How to prepare for your PADI IDC & IE Preparation is the key to your successful and fun PADI IDC. This guide has been created to help you get an overview of all the areas that need to be considered before you begin your Instructor Development Course. By paying close attention to all the points that are covered here, your IDC and IE can be the amazing and rewarding experience that they are intended to be. Prerequisites for your IDC In order to participate in a PADI IDC you must of course meet all the prerequisite requirements: Be certified as a PADI Assistant Instructor, PADI Divemaster, or be an instructor with another recreational dive organization. Be at least 18 years old. Be fit for diving and submit a medical form signed by a physician within the last 12 months. Have been a certified diver for at least six months Logged at least 60 open water dives with experience in night, deep and navigation prior to the IDC Logged at least 100 dives prior entering the Instructor Examination (IE). You need to be a Certified Emergency First Response (EFR) Instructor. Be ready to change your life and have some life changing experiences. Documentation These are the documents you will need for your PADI IDC 1. Passport photos, for your new certification cards and for your Course Director's file, take 4-8 photos.
2. Diving certification cards, bring your most current PADI certification card (either Divemaster or Assistant Instructor) Also you will need the dates of all your other courses, so either bring a list of your certifications and dates or just bring all your cards. If you have lost your cards its normally not a problem as your course dates are available online from PADI and your Course Director has access to this information. 3. If you are transferring from another non-padi dive agency then you will need photocopies of your certification cards to sent to PADI at the end of your IE. 4. Logbook, you will need proof that you have 60 logged dives for your IDC and 100 logged dives by the time of your Instructor Examination. 5. The PADI materials that you have been told are compulsory for your IDC, currently they are: a digital or paper Instructor manual, The Guide to Teaching, Open Water and Confined Water cue cards, Open Water Training Dive Lesson Preparation Slate, Confined Water Lesson Preparation Slates, The Best of the Undersea Journal, and the RDP table and ERDP. If you have a digital instructor manual installed on your Laptop you will need to show the Original Installation disk from PADI. You will be pleased to know that you can buy all the required IDC / IE materials in one go at a discounted price by purchasing the PADI IDC Crew Pack, you can order this from your local dive centre or order it in the resort you are doing your IDC so its in your room when you arrive, you may also find the standard PADI manuals from your previous programmes are required. Potential PADI Scuba Instructors normally don't travel light! 6. You will be able to get all the materials you require from your Course Director who is conducting your IDC and if you can organise this prior to your arrival at your IDC location you can be guaranteed of all your materials at a price that will possibly be better than you can achieve in your home country. Dive Knowledge Preparation By the time your IDC starts you should know all the dive theory on the courses you have done yourself inside out. Don't forget that once you pass your IE you will be eligible to teach Open Water, Advanced Open Water,
Rescue and Divemaster courses so we recommend that you review each course manual and complete all the quizzes, exams and knowledge reviews. If you have bought the PADI Guide to Teaching you should complete all 16 IDC knowledge reviews, this isn't compulsory but will ensure you are the best prepared you can be and will give you valuable extra free time for other parts of the IDC you may need extra time on. The Knowledge reviews require you to read and understand some specific sections of your PADI instructor manual, PADI Guide to Teaching, The Best of the Undersea Journal, The Law & the Diving Professional and The Business of Diving. You should really be confident and happy with dive theory before you actually begin your IDC, you shouldn't turn up on day one of your course and expect to be taught Dive Physics or Physiology as the IDC has so much other information and skills to teach you there is no time to learn the theory. A good way to check your knowledge is to get new divers to ask you about things they are not 100% sure about. You only truly know diving when you can explain it to others. Try using these questions and answers as a guide for yourself to try to explain to others about dive theory What else can I do to help me pass the IDC? The most important thing is get involved in real life classes with qualified Scuba Instructors. You will see how relaxed and comfortable students absorb dive knowledge, your goal is to be a chilled-out super confident, friendly, happy, font of dive knowledge that students feel happy and safe with. Ensure that all your kit is working and serviceable, you need to be superaware of your BCD and weights, it should be second nature to you where your releases are and how you fasten it up. Go on then get it out now and practice putting it on and taking it off so you can do it with your eyes shut. Now practice untying your tank band and re-fastening it, you don't learn this on your IDC but there is nothing worse than as student asking you to fix their tank to the BCD when you have no idea how to do it, so now is the time to learn. Watch all the PADI videos.
Get in your local dive center swimming pool and practice your skills again and again, you should be super-cool in the pool with your skills and be able to do them to demonstration quality 'before' you begin your IDC. Concentrate on buoyancy skills like fin pivots and hovering. Knots, this is part of the IE, you are expected to know how to tie and teach knot tying, now is the time to learn. You should know how to tie; Bowline Sheet Bend Two half hitches Hints and Tips for your PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) Your IDC is getting closer and closer. after all this waiting, planning and training you have found that you have only days to go before the start of your IDC which means it's even less time before the start of the PADI IDC Prep, that means you should be preparing yourself by revising your dive theory, practising your presentation and demonstration skills, preparing your dive equipment and getting those final bits and pieces together ready for the most important time in your diving career up to now. The key to a fun, relaxed and successful IDC is to be properly prepared. We will assume you have exchanged loads of e-mail with your course director and he has confirmed your place and he knows if you are arriving by plane or other means and he knows your flight numbers and times. Itʼs common that your fellow IDC students, if taken in a dive or holiday resort, will have a wide variety of dive experience and come from many different backgrounds which all makes for a very interesting IDC. Take advantage of all these great people you are going to be exposed to by learning from them about their backgrounds and diving knowledge. Itʼs possible that you will learn loads from your fellow students and probably make friends for life on your IDC.
