Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the PADI IDC.

You’ll need the following materials for your IDC. You will already own a lot from previous courses, a lot you will find in the IDC Candidate Pack. Should you bring any more PADI materials (pro videos, English books such as „The Law and the diving Professional,“ Lesson Guides, AWARE materials, etc.

Binding materials for Instructor Candidates:

• PADI Instructor Manual (as pdf for PADI members free to download from the pro page
• PADIs Guide to Teaching (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• PADI Specialty Course Instructor Manual (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• PADI Open Water Diver Manual
• Recreational Dive Planner – RDP Table and eRDPml, including „Instructions for Use booklets“ (RDP manuals)
• Open Water Diver Quizzes and Final Examination (Part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• Adventures in Diving Manual
• PADI Rescue Diver Manual
• PADI Rescue Diver Final Examination
• PADI Divemaster Manual
• Divemaster final exam (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• Aquatic Cue Cards for Open Water Diver, Adventures in Diving, Rescue Diver, Divemaster and Discover Scuba Diving (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• Preparation board „Confined Water“ lessons (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• Preparation table open water lessons (part of the PADI Candidate Pack)
• The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
• Diving Knowledge Workbook

One forerunght: IDC stands for „Instructor Development Course.“ So it’s about development. No one expects to be able to do everything you should at the end of the IDC before your IDC. Otherwise you could save yourself the course …

Nevertheless, of course, you can prepare yourself. Here’s what I recommend:

Familiarize yourself with the Instructor Manual. It’s not about memorizing all the standards. It’s about being sure where to find what and being able to give the correct answers to questions about training standards in a reasonable amount of time.

Repeat the diving theory with the help of the encyclopedia and the Diving Knowledge Workbook. And if you have the opportunity, do the Divemaster dive theory tests again. If you feel safe at this level, you shouldn’t have any problems in the IDC either.

Practice the PADI Skills. And don’t forget the Rescue Exercise No 7 (unresponsive, non-breathing diver on the surface) and the knots Schotsteg, Palsteg, two half punches. Read all student manuals again and watch the videos. It makes sense that an instructor knows the things his students get to see.

Here is a general list of the instructor equipment based on the definition in the current PADI Instructor manual

• Fins, mask and snorkel
• Breathing gas bottle with valve
• Tarier jacket with bottle holder or separate support shell and inflator
• Lung machine and alternative air supply
• Instrument for monitoring respiratory gas supply (e.g. finimeter)
• Instrument for monitoring the depth
• Weight system with quick-dropping mechanism and weights
• Diving computer or RDP (eRDPML or table)
• Timekeeping tool
• Compass
• Messer/Diver Tool
• Two signalling devices for emergencies on the surface: An acoustic (signal pipe, signal horn, etc.) and a visual (inflatable emergency body, light signal, signal mirror, etc.)

Basically, I expect you to bring your own complete diving equipment. But you can also borrow missing parts. You should keep in mind the following:

Cold protection: When choosing your diving train, please keep in mind that pool and open water exercises can sometimes take up to two hours. And it may be quite fresh in the Shorty, even in the pool. So a jumpsuit is highly recommended. As far as free water is concerned, it is important: In summer in Germany or in the Mediterranean, a 5 – 7 mm suit is often sufficient. In spring and autumn/winter, on the other hand, a Trocki is usually the better choice. There were already IDCs where hats snowed vigorously … In any case, you will rarely see me without Trocki in the open water …

Safe: Gloves make handling a bit more difficult on the surface right now (Rescue Exercise # 7). But anyone unable to perform an exercise due to trembling or callous fingers risks not passing the exercise. The same applies to scalves, ice vests, underpullers, etc. Please exercise reason when choosing the appropriate cold protection – if in doubt, just ask me.

As you can see from the list above, this is generally not forbidden. But I strongly advise against it! First, an instructor should ideally dive an equipment that at least resembles that of its students (you’ve ever seen an OWD student with double-12 and long pants???).

And second, such equipment often means that various exercises of the PADI skill circuit cannot be carried out or cannot be carried out well – and here there is no special assessment for equipment-related problems. So: Please use a normal sports diving jacket and a normal (cold-water suitable) vending machine with octopus in your own interest!

no.

After qualifying for the Open Water Scuba Instructor, you can teach all PADI programs, from Discover Scuba Diving to the Divemaster and the Specialties „Targeting to Perfection“ as well as the project AWARE-Specialty. If you also want to teach other diving instructor specialites that interest you, such as Digital Underwater Photography or Enriched Air Diver (NITROX) or the „Relaxed Diver“ program I have developed, then you can To participate in specialty instructor training, which I offer for my candidates on particularly attractive terms.

After IE, your documents will go directly to PADI EMEA in Bristol, where they will be processed. As a rule, this takes about 8 to 10 days. Once the administrative work is done, you will receive an email confirming that you can act as an instructor.

yes! With the help of my network of divecenters and resorts, which has been created over the years, I have the opportunity to mediate successful and suitable candidates. And if you need help creating application documents or CVs, or you need coaching to prepare for job interviews, I am also happy to be available.

To participate in the PADI IDC, you do not need insurance. However, if you want to work as a diving professional you need professional liability insurance for diving professionals. Here with us and in large parts of the world, such insurance is mandatory – and for those areas where you don’t need it necessarily, I strongly recommend it anyway! The Aquamed DivecardProfessional offers a perfect all-round protection, with which I myself have been insured for many years and which I can only recommend very much.

The costs on the way to becoming a diving instructor consist of three blocks:

1. The course price: This is the money you pay me for your course. The cost depends on what you book. Here I offer various packages to which you will find all of them in the IDC price overview.

2. Materials: The binding course materials dictate PADI and are also not „negotiable.“ I have the opportunity to offer you all the necessary course materials at really very fair prices – the prices can also be found in the IDC price overview. This also applies to materials that are not binding, but which you might still want to buy.

3. PADI fees. It comes down to you the fee for the exam, the instructor application and the application fees for possibly. Specialties, EFRI etc. Again, please refer to our IDC price overview.