More IDC Questions

I have previously asked about completing the DM while there is an openwater course being taught at the same time, if i with an aim to do the IDC, would I be able to work towards my DM for first 3 weeks or so before the IDC is scheduled to start? I am Trying to get all the experience I can and am keen to work as a Divemaster prior to my IDC.

Yes but obviously we cannot guarantee how much business we will have and how many students will be doing an Open Water course. Although the island is normally very busy by that time of year and last half of December and first half of January it is normally hard to find enough instructors and all the dayboats and liveaboards tend to be full. Although DM experience is part of the career experience you ideally should get to be a complete Instructor it won’t be of much help towards an IDC or IE. As when you are working as a Divemaster you will be mainly guiding divers on fundives around the local dive sites with divers whereas the experience you ideally need prior to an IDC is as much classroom time for Open Water, Resce and DM courses and as much Confined Water as you can on Open Water and Rescue Diver courses.

I have contacted a few other IDC centres and they’ve offered me some good deals, yet your IDC offer is better, it’s just they offered me 1-1.5 month free internships so i’m stuck really.

This depends on the dive centre. Since I have been working in the dive industry over the past 12 years that I worked in New Zealand, Phillipines, Thailand and Bali I have seen many, many different versions of this offer, however I warn you a lot of them end up as “great we have a DM we don’t have to pay for a couple of months” … which means you will log dives but are basically working for free.

We don’t offer this as we have experienced nothing but problems with Internships over the years, mostly due to the dive centre asking something like we need those 30 tanks loaded tonight as the other boat is going into dry dock and the DM saying “well to hell with that, it’s raining and the last thing I am doing is cross loading tanks at 23:00 at night” – and then dive centre gets annoyed, the DM gets annoyed and then one thing leads to another. We have seen things like this happen many times which is why if people work we pay them fairly and let them know what to expect. Internships work in some areas of the world and for some dive centers but we have opted out of this arrangement. In general we do not like people working for free.

I have just been considering some good deals on my IDC in Thailand, on the east coast, which i researched is in off season at the moment, so really i’m going to make my decision between you and another centre in Bali.

By this we assume you mean Koh Samuim, Ko Tao or Pattaya, ou cannot compare either resort with Phuket in any shape or form, as for Bali we have dived there and know others that work and live there and without exception they all love it, have never met someone that hated it. Dive condition wise its not very favorable to be on the East Coast of Thailand after November.

In your opinion, is there any specific part of diving in Thailand that should sway it for me compared to the diving in Phuket.

Phuket / Phi Phi / Hin Daeng and Hin Muang  have the best diving by far in Thailand, by far the best, we have dived lots on the East coast and gott really bored of it. The diving isn’t up to much except one dive site Sail Rock which is half way from Ko Samui to Ko Tao but that’s much fun with 100 divers on it now-a-days.

What is a good way to get a broad overview and unbiased opinions on dive locations for my IDC? I am favoring Phuket or Bali.

My advice would be to check websites, for what the diving is like, and look at the e-mail correspondence  you receive from the dive centres you are in contact with an make a decision based on what you think you will get from them which you need. Phuket and Bali are only a short flight apart, so you can easily do your IDC / IE in one location and if you don’t like it just jump on a plane.

I am still finding it difficult to get ahead in the industry and I’m DSDing myself to death here in Spain.

We know the feeling … that’s why one of the things we try to get through to Instructors after their IDC is that they need to make sure that they teach a large range of courses, otherwise they will go nuts if all they are doing is OW, DSD, OW, DSD, OW, DSD for 5 months during a busy high season … they need to teach as large a variety of courses as possible and also, depending on the company they are working for, take time out to work as a Tour Leader / Dive Guide for a week or two now and then to get a break from teaching – especially entry level courses – otherwise you will end up strangling the next person who can’t clear their mask 🙂 only joking.

The reason I am contacting you specifically is because I am looking for advice on how I could become a PADI instructor, as I have conducted all my training with BSAC and have limited understanding of how I could/should crossover to PADI. My current dive qualification is BSAC Advanced Diver, with Normoxic Trimix. I also run the University Diving Society which is a BSAC club, and am responsible for extensive trip organisation, both for newly qualified divers (recently took 24 new divers away for a weeks scenic boat diving on the East Coast of Scotland), as well as organising technical trips such as a 65m deep wreck expedition which I have coming up this August to Northern Ireland involving members of the BSAC Council.

