Not only is the Lesson Plan form easier to use for Candidates, PADI also streamlined and cleanup the Knowledge Development Evaluation scoring paper for the Course Directors. It is now so much easier to use and quickly give the right scores.

Updated PADI’s Guide to Teaching

The Guide to Teaching 2019 has been updated and streamlined. It is now so much more easy to use and navigate than before, not only for IDC Candidates, but also for certified Diving Instructors.

This will save a lot of time on the PADI IE during the Standards Exam and it will make this incredible tool much more accessible and user-friendly for working PADI Diving Instructors.

You can now access the PADI’s Guide to Teaching through the New Digital IDC Crewpack or Download it in PDF form to make it even more easy to access even if you are offline.

PADI’s IDC Training Videos in the New Revised IDC Course

In the New Revised PADI IDC Course, PADI now introduces IDC Training videos that PADI Course Directors can access in their Digital Instructor Development Materials Crewpack.

There are many different IDC training videos that cover topics like:

• Online Processing Center Tutorial – Explaining how to certify PADI students online
• How to Prepare a Teaching Presentation – Great video to show IDC candidates how to conduct IDC Knowledge Development Presentations
• Evaluation Training Videos – Great tool for PADI Course Directors on how to evaluate IDC Candidates on their Knowledge Development, Confined and Open Water Presentations.

But most importantly, PADI Course Directors have now access to IDC eLearning Videos that they can show to the IDC Candidates to explain in detail how to organize and conduct their IDC Classroom, Confined and Open Water Presentations! This is an amazing training tool!

Beside the awesome new training videos from PADI there is also a great YouTube Channel IDC Koh Tao Thailand with great IDC training videos. Check out for example this video about different problems & solutions during IDC Skills:

PADI Digital Crewpack with eLearning – New Revised IDC Course

The main change in the New Revised IDC Course is the introduction of the PADI Digital Crewpacks with access to PADI’s Online eLearning. In this age almost everyone has access to a computer, tablet or smartphone. Not only is it much easier to study for the IDC but it also significantly reduces paper and plastic waste that the previous IDC Crewpack produced.

There are now 2 Digital Crewpacks to choose from:

– PADI IDC Staff and Course Director Instructor Development Materials
– PADI Instructor Development Course Digital Crew Pack

The Instructor Development Materials contains a large amount of training aids for PADI IDC Staff Instructors and PADI Course Directors:

• Instructor Development Materials Reference Guide
• Updated Course Director Manual
• IDC Lesson Guides
• Instructor Development Resources
IDC eLearning Videos
• Evaluation Training Videos
• Additional Videos
• Online Processing Center Tutorial
• IDC Staff Instructor Course Lesson Guides

The PADI Instructor Development Course Digital Crewpack is the updated crew pack for IDC Candidates and it contains:

• IDC eLearning Presentations (Covering most important IDC Lessons)
• Diving Knowledge Workbook eLearning – Amazing tool to prepare for the IDC Dive Theory Exams!
• PADI’s Guide to Teaching
• IDC Resources – Digital versions of some slates and forms
• Open Water Diver Course Prescriptive Lesson Guides – Fantastic training aid to teach PADI Open Water Diver courses
• Exams – For all courses that can be taught as a PADI OWSI
• Specialty Instructor Guides – That can be taught as OWSI
• Online Processing Center Tutorial

Traveling and Preparing with the new PADI Digital Crewpack and eLearning

Can you please send me the PADI IDC materials and crew pack? This is one of the main questions I get from IDC Candidates when they book their IDC course with me at Sairee Cottage Diving. Many people would love to start studying and preparing for their IDCs as soon as possible.

This was hard to do with the old 2010 IDC Course as the materials and crewpack were very heavy and not easy to send by mail. Now these days are finally over and with PADI’s Digital IDC Crewpack you can now instantly grant access to your future IDC Candidates so they can prepare for the PADI IDC Course. This makes their and the PADI Course Director’s life so much easier! I can already picture them reading their IDC eLearning with a cup of coffee waiting for their airplane to take them to their location. Awesome!

On top of this the PADI Course Director can now check their IDC Candidates progress remotely by a new progress monitoring facility. Reminding candidates about important parts and even helping them before the start of the New Revised PADI IDC Course.

The New Revised IDC Course becomes more Eco-Friendly

The old IDC Crewpack from 2010 contained quite a lot of materials that where amazing to use, but not always that eco friendly when they ended up in the garbage. PADI has always been on the front lines of conservation and they are even part of one of the biggest and most successful Eco Conservation organizations called Project AWARE. Therefore it was very important to PADI to make the New Revised IDC Course as Eco-Friendly as possible!

