The answer to the above is you have lots, here is a selection of example questions and some guide answers from IDC Guide that covers divers wanting to learn in Phuket in Thailand. This location has only been used as its one we have a better personal experience of. If you are a dive centre / Course Directory you can use these sample replies to similar queries that you may have:
[Potential Instructor 1] I am currently training to become a Naui Dive instructor, I am very much interested in coming over, doing a conversion and working in Phuket in Thailand. Please could you provide me with some details, what type of salary an instructor or a PADI Divemaster can earn, when is the ideal time to come over , etc ?? Thank you
[IDC Guide] Thanks for your email. Salaries in Phuket, Thailand for PADI instructors vary a lot depending of which dive centre you are working for. It’s also seasonal with the busiest time running from October to February. Expect to earn between B25K and B75K (Thai Baht) per month. The best time to be here looking for a job is in September ready for the high season.
You’ll need to set up a Thai company and apply for a work permit to be able to work in Phuket. Expect to pay around B60 for this. Dive centrers on Koh Tao or Phi Phi Island have been known employ instructors without work permits. Expect to average between B20K to B70K working on Phi Phi or Koh Tao.
If you want us to organize your crossover to PADI please let us know. We can arrange everything for you with one of our PADI Course Directors in Phuket at an excellent price, and also include accommodation and meals, as well as a lot of other benefits. Let us know if you need some more information.
[Potential Instructor 2] I am thinking of moving and living to Phuket and have recently completed my PADI Divemaster. I am interested in completing my PADI OWSI Course (PADI IDC) and noticed that your current pricing (THB 52,000) includes accommodation. As I will be living in Phuket I wouldn’t require accommodation and was wondering if you could provide me with a revised price excluding accommodation? Basically I need to know how much is it for the IDC with room? And without room?
Can you also advise the price for the OWSI Crew pack including instructor manual (CD version).
[IDC Guide] Prices are now updated and on the website if you dont want accommodation we can give you a 10% discount on the listed price.
[Potential Instructor 3] I am a German that can speak German and English and want to do my Instructor course this year (4 months left), What advice can you give me and can you cater for me if I want to do it in German.
[IDC Guide] If you want to schedule with us in the next 4 months thats fine we have spaces, if that is so you would be doing your IDC in English with the latest IDC materials and 2012 curriculum (only available in English) or if you would you like to take it in German we can arrange for all your materials to be in German?
I ask because we can easily employ one of our German Course Directors to teach you an IDC in German, while the English candidates are next door being taught in English, then when we are in the water, then you would obviously work with all the other candidates as we don’t require words underwater The Course Director would be grading all your presentations by the way, whether you give them in English or German, and all your written exams at both the IDC and the IE can be taken in German or English – the choice is entirely yours.
If you are not able to join then us during our IDC program then we could always schedule a later IDC if those are the only dates you would be able to make.
Potential Instructor that wants to take all his PADI Courses
[Potential Instructor Claude] Hi, am Claude from South Africa, I plan to come to your location this year. I would like to take Open Water (and Advanced Open Water if possible). I looked at your web site, but it only shows schedules for instructor training. Do you plan to hold Open Water in this period? Please let me know at your earliest convenience because I would like to book a plane ticket as soon as possible (there is a really cheap deal with Air Asia, but it’s selling fast).
We exchanged emails in the past, my plan really is to go for instructor training, but you had mentioned in the past that I should get a basic certificate first and then let some time pass, so that is what I plan to do. Basically, I would like to get some basic training first in this period, if you can put together any sort of package for those two weeks I would be interested.
[IDC Guide] Hi again Claude, The fact you want to start your diving training would be great.Your Open Water Course would be four days and your Advanced Open Water 2 days – I would recommend a few dives in between the two courses if you can, I did mine AOW the day after my Open Water – but it would have been a much better course for me if I had done a few days diving and this would have probably made it easier for me to ensure I had better buoyancy before I did my Advanced Open Water.
We can start your courses any time you like, all we need is a few days notice, and there is some reading / self study that you would need to do before hand, but we can start you any time you wish as long as we have some notice. Would you girlfriend be doing the Open Water Course with you or would you be doing it by yourself ??
Would advise you to book that flight now and get the cheapest ticket you can. We are very busy at the moment but probably next week I will have time to put together a comprehensive two week package for you to make sure you get the best out of your time here.
Also you are correct, you cannot take the instructor course until you have been a certified diver for 6 months and you have 100 logged dives. I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing from you.
[Potential Instructor from South Africa] Well, let me me buy the ticket then. I will send you an email tomorrow with my arrival details. It seems our two and a half week holiday might be cut short a bit, as I have to waste three days in KL waiting for Thai visa to be issued, quite annoying really.
