November saw the last PADI IDC of the year at Thresher Shark Divers. It was an exciting two weeks with many-times PADI Platinum Course Director Mark Soworka teaching this month’s batch of new instructors.
This time, we had a range of candidates from all over the world. Dom and Will from the UK and James from New Zealand joined the TSD team earlier this year and we have seen them flourish through their Divemaster course, all three continuing on up the PADI Pro ladder onto the IDC.
Vera and Mladen, from Croatia, first visited TSD 2 years ago as relatively new divers. They completed their Adventure Diver course with us and were so inspired by our star instructor, Angus, that they soon returned to complete Rescue and Nitrox. Eighteen months later, after a lot more diving that included a PADI Divemaster course and their own underwater wedding in Palau, they thought it would be a great idea to go back to their roots for the IDC!
Mylene from France, wanted to further her career as a dive professional and left her financial job in Hong Kong to spend some time here on Malapascua. Finally, Brad joined us all the way from rainy Wales to go onto be a PADI Instructor.
The course started as always with our free IDC Prep Course which includes dive theory as well as waterwork. This is not part of the official PADI IDC program, but is vital to cover the ‘bridge’ between DM and Instructor theory and to make sure skills are up to scratch. It includes theory lectures for those who need a little more tuition on Physics, Physiology etc. and practice exams all round. But it turned out to be a breeze as everyone was very well prepared having studied from the DM Crew Pack and the Dive Theory online.
After this, the group took to the water for their first skill circuits. We could tell their skills were a little rusty as Mladen and Brad forgot to put their heads in water for snorkel to regulator exchange! They didn’t make that mistake again!
Next came the nerve-racking part of standing up in front of the class and giving an academic presentation. We are not sure if they had been conferring or not, but we heard all about the Deep Adventure Dive at Monad Shoal several times, with almost all the candidates selling this course! Mind you, who can blame them, with our thresher sharks, at a depth of 30 meters, being one on Malapascua’s massive attractions and perfect for a Deep Adventure Dive?!
The hardest part for some came when we went to the Open Water. In this they teach two skills from a course, whilst spotting any mistakes and learning how to keep control of the group. This is not even mentioning the usual real life problems when mask straps broke, whistles were lost and inflator hoses stuck! Nothing that couldn’t be easily repaired though.
We had Annie and Baby Annie out during the Emergency First Response Instructor Course so the candidates could role play and demonstrate those all important life saving skills.
Mark held his usual Marine Resource Management class. This is a unique Specialty authored by Mark and we offer the Instructor Level free to all of our candidates.
Half way through the IDC we thought it would be a good idea to have a little down time, and arrange a get-together with the other candidates from around the island. And so was born the Malapascua Inter-IDC Social and Pool Competition! Unfortunately there is no picture evidence, but everyone had a blast and of course TSD won to pool comp!
Course Director Mark was very impressed at the high level of the candidates throughout this course and confidant all of them will make great instructors. Needless to say all seven candidates easily passed their Instructor Exam.
Lots more photos here on our PADI IDC Facebook page!
Contact us for more info on upcoming PADI IDC programs.