A few major changes are there to make the New Revised IDC Course more friendly:

The first is the introduction of emphasizing more on conservation during the IDC Presentations.

Second to show environmental awareness at all times underwater, not just Open Water but also Confined Water.

Third is that you can now access Project AWARE IDC Materials and Lesson Guides to add/integrate into your New Revised IDC Program This is a major addition to the Course and in the end most conservation is all about inspiring others, and in this case future PADI Diving Instructors!

Fourth is having almost all IDC materials gone digital which not only reduces the use of paper, but also more importantly, reduces Plastic waste.

The IDC Digital Crew pack can be updated instantly and all the time

Normally the PADI Instructor Manual gets updated once a year, with fresh updates and changes being updated every quarter in the PADI Undersea Journal Magazine. Some manuals like the Guide to Teaching or the PADI Course Director manual stayed the same with minor updates in the Undersea Journal.

This has worked fine, but now we are taking updates to another level. Because the PADI IDC Crewpack in the New Revised IDC Course is fully digital and accessible through PADI’s IDC eLearning, they can now make small adjustments, change standards and update any materials instantly when it is needed and relevant. This is an incredible new feature that greatly improves the quality of the IDC program.

Final Word

PADI truly listened to the suggestions and comments of their members while making these changes happen for the New Revised PADI IDC Course. This incredible product is ready for the future and I am so excited to start teaching this.

We at Sairee Cottage Diving will start teaching this New Revised PADI IDC Course from Today and if you are also thinking about becoming a PADI Diving Instructor then please contact us for more information about our Revised PADI IDC Course.

Please also let us know what you think about the New PADI IDC Course in the comments below and please share this article to anyone who has questions about the changes in the New Revised PADI IDC Course.

 

Marcel van den Berg
PADI Platinum Course Director
Sairee Cottage Diving
Koh Tao, Thailand

7-Eleven stores in Thailand give away an incredible amount of plastic with purchases made there, especially plastic bags to carry groceries. Plastic bags are not the only a big problem for the environment worldwide, but they are a particularly big problem in tourist locations close to the ocean. So now, finally, on the Island of Koh Tao the first 7-Eleven is going Plastic Bag free to help conserve our paradise.

Shocking amounts of single-use plastic at 7-Eleven

I remember well when I arrived for the very first time in Thailand how surprised I was to see so many 7-Elevens in Bangkok. I am from The Netherlands and had never heard about the 7-Eleven brand before; in Bangkok you have one every few 100 metres, in every street!

I was tired after my flight to Bangkok, so I decided to buy a small energy drink and some gum. To my amazement these tiny items were given to me in a plastic bag inside another plastic bag; then without even asking me, the 7-Eleven cashier threw in 2 plastic straws…also wrapped in plastic!

This blew my mind as I just wanted to drink up straight away and put the gum in my pocket. So, in a friendly way, I refused the plastic bags and straws creating genuine surprise on the staff member’s face. When I then went outside and looked back into the shop, I saw that this was happening for every purchase! Pointless single-use plastic was given freely to every customer and I quickly learnt that this was happening in every 7-Eleven store in Thailand… This was more than a decade ago and there are over 10,000 7-Eleven stores in Thailand. Try to imagine the unbelievably huge number of plastic bags across the country given out to every customer in all that time…

Koh Tao: reducing plastic waste

Koh Tao is one of the most beautiful Islands in the world and it is one of the main destinations for people to learn how to Scuba Dive. This attracts an incredible number of tourists every year which, inevitably, creates even more waste. For this reason, the government, locals, expats and businesses on Koh Tao have joined forces to spread awareness, educate tourists, reduce single-use plastic, organise beach and reef clean ups and a lot, lot more.

Almost every Dive Centre on Koh Tao is now reducing or banning single-use plastic and every day a new bar or restaurant is banning or reducing the use of plastic straws. Some companies are even 100% single-use plastic free!

Besides all those great Dive Centres, Hotels, Restaurants, Hostels and Bars having gone plastic free we also needed the supermarkets to stop offering plastic bags. Since some time now our dreams have come true and one after another, local Thai supermarkets are going plastic bag free – refusing to give plastic bags and instead and asking customers to bring reusable bags. The success has been incredible, and everyone is loving it, especially the tourists. Nowadays, most people want to travel in the Eco-Friendliest way possible.