The PADI Master Instructor here was previously a member of a BSAC club back in 1997 but crossed over to PADI in 1999 as he wanted to work in the industry and at the time the BSAC system was quite different to what it is now and there was no way of making a living out of BSAC in those days. Its quite normal now to see UK divers come here as a BSAC Sports Diver then cross train to become a PADI Open Water diver. We recommend that you crossover to PADI asap to understand the PADI system right from the entry level – not something you would need to do, but something that is recommended.

I have been a resident of Thailand for the last 4 years and am an Advanced Open water diver with near to 375 dives in 17 countries, including dives in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian oceans from Venezuela, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Colombia, UK, Ecuador, Cuba, Bonaire, Croatia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, I have been working with a major humanitarian organization and with my contract is ending on Oct 1 after 11 years, I would like to start a Dive master course with your company if this is possible. Also, I am amenable to doing the rescue diver course before October if it is available in say the second half of September. Please confirm that you have DM courses available at this time, and what the price would be with your organization and any other incentives I should consider in doing my DM with your company Lastly, as an alternative, I could be amenable to taking a variety of specialty courses, during this period,

Our IDC and course Schedules are on the website, we have Divemaster courses running all year round

I am a divemaster and i am very interested in doing IDC. Could you please send me the price, including all fees, material costs, etc?

I would like to have a total price for the whole IDC. I might also be interested in MSDT.

All this information is available on the website, its been recently updated, if you have trouble finding the information please get back to us

Email Enquries for work

We only take on Instructors that do their IDC with us so our answer is the same to all the enquiries, thanks but no thanks.

1. I am a PADI MSDT Instructor looking for work for this coming high season and beyond. I speak English, French and Italian and enjoy both divemastering/leading dives as well as teaching scuba.

I did my scuba instructor training in Pattaya Thailand. (MSDT and EFRi ). I have freelanced in the past with Mermaids, Aquanauts, Seaduction and Seafari (Pattaya) to name a few, as well as working on Koh Samet. I recently freelanced in the Red sea in Marsa Alam and Hamata with Orca divers. You are very welcome to check my dive credentials on the padi pro members website. I am fully paid up and in’ teaching status’ I can certify courses from OW to Divemaster and also teach Speciality dive courses too in English, French or Italian. (Wreck, Night, Nitrox, S&R, Drift, Multilevel, PPB, Deep, Naturalist, Navigator)

2. I have dived since 2006 and became a Divemaster in 2009 and Dive Instructor (OWSI) last March. I have each time been trained in internship to know better the diving industry. Then I taught some friends and guided dives during their stay in Thailand.

My English was relatively poor, so since June, I have studied an intensive English course in Phuket to be fluent as to teach in English. Therefore, I would like to work with English speaking clients in order to practice my English too.

I am currently able to teach and take care of clients in French, Portuguese and also in English (with a French accent of course J) and have some knowledge of German, Italian and Spanish. But this allows me to have little conversations. But everyone knows that it is always useful, if only to accommodate a client and redirect to a person fluent in this language.

Before getting into the diving industry, I worked 20 years in civil engineering as a draftsman, technician and engineer. Also, the hard work does not scare me. I also have a great knowledge of the budget, relationships with customers and professionalism. Not to mention that during all this time, I had to work in teams large or small, managing a team working under my orders and the profession to teach young apprentices.

3. I am a Diving instructor from Estonia. I am looking for a work for coming winter season. Added resume gives you a short summary of my career. With present I wish to add something about me that shows my abilities.

I have been teaching diving in Estonia, Egypt and Cyprus since 1995. I really like the look in the eyes of student coming to surface after first dive. I have more than 600 certifications. And I still like teaching and diving. I like to run all courses from DSD to Instructor level. Of course, I would be especially happy to help your Diving Center with Instructor level courses.

I have been working with team building company. I was manager of active training of teams. So teamwork and teambuilding are quite familiar concepts for me.

I like outdoors. After training course held by Estonian Tourism Board, I became risk management trainer for small enterprises of active recreation.

My mother tongue is Estonian, and I can teach also in English, Russian and Finnish. I have worked during four seasons in Sharm el Sheikh closely together with Italians, so with little work I can pick up my Italian.

There is two of us. My companion is newly certified Divemaster, and she has been working in counter in Diving center. She speaks English, Estonian and Russian languages. If there is any position for her, would be absolutely perfect. Currently we work in Malta and are engaged here till October / November.

If you think that you can use our power and commitment in upcoming season, or if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me again.