Anyway, there should be a good 8-10 days left for diving, and it sounds as if I could still do OW and AOW in that period. My wife will not be taking the course, she is not a strong enough swimmer at this point.
Do I need to do 100 logged dives BEFORE I take the first phase in yourInstructor development package, or can it be done simultaneously? Thanks for the speedy response
Update – I Just bought tickets, could you please start me on the reading for OW? And if you think I could fit in AOW in the same period, lets do it. How many hours per day is the course? (My wife might miss me if I am out there diving from morning till night :).
[IDC Guide] Many thanks for your e-mail, and CONGRATULATIONS on booking your Open Water course and starting your Diving Career. So if I read your e-mail correctly: you will be arriving soon and staying for 3 weeks which would be the EXACT amount of time needed to do your OW & AOW.
Regarding the reading for the courses. There are two ways we can do this:
You send me a deposit for the course and I will then mail you an OW Diver manual, OW DVD and AOW manual by express mail (will cost you a little bit extra to cover the costs of the post) and explain what you need to read and complete before you get here. Alternatively If you have Internet Access then you could start your OW course on-line with PADI’s e-Learning … but you would need GOOD internet access for that to work – also the down-side of that is that you don’t have hard copies of the manual which you will need for your DM course and IDC.
Whichever way if you are 100% sure (we normally ask for a deposit first) then I will book your instructor for you NOW to make sure that you get the best staff I have. Regarding the time you spend on the courses it will depend on you to a degreem but first two days of OW course I would imagine 9 to 6. If you have already had the manual and video then you should be finishing early on the first two days which is classroom and pool, the last two days will depend which boat you are on etc but I would imagine around 16:00 for the OW course – for the AOW course more likely to be around 17:00 as you will be doing 3 dives a day,
I don’t know how your wife is on boats, but even if she doesn’t want to swim or snorkel, she would still be able to go out on the boat with you, although there would obviously be a cost .. and I am sure that there will be no problem with her spending the day in the resort by the pool while you are in the classroom and pool for the first two days of your OW but I will check with The Resort Manager.
Let me know how you like to proceed and we get the ball rolling. As for accommodation – there are two Guest Houses that I use regularly, although there are many more for you to choose from if you want. Both are within 3 minutes walk from the Dive Centre and the pool and these are the two I normally use for pre / post IDC accommodation as they are run y nice people who I have been using for over 5 years without any problems. Please let me know which you would like so I can book it for you.
Also if you need an airport pick up then I can book that and make sure that they will take you straight there …. instead of stopping off at every souvenir shop trying to get you to buy things for a commission and taking you to a different Guest House telling you that yours is full etc …. I imagine you have the same scams in Africa.
Regarding your diving to get to 100 dives for your Instructor development package. You need to have 100 logged dives BEFORE you attend the Instructor Examination AFTER the IDC …. and you will log 5 dives on the IDC itself.
OK I think that it’s from me for now – I look forward to hearing from you and meeting you soon.
[Potential Instructor from South Africa] Hi, Please send both, but I can only take OW at this point (my wife wants a proper honeymoon). I am moving next week, please send it to my office address. If there is no time for the package to be delivered, perhaps you could send a link to proper web site for online instruction, or send PDF files via email?
[IDC Guide] We have received your deposit OK – Anyway what I need now is your mailing address to send you the materials – would you like me to send you the AOW manual as well or just the OW manual ?? It depends if you will have time for 4 days diving or 6 days, just wanted to get this bit sorted ASAP so I can mail you the materials next week.
[Potential Instructor from South Africa] Many thanks for the detailed response! Please send me your account information and I will transfer the course fees in full.
Due to Thai bureaucracy we only get 7 full days in Phuket is actually just seven days) we’ll spend the rest taking care of various visas in KL. While seven days is enough to do OW and AOW, sadly my wife does not seem to pleased about the prospect of spending our honeymoon that way. 🙁
My question is, would there be any real difference if I just took OW at this point? What I mean is, would it make a difference in type of diving I would be allowed to do afterward? Could I just add AOW to the IDC package after I log the requisite 100 hours in South Africa and come back to Phuket for long-term training? If you feel that there would be a qualitative difference in terms of what I could do in the future with AOW under my belt, then I will also take that. Basically, I need some advice here.
I would prefer to get hard copies of manuals, Internet is a bit unstable here. Please add the mailing fees to the package. Our address is at the end of the email.
My wife is not the best of swimmers, but she will be all right in calm seas.
She would like to join us on the boat and go snorkeling. If there are big waves though, she will stay on board.
Lodging – The 350 