But the main hurdle has always been 7-Eleven and their handing out of so much single-use plastic…until now!

The main 7-Eleven on Koh Tao is now one of the first 7-Eleven stores in Thailand to refuse to give plastic bags to their customers! Only if you purchase hot food will you get a plastic bag to carry it in and only then if you request one. For any other item you need to bring your own reusable bag, or you can purchase a 7-Eleven reusable bag for only 15 THB (less than 50 cents in USD).

This has been great news for Koh Tao meaning that Koh Tao is now truly a leader in reducing single-use plastic, inspiring other locations to do the same.

Eco Conservation Organisations on Koh Tao

Beside all these companies mentioned, Koh Tao has many eco conservation organisations that have been very successful over the years, and every year Koh Tao is creating more and more conservation projects.

The oldest conservation organisation on Koh Tao is Save Koh Tao. Not only are almost all companies here affiliated with Save Koh Tao, the government also works closely together with them. The biggest environmentally friendly changes on Koh Tao have happened because of the incredible results achieved by Save Koh Tao working alongside local government.

Another amazing Eco Organisation is Get Involved Koh Tao. This organisation joins forces with many Dive Centres and businesses every month to organise “Eco Day”. On Eco Day they present conservation lectures to locals, tourists, Divemasters and Diving Instructors on how they can help and inspire others to travel in a more eco-friendly way. After these presentations they organise a massive Beach and Reef Clean up and together with an organisation called CoralGardening they are building a new artificial reef.

Get Involved Koh Tao also works closely together with Trash Hero, another incredible organisation focusing on reducing worldwide use of plastic bottles and organising clean-ups in many different countries. On Koh Tao more than 40 companies are now supplying free drinking water to people with a Trash Hero reusable Eco Bottle.

Also Sea Shepard, Shark Guardian, Project AWARE and many other organisations are very active on Koh Tao, working to preserve this amazingly beautiful Island.

Spread the word of reducing plastic bags in stores

Even with 7-Eleven going plastic bag free on Koh Tao there is much more to do, and we need your help! Please help by sharing this blog and asking your local supermarkets and especially your local 7-Eleven to ban plastic bags and only offer reusable bags in their place. Of course, 7-Eleven is an amazing company (I shop with them almost every day) but giving away so many plastic bags is just pointless and so terribly bad for the environment. I believe that when all 7-Elevens in Thailand go plastic bag free it will create a ripple effect that will change the way we shop in many more locations around the world!

Personally I am so grateful to live in Amazing Thailand and be part of, and witness to, Thai people and Foreigners alike doing more for the environment than in many other tourist locations, effecting radical change in a very short amount of time. Thailand you are truly beautiful, and I believe maybe soon, one of the leaders in Eco Conservation and Eco Tourism.

If you agree with this article, please “Like” & “Share” it on your social media.

 

Marcel van den Berg
PADI Platinum Course Director
Sairee Cottage Diving
Koh Tao, Thailand

Choosing the best dive school for you can be a tricky job given the quantity and variety of options around you. There are so many good dive schools in the world, but unfortunately, there are also many bad dive schools. So how do we go about choosing the best dive school? And how can we get the best diving course and the best diving experience? Here are 8 top tips in making the right choice of dive school.

Tip 1: Check Online for the Best Scuba Dive School

The future of choosing the best dive school is online research. Almost every dive school in the world has a website that explains what their dive school is all about, shows pictures of their facilities, what dive trips they offer and all the scuba diving courses they can teach you. The first step for choosing the best dive school is to get a cup of coffee, find a couch or even relax on your break in the office and start surfing the internet for some of the best dive schools out there.

Tip 2: Use Google as Your Search Engine to Find the Best Dive School

Many of us use Google to look up and find most of what we seek online. Using Google to find the best dive school is by far one of the best online tools you can use to find the most relevant, active and best dive school website you are looking for.

So, what are the best words to type into the search box to find the best dive school? I recommend typing these (just copy and paste): How to choose the best dive school, best diving school, best Dive Instructor, how to avoid bad Diving Instructors, best dive school on Koh Tao (or any other location), best dive school trip advisor and so many more. You can also replace dive school with other words like: dive centre, dive shop, dive resort.

Tip 3: Read Through the Online Reviews when Choosing the Best Dive School

Checking online reviews is one of the most powerful tools there are these days especially for choosing the best dive school in the world. Online reviews give you the opinion of real people about real dive schools, Divemasters and Diving Instructors. There are many online review sites to choose from, but the top sites for choosing the best dive schools are: TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google+ and Rate Your Dive.

The down side of these, of course is that everyone has their opinion, which means that bad customers can also leave bad reviews out of spite. My tip is to look at the difference between good and bad reviews and if the majority (more then 95%) are good then you are probably looking at one of the best dive schools available there.

Tip 4: How to Choose the Best Dive Location or Site in the World

Choosing the best dive school is very important, but there are so many good dive schools in the world. Before you even try to look for a good dive school it is important to choose the best location in the world to learn how to scuba dive.

To find the best location and dive site for you to learn how to scuba dive depends really on how and what you want to learn to get the best out of your scuba diving experience. First you need to ask yourself some questions like: where would I like to scuba dive? Do I want to learn how to scuba dive in fresh or salt water? Do I want to do a short intense diving course or a longer more relaxed diving course? Do I like to be in cold water, temperate water or warm tropical water?

Some people argue it is best to learn how to scuba dive in the hardest conditions possible with scuba diving courses lasting up to 6 weeks in length, while others say that it is much better and easier to first learn how to scuba dive in calm warm tropical waters with the Diving Instructor just focusing on diving so you can easily learn the initial steps of scuba diving in only 4 or 5 days. I think that this depends on the diving student, the teaching capabilities of the Diving Instructor and the dive school in question. Anyway, the best dive schools will always make sure that you will become the best scuba diver possible.

Tip 5: Check Different Websites

With so many great dive schools around, it is very important to check and compare different websites. A couple of the things you want to look for are how the website is structured and how user-friendly it is to navigate. You also want to look for any pictures, a gallery and any YouTube videos that really show their dive school in action. You also want to look for the font they use and the general colours, general quality and any flaws on the website as it usually represents their business and management attitude towards the dive school and your training.

Tip 6: Shop Around to Find the Best Dive School

One of the problems these days is that although a good-looking website often indicates a well-run business (see above), some scuba diving schools’ websites can look artificially great because they just used nice (sometimes fake or “borrowed”) pictures or they hired a Website and Search Engine Optimization guru to not only make their website look fantastic, but also to make it rank high on Google.

For this reason I highly recommend you that when you find the right dive school online you also properly check them out when you arrive and allow yourself the opportunity to shop around any other dive schools there. Sadly enough a dive school can look fantastic online, but then when you get there it looks awful – they gave you false information in order to get your booking. Again online reviews are key here and usually their Facebook page will also hold a lot of clues to the real truth.

Some of the best dive schools will have amazing facilities like the best swimming pools, the best diving equipment, the best and nicest looking classrooms and the best looking dive boats. These facilities can cost a lot of money but it usually is a sign of how much they care about their diving customers. Diving and dive resort facilities usually say a lot about the operation of a dive school.

Tip 7: Talk With Your Diving Instructor

Ask to meet your Diving Instructor when you check out the dive school. This is very important to ensure you get the right Diving Instructor for you. The Diving Instructor usually represents the dive school quite well, which means that if you meet one of the best Diving Instructors, then you are usually also at one of the best dive schools. This doesn’t work in all cases as there is still the possible fact that a few bad diving schools employs some of the best Diving Instructors and vice-versa.

When you meet your Diving Instructor make sure you ask the right questions to make sure you are making the right choice. Ask questions like: How long have you been a Diving Instructor? What would happen if I get scared during the course or if I can’t equalise my ears? Tell me more about where we go diving? And why did you become a Diving Instructor?

Tip 8: Compare Different Prices to Find the Best Dive School

Getting the right price is very important as diving can be an expensive activity. But be careful not to go too cheap. Some of the best places in the world to learn how to scuba dive  have a lot of dive schools operating there, so the competition can run high. High competition between dive schools sometimes leads to price wars. As much as that sounds like a great thing, it sometimes leads to cutting corners and cutting costs which leads to a much lower quality diving course.

Some of the best dive schools will have the slightly higher prices than the competition to ensure you get the best Diving Instructors and can enjoy some of the best facilities in the dive industry. As the say: “You get what you pay for”.

Conclusion:

Finding the best dive school is not always that easy as there are so many dive schools in the world to choose from. The good news is, however, that there are many good dive schools out there, some with amazing Diving Instructors working for them. Just remember to spend some time researching the best dive school and hopefully this article can help you find that “best dive school” you’re looking for.

