PADI IDC

[.*.Jennie.*.]

Hi Divers, hope your all well and grasping the opportunity to try out ice diving now available at Stoney Cove haha!!

Anyway to the point - i'm going to Egypt in 2 weeks to cross over to the dark side and hopefully become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor by completing the PADI Instructor Development Course and Exams. I just wondered if anyone on here had done the course and could give me a few tips i.e

- what to expect
- any particular areas I should really scrub up on
- pass rates

At the moment i'm a BSAC OWI and this is my first real PADI course so need all the help I can get really

Any help is veeery much appreciated :)

Please don't scare me...

Happy Diving
Jennie

[Gordon]

Don't make the point that you are much safer diving in your own kit, and that as the school has a shop attached to it, if you leave your credit cards at the back you can be sorted out.
Apparently a friend of a friend did this and got told in no uncertain terms that this is not acceptable...

[northern_diver]

..buy a snorkle might be a handy 1st step;)

Get hold of the PADI teaching material, the OW book etc and read, while learning their teaching methods/styles.

If (more like when i think really) i do the same, that's what i will do, so as im not placing myself directly from a BSAC to PADI style, so i'll hopefully hit the ground running.

Things such as PADI standards on rescue protocols etc are easy to mix up with other organisations, which could cost you, i'd imagine, so i'd also look into revising those.

I've never done the IDC, just the IFC but seems logical to me to revise the organisations technical points, so your demo's are technically correct.

John

[Garf]

Hi Divers, hope your all well and grasping the opportunity to try out ice diving now available at Stoney Cove haha!!

Anyway to the point - i'm going to Egypt in 2 weeks to cross over to the dark side and hopefully become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor by completing the PADI Instructor Development Course and Exams. I just wondered if anyone on here had done the course and could give me a few tips i.e

- what to expect
- any particular areas I should really scrub up on
- pass rates

At the moment i'm a BSAC OWI and this is my first real PADI course so need all the help I can get really

Any help is veeery much appreciated :)

Please don't scare me...

Happy Diving
Jennie

Your IDC instructor should be briefing you on everything you need to read and do before the course. You need to fill out the appropriate sections in the IDC workbook and send them back to the instructor. Everything else you will learn on the course. It's actually a good laugh if you have the right mix of people. The course is about learning to teach, not learning to dive, so try not to worry about it.

However

you DO need to know the basic skills which you will be asked to teach repeatedly throughout the course and on the examination. these might differ from the bsac skills so it is worth sitting down or getting into the water with a PADI OWSI and just running through them so that you are comfortable.

[TrevorB]

Good Luck Jennie
Let us all know how you get on
TrevorB

[DiveandSeaTenerife]

Hi Jennie

First of all good luck with your IDC/IE.
My top tips are;
1/ Check with your Course Director which PADI Instructor manual they are using.
Reason - It is / has changed this year depending on your area!
2/ Complete your candidate workbook long before you get to the IDC. Reason - To read all the related material take ages!
3/ Master your PADI skills.
Reason - On my IDC / IE a number of the candidates simply could not do the basic skills.
4/ Get to know the Instructor manual thoroughly.
Reason - Most failures are on the written exams.
5/ Learn your knots.
Reason - You really dont want to fail your IE because you cant tie a bowline !
6/ Make sure you have EVERYTHING you are told to take.
Reason - Again some of the candidates, on my course, did not have every slate, that meant went you have minimal time to prepare a lesson they were panicking waiting to borrow someone else's.

I could go on forever, but I wont, however if there is any specifics you want to know just ask.

Finally enjoy the course, if you have the right people with you, you will make friends for life:)

Best of luck

Pete

[Roz]

The above have all made very salient points. Remember no one agency is better than another, it is all down to the quality and experience of the instructor.

If you get the opportunity, get your hands on the Divemaster Manual and read it thoroughly. It will give you a good grasp of the knowledge you will need to know, and a heads up of PADI ethos and philosophy. Although you are a BSAC OWI, you'll find gaps in your knowledge base if you've done no PADI training. If you can talk to a friendly PADI Diving Centre, see if they will allow you to sit some Divermaster exams to highlight your weak areas. For sure you will need to revisit your physics. If you need a book to help you out, also get Diving Physiology in Plain English. In my opinion it's one of the most useful diving books a Pro can have on their bookcase.

