With 5 candidates for our May IDC, it was the perfect number to ensure a good mix of personalities and that everything was easily covered with their presentations.
Max from Canada is with us for 5 months and completed his Advanced Open Water at TSD as far back as February. Irish Katy has been with us almost as long. As for the Brit contingent: Lorien and Louis completed their Divemaster and DM ‘Refresher’ respectively at TSD, and Simon used to be a PADI Instructor many moons ago but has not taught in 12 years and wanted to get back into diving. Well, who wouldn’t?
On staff for this IDC were Course Director Mick Chapman and IDC Staff Instructor Angus Thorburn.
The IDC Prep Course started with theory. After a lot of questions in the classroom, Mick and Angus decided to go for the more practical approach. There followed a session in the equipment workshop looking at cylinders and opening regs to help with the Equipment exam, and later practical demonstrations using sponges and wood to absorb water to explain Decompression Theory. Then what do you know? The theory started to sink in!
The academic presentations started with some great contacts including: Rocky Balboa running though the snow to explain water resistance; search patterns around the classroom to find lost notes to explain rescue search patterns; and Angus’s personal favourite presented by Katy, who rewarded correct answers in class with candy to explain how to reward good diver behaviour. Yay for Choco-Mucho!
The sales workshop had the guys selling reels and regs….
…Nitrox courses…..
….and torches.
Confined water presentations included Katy getting pulled onto the boat 5 times while demonstrating rescue exits, Max trying to demonstrate equalisation techniques while the guys laughed, and air depletion without air depletion!!
Open water started with lift bag and knot workshops. Not everybody is a natural with rope, but they got it in the end. The always tricky CESA workshop is a necessity, and everybody got to play problem student.
The first open water presentations took place on the smallest patch of sand ever, so everybody lost environmental points, as well as points for forgetting to communicate with the DM. But problem solving was always strong.
Highlights include the 5 point descent with Simon dropping like a stone, over and under inflating on hovers, and push ups on fin pivots.
The second round of presentations were a lot better, again with great problem solving and only a few problems with the lift bag.
All the candidates were exceptionally strong throughout this IDC. Max and Lorien asked lots of questions, (making debriefs twice as long as needed!), but they wanted to make sure they got everything in 🙂 They were both good all round. Katy initially struggled in the classroom, but put in lots of extra work to get up to speed and was always excellent in the water. Simon,who was taking his IDC for the second time, was generally very good depsite the many changes in the IDC and in PADI teaching methods. And last but not least, Louis, the youngest candidate, got great scores throughout, was relaxed, and just got it done!
All 5 candidates passed the PADI Instructor Exam in usual spectacular TSD fashion, scoring very highly in every section. Of particular note was Lorien, who scored perfect 5’s in everything 🙂 Also worth a mention is Simon, who kept it very secret until the graduation ceremony that the final day of the Instructor Exam was in fact his 50th birthday. Now that’s a 50th to remember!
Max will be staying on at TSD for another couple of months to get some more PADI Specialty Instructor ratings including PADI’s newest course, Shark Awareness. Max will also complete our Learn to Teach program which offers invaluable teaching experience and guidance from our experienced instructors. The others are already off on their travels and we wish them the best of luck in their future careers as PADI Dive Professionals.
More photos on our PADI IDC Facebook page.
Our next PADI IDC starts July 11, and is going to be a great one, with one of Asia’s top Platinum Course Director’s Mark Soworka, so contact us soon if you are interested!