Have you already had a fantastic experience with a dive school? Then please share it in the comments below and explain why you thought it was one of the best dive schools out there. This will help others make a more informed decision about where to go for their scuba diving holiday.

Getting a bad Diving Instructor is the worst thing that can happen to a new scuba diver and it can mean people stop diving forever. I always say that getting a good or bad Diving Instructor is a lottery ticket. So, how do we recognise a bad Diving Instructor?

You always had this dream, this dream to learn how to scuba dive. You saved money for some time, maybe watched scuba diving and underwater documentaries and then you finally take some holiday and travel to some beautiful place in the world to learn how to scuba dive!

You finally arrive at your diving destination, and now you are looking for a good dive shop with certified and experienced Diving Instructors, after some shopping around and seeing all the differences between the dive shops you find the dive shop you are looking for, one with great facilities and friendly staff. But then, when you meet your Dive Instructor who is going to teach you the Open Water Diver course, something feels off…

I have been in the dive industry now for more then a decade and I have seen some of the best, but also, some of the worst Diving Instructors around. So why, if there are such very high training organisation standards, are there still any bad Dive Instructors out there? The problem does not lay with the mayor diving organisations like PADI, SSI, RAID or other diving training organisations. All these diving organisations have the highest dive training standards to best ensure quality and safety. The biggest problem lies with the individual Dive Instructor as a person. If that Diving Instructor deviates from these high standards and does whatever her or she wants then things start going wrong quickly. Sadly enough there are many Dive Instructors who bend or break the rules and most of them have learned it from each other. Here are my personal tips how to recognise these bad Diving Instructors and hopefully avoid them.

Does a Good Dive School Guarantee You Getting a Good Diving Instructor?

A lot of people think that if you choose a good diving school you automatically get a good Diving Instructor or equally, if you choose a bad dive school that you will automatically get a bad Dive Instructor.

It does make sense, but strangely enough there are quite a few really good dive schools that have both great Diving Instructors and also a couple of really bad Diving Instructors. The problem is that even when the dive school looks amazing with amazing facilities, a great website, location and friendly marketing, this doesn’t guarantee that they are well-managed; certainly some might not even have a manager. Even if the dive school makes some great business decisions, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have good control over their Dive Instructors. The Diving Instructor that works there can do pretty much what they want, so you, the student, is reliant on that individual Diving Instructor’s attitude as to whether they want to be a good or bad Dive Instructor. For you that means it’s a lottery who you get, dependant on what day and time you start your diving course.

Real Smile or Fake Smile?

A lot of Diving Instructors will greet you with a smile and a handshake when you first meet them. Sometimes that is just for the first few minutes until you sign up for the scuba diving course and then the smile and customer service disappears. But even worse are those bad Dive Instructors that only smile and entertain you throughout the course. A bad Diving Instructor like this will make you feel like he or she is fantastic, but what you don’t know is that that person is braking multiple dive organisation standards and jeopardising your safety significantly. So why would a Dive Instructor do that? Only one answer: to make more money…

Greed Makes for a Bad Diving Instructor

Many people complain that the dive industry is too focussed on making more and more money. Well…every industry is trying to make money, there is nothing wrong with selling a great service; it’s how you go about making that money which is important. Training organisations like PADI, SSI, RAID, CMAS and others all like to create new divers for several reasons and one reason is indeed financial. Dive Centres, Dive Shops and Dive Schools would also like to get their investment back and make a profit, and of course individual Diving Instructors also need to make a profit to pay for their lives besides diving. One way of creating a bit more income and salary for a Dive Instructor is to encourage people to buy diving equipment and another would be for the student to continue their diving education by taking the next diving course. In many cases the Diving Instructor will be hoping to get his or her Open Water Divers to take the Advanced Course.

“How much salary does a Diving Instructor make? – Learn more here”

A good Dive Instructor, however, will not focus only on making more money, a good dive Instructor will truly care about his or her diving students. A good Diving Instructor cares first about their safety and enjoyment. Funnily enough this focus will create more success as most of these diving students will want to stay and do more diving courses with that Instructor. A bad Dive Instructor is only focussed on making money and that greed almost always takes over. Most bad Diving Instructors have found out that if they smile and entertain diving students to make them happy they are more likely to get them to do the next diving course when really they should be focussing on safety and comfort and following their industry standards. Most of the time a bad Diving Instructor will oversell and push people to do more, resulting in less continuing education. They forget that nobody wants to spend time listening to a salesperson.

Know Your Own Diving Course Standards

The biggest problem with bad Dive Instructors is them breaking their dive organisation’s “standards”. On all diving courses you need to learn and perform certain tasks and skills in order to receive your diving certification. For example you need complete theory sections from your diving manual, perform certain diving skills in the pool or in confined open water and you will also need to perform diving skills during real open water dives. All training organisations have come up with a list of performance requirements that ensures the highest level of safety whilst you complete these skills happily and within your comfort-zone.

To complete these performance requirements does take time and they are not always fun (usually, but not always). A classic bad Diving Instructor will try to skip some of these standards and performance requirements to save time so they can get to the bar earlier or because they feel you will enjoy the diving course more if they skip the slightly harder bits, maybe thinking that will increase the chances of you doing the next diving course thus making them more money.

My tip is to do some research online or check your training organisation’s manual and make a list of the standards and performance requirements of your diving course and actually check if your Dive Instructor is actually doing them. I know this sounds crazy as you are paying a lot of money, but the dive industry is not perfect and your safety can be at risk if Diving Instructors break those all-important standards.

A Bad Diving Instructor is a Bad Leader

There are many ways to lead, some positive, some negative. For example you can be a good leader that leads by example or a bad leader that leads by creating fear. You can quickly recognise a good or bad Diving Instructor by how he or she treats and leads their Divemasters and Dive Instructor Interns (people who are assisting on the course). Most Diving Instructors will have an assistant during your diving course and seeing how your Dive Instructor treats them says a lot about if him or her.

Some scuba Instructors will be very nice to you as a diving student, but will treat their Divemaster(s) really badly. We seen many bad Diving Instructors treat their Divemasters like slaves by making them carry all the scuba tanks, wash all the dive equipment, pack all the diving bags and do any other crappy job that the bad Diving Instructor thinks they are “too good” to do. Now I am not saying that Divemasters should not carry tanks or wash and pack bags, I am saying that a good Diving Instructor will help the Divemaster with those jobs to save time and reduce workload. Bad Diving Instructors are usually very bad leaders.

Bad Diving Skills and Fast Swimming

Some Dive Instructors are great on land but really bad underwater. Usually bad Diving Instructors do not have bad diving skills because of ability; they usually have bad diving skills because they just don’t care about becoming better, the environment or their diving students.

A bad Dive Instructor will have their students perform their diving skills in inappropriate and sometimes dangerous areas just to save time, areas that are too deep, have no clear ascent and have potentially dangerous aquatic life nearby. A bad Diving Instructor will often stir up sand and damage coral and marine life, as he or she does not care about the underwater world. But one of the most frustrating things for dive students is a Diving Instructor that swims too fast. This can cause overexertion and even hypercapnia (too much CO2) and certainly will mean you miss out of seeing all the beautiful marine life on the way. Even if a Diving Instructor does care about showing marine life they will often swim fast in order to find a turtle or shark, whilst forgetting that it is a completely new world for you as a diving student and there are hundreds of fantastic marine species all around you. I can already tell you that some micro (small) stuff can be even cooler than a turtle if you just go slowly and look for details. Bad Dive Instructors lack knowledge of this or, again, just don’t care.

How to Avoid a Bad Diving Instructor?

Research is key and these days you can find tons or reviews online. I recommend TripAdvisor, the dive shop’s Facebook business page and of course YouTube. Chat with the Dive Instructor on arrival and ask him or her what would happen if you got nervous during the diving course. Look for how the Diving Instructor is dressed and evaluate their attitude. We can all easily recognise if a smile is real or fake. Look for how the Diving Instructor behaves whilst doing the paper work, especially the medical statement. Check the standards and performance requirements of your course and see if they are doing them all.

Conclusion

The Dive Industry (like any other industry) is not perfect and there are many great but also some not so good Diving Instructors out there. Hopefully this article will help you with what to look for so you can recognise if you’ve got a bad Diving Instructor on your hands. And most importantly, don’t forget to write a review after the completion of your diving course to give compliments to good Diving Instructors and to make sure that the bad Diving Instructors will either change or not get work in future. In the worst cases you can also report them to the dive-training organisation they represent.

Are you a recreational diver or a Divemaster that is looking to become a Diving Instructor and you want to learn how to become not only a good Diving Instructor, but a fantastic Diving Instructor? Then why don’t you contact Sairee Cottage Diving PADI 5 Star IDC Centre and ask about our high quality PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) we teach on Koh Tao, Thailand.