If you can't get in the pool and practice, mime it to a wall. Think about each diving skill you will need to teach and break it down to make a smooth demo. These include (and are in no particular order);

Reg removal, replace and clear blast method
Re removal, replace and clear purge method
Half mask flood and clear
Full mask flood and clear
Full mask flood, remove, replace and clear
Weight belt remove and replace underwater
Weight belt remove and replace on the surface
Scuba unit remove and replace underwater
Scuba unit remove and replace on the surface
Fin Pivot oral inflate
Fin Pivot lpi inflate
Hover
Snorkel Regulator Exchange
Ascent
Decent
Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (PADI specific)
AAS both as a donor and receiver

You need to be crisp and precise in your demonstrations, ie no scratching of your nose because that's what your students will copy.

You are learning how to teach, ie student control positions etc. If you are true blue BSAC this will mess with your head because you will have spent a life time with your back to the swimming pool wall and the students looking at you. Now you learn to pin them into the corner of a pool. That way they can't swim off when you are teaching someone else. Personally I much prefer this method as you have much more physical control of them.

You will need to buy a pocket mask if you don't have one already. Also a large blank slate and propelling pencil is invaluable.

Enjoy it. You will experience a full roller coaster of emotions. And as the others have said, get the right people on the course and you will make friendships so strong that where ever you end up in the world, you'll be bound together with hoops of steel.

[Steve in Sharm]

Hi Jennie,

If you're doing it in Sharm and need some help/advise from someone who did just what your doing then just shout....

If you want it, PM me and I'll send you my phone number.

Steve

[Richard Whitcombe]

The main difference will be learning PADIs different style.

The PADI IDC/IE is far more about coming across, recognising and solving common problems with students than the BSAC PIE/TIE so be ready for that.

Typically you'll play "instructor", nominate someone else as a DM and the others in your group will be "students". You'll be given a lesson to teach and the "students" will be given common problems (unknown to you) which you have to recognise and correct.

You also have the new and increasingly tasteless marketing crap to put up with in that you have to sell stuff to pass.

As others have said check which instructor manual is in use - a new one was brought out in January which is advertised as a new slimline version. From what i can see its slimmed down mainly due to knowledge reviews and answer keys being removed which you now have to download. The format is apparently different so its worth checking or getting hold of it in advance. You need to be very familiar with the manual to answer the standards questions easily etc.

Make sure your core skills (the 20 or so) are up to demonstration quality in advance (ie slow, exaggerated etc).

Get hold of the DM manual as this will help you learn the PADI "style" and also the encyclopaedia of recreational diving as this contains the physics,physiology and other stuff that will be examined on which isnt touched on really in a BSAC instructor course.

Rescue protocols are different with PADI - lifts from behind and so on so its worth reviewing those or the rescue diver DVD.


Pass rates are generally very high. A small % dont get entered for the IE after failing to obtain acceptable marks on the IDC. On the IE itself pass rates id guess are 90%+. Its rare to fail at that point.

Ignore the snorkel comment - yes you need one but you do with BSAC too which most posters here seem to forget or are unaware of :)

[Mark Papp]

One more thing: pressure. You'll be under quite substantial pressure, almost all of it self-inflicted*.

Your CD is there to be on your side, to get you through. If there are staff instructors, they're there to help. The examiners want you to pass (but will obviously have to be sure you meet the standards).

In short, everybody there is out to help you and get you through. Try to enjoy it!

*I beat myself up to a ridiculous degree and almost walked out of the IDC. ALL the pressure on me was self-inflicted.

[Roz]

One more thing: pressure. You'll be under quite substantial pressure, almost all of it self-inflicted.....I beat myself up to a ridiculous degree and almost walked out of the IDC. ALL the pressure on me was self-inflicted.

Likewise, I reached that stage too part way through an IDC. I didn't think I was good enough nor had the skill base to be an instructor because I kept on getting such low scores. In hind sight the things I was being picked up on was small stuff to make me think and remember. You're under enough pressure without beating yourself up too. And as Mark said, try and enjoy the process. It is a rite of passage in your diving career.

[Rod Bateman]

I would say that you need to be sharp on all your academic sections. Physics, physiology, eRDPml, equipment and skills and environment. The rest will all be taught to you. You will need a large quantity of PADI materials so make sure they are all the current versions.
The manual is now 160 pages and a lot is alphabetical so much easier than the old bulky one. The candidate workbook has been replaced by the 'guide to teaching' and there may be some online stuff to do so check if you need to do that before you go.
All the best for the course and the IE.