How I became a PADI Scuba Instructor.
Part One – Everyone starts as a Divemaster
The Rescue course was over, along with the EFR and that just about fin
ished all the dive training I intended to do. The course was in fact one of the best I have ever done and one I would recommend for any diver.
Then my friend Lynda starts talking to me about turning “Pro” and taking PADI Divemaster training. To be honest, at that stage I had never even considered it and I must say that I took some persuading, but I eventually agreed to “give it a try”. I also thought it would be give me a reason to keep diving right through the UK winter.
The PADI Divemaster Course
Briefly, a PADI Divemaster is the Instructor's “right hand”. A DM will normally do most of the organisation for a course, supervise the students and generally assist in all ways possible. This allows the Instructors to do what they do best, actually teach the students. In the UK, a Health & Safety requirement is that every Instructor must have a qualified DM on every open water session. Also once qualified, a DM who undertakes further training, can actually teach certain PADI courses and lead dives.
My internship actually took around 4 months, that’s a lot of good solid experience working with students. It was a great time, hard work but very enjoyable and worthwhile. I was lucky to have great support from Ian, my PADI Course Director, Mark, who ran the dive school, Simon, my original OW instructor, plus Lynda and the rest of the staff at Tigerdive in the UK
Another recruit for the Divemaster Course was Dave Green. He and I soon became the best of friends and we eventually went through to Instructor level together. Dave visited me in St Kitts last year and we had a great time diving here.
Dive theory was studied and exams were passed. My demonstration of the 20 Open Water Dive Skills was honed to perfection. All my practical application sessions were done, the mapping project complete, stamina test passed, rescue test passed, kit exchange done and so, Dave and I were both newly qualified PADI Divemasters. The highlights of the course were always the “thanks” from students for helping them. The scary part was when a student “shut down” on me during an OW course and I had to surface and tow him to the shore. (No injuries caused, thank goodness). I wonder if Dave remembers doing our mapping exercise at Stoney Cove and surfacing after dive 1 to find thick snow falling? Well it was winter in the UK!
Part Two – The PADI Instructor Course
After recovering from the celebration party for “passing out” as Divemasters, Dave and I set about gaining experience and thoroughly enjoying our hard won "status". The next step beckoned and we both decided to take the PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor course. The first stage of this is
to become an Assistant Instructor. The PADI Assistant Instructor course, while checking the skills and knowledge learnt as a Divemaster, starts you on the learning process for teaching the PADI system of diver education.
The course was great fun, a really solid training on how to teach and assess divers. The requirements are tougher than the Divemaster course but the PADI educational system has some excellent teaching strategies that were transferable and were usable in my “day” job.
Some hours of personal study time, a very, very long 3 day weekend, (at least the weather was good for the Open Water sessions) lots of laughs and once again, myself and Dave had crossed the next hurdle and were both PADI Assistant Instructors.
The second part of our Instructor Development Course (IDC) was scheduled for a few months later. Tigerdive had an arrangement with an IDC centre in Spain owned by an Instructor from Sheffield (my home town in the UK). And so we were off to sunny Spain for the last hurdle, much better diving conditions than the UK.
Dave and I went out a day early and decided to get some shore diving in. As we walked back to the pickup van across the beach there were 3 British divers at the back of the van. One of them looked at me and said “better stand up so the old man can sit down”. Now I took exception to that and replied, “Well I may be old but at least I’m not a “scouser” (a less than affectionate term for a person from Liverpool). I think Dave added something like “not as ugly either”.
Anyway, it turns out that the other guy is the second Course Director for our IDC, one of the 2 people who will decide whether or not we are allowed to take the actual exam. Not exactly the person you wish to upset.
Day one started out with written exams, no trouble there, and moved on to Open Water. Somewhere along the line the happenings of the previous day came up and a complaint was made to our Course Director about “Professionalism”. I in turn complained about the “Professionalism” of the CD who had made the original remark. The whole thing just added to what was an extremely stressful situation to begin with.
My first open water presentation began and my first test was to take “two students” on a “free descent”, a relatively simple exercise except when my weight pockets are still sat on the beach! Of course I failed on that one and guess who was assessing, yes “the scouser”.
Well I got it right the second time but then on my last exercise which was a “timed safety stop”, my brand new dive watch stopped. Somewhere during the 3 minutes, my watch stopped! It was probably the longest 3 minutes on record, but you only fail if the students do not complete the stop. No penalties for doing 5 minutes instead of 3!
To understand the situation you need to know the structure of the IDC. Start time is 8am every morning, work all day until 8.30 in the evening, and then the students get together in small groups and help each other prepare everything for the next day. Somewhere you find time for an evening meal and some time for family and friends!
During day 2 I got nothing right, everything I did or said in the classroom or in the water went wrong. By evening I was quite ready to take “the big bird with wings” all the way home.
Still, giving up was not an option and on the course went. Yes, things started to get better and became less stressful. There were 5 of us from the same dive school and it was really good to have friends around. We all helped and supported each other all the time. We also had good support from the staff that came with us.
The course ended and I was allowed to progress to the Instructor Exam (although there was some reluctance from the “scouser”).
The Instructor Exam was conducted by an official PADI Examiner. This guy was a true “Professional” in all he did. He was very fair and made the entire examination process more fun and far less stressful.
To be honest, after the IDC course, the exam turned out to be much less of a hurdle than I expected and that is 
exactly how it should be. The IDC prepares you thoroughly for the Instructor Exam.
All of us from Tigerdive passed, including my mate Sean who received the “longest snorkel” award for descending in the pool without switching to his regulator. (At the party afterwards, we presented him with a 6ft snorkel for “next time”).
Looking back, it was a very special time for me. I will always remember the fun we had and it is this sort of experience that creates lifelong memories and friendships. All my friends on the course are still actively teaching, Dave is now an IDC Staff Instructor like myself and I of course am in sunny St Kitts.
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