IDC Preparation First thing is to make sure that you are 100% happy with and understand all of your PADI dive theory, paying particular attention to Physics and Physiology, as this is what more candidates fail IEs on worldwide than any other component of the IE. This is important as you donʼt get taught the dive theory on the IDC Prep or IDC but you will only have the opportunity to go over questions you donʼt get correct in the quizzes / tests on the IDC. To reemphasis dive theory is from the Divemaster course and will not be taught on your IDC as you will be expected to attend your IDC with this knowledge. Go through your PADI Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving and your Diving Knowledge Workbooks and if you're not sure of something, ask your local dive club instructor to help you out. If you are doing the IDC Prep you will be doing a dive theory review including a set of exams during it. But you shouldnʼt forget that you still need to know the dive theory before you get to your PADI IDC prep / IDC, read more about preparing for your PADI IDC PADI Materials You will be taking your IDC using the 2010 IDC Curriculum and the new 2010 IDC materials, the required materials for this are very different from those used in the past, you will now have the new 160 page Instructor manual (as opposed to the 1,200 page one) and the IDC Candidate Workbook has been withdrawn and in its place comes The Guide to Teaching, itʼs all very different, so if you do not yet have your 2010 Instructor manual please log onto the PADI Pros website and download it, you can then either use it on your laptop, or if you are not bringing a laptop computer with you, then please print it and you can then put in the front section of your Guide to Teaching If you are not renewed with PADI you will not have access to the PADI Pros website so you will need to buy a copy of the paper version from your local dive club, the internet or from your Course Director directly. You will need to make sure your Instructor manuals are 100% up to date with the latest quarterly training bulletins, good advice would be to read through all the Training Bulletins again to refresh you of what has been going on. If you do not yet have your DM certification processed by PADI and your DM number you will not be able to access the
PADI Pros website to get access the previous yearʼs Training Bulletins, if itʼs been a couple of weeks since your DM and your Instructor tells you he has sent off your paperwork you can email your local PADI office. If you have yet to receive your DM number by the time you leave for your IDC bring with you a photocopy of your Divemaster application so this can be included in your IDC / IE paperwork, your course director will be able to get it processed during the IDC. Get in pool for your Skill Demonstrations Remember it's not enough to be able just to do the skill, as with your Divemaster course, you will need to be able to demonstrate that skill, Your IDC is exactly the same demonstration criteria as in your DM course. If you're not too sure how good your pool skills and demonstrations are, ask one of the Oceandivers Crew Instructors to have a look at you. You will cover skill demonstrations on the IDC Prep before the start of the IDC, One of the aims of the IDC is to develop your demonstration abilities so don't worry if youʼre not as good as other experienced Instructors. Skills that you should concentrate on are hovering and Alternative air source and ensure than you can hover completely motionless for 60 seconds and that you can do a fin pivot on your fin tips you can demonstrate your weight-belt replace and removal. You will have a number of skills that you will be teaching on the IDC and on the IE from the PADI Rescue Diver Course so itʼs a good idea to assist on a Rescue course if you can as well as going through all the Rescue Diver Course skills if time permits. You will have the ever popular Rescue Exercise number 7 to practice, remember that on the IDC you will be taught BOTH Mouth to Mask and Mouth to Mouth. Other Tips for your IDC Medical remember you need to have a PADI medical signed by a Physician within the past 12 months, in some resorts you can get one done locally very cheaply. As long as you are healthy and have time to get one done in your IDC resort there's no need to spend a huge amount having one done before you arrive. Certification cards remember you need all your PADI / non-
PADI cert cards, your course director will need the PADI certification numbers, Instruction numbers and Dive Centre numbers. If you don't have them you can get them off the PADI website. You need to provide photocopies of ALL non-padi certs. If you are using a Digital Instructor manual, or an instructor manual printed from your CD, you do NOT need to bring the original CD-room with you to the IDC and IE. The Digital Instructor Manual which is free with PADI annual renewal will not be allowed to be used at the Instructor Examination. CPR You must have CPR & First Aid training within the past 24 months, if you don't have it; you need to attend a refresher course, which is included in the IDC Prep. Photos / Log Book You will also need to bring along 4 passport photos on Day number 1 of the IDC, your log book with proof of 100 logged dives. If you intend taking the IDC Prep then if youʼre lucky your Course Director will incorporate the EANx diver course for free along with the DAN / PADI Oxygen Provider Course. This will involve repeating some of your dive theory (Physics and Physiology Daltonʼs and Boyleʼs Law and CNS and Pulmonary Toxicity) which is all good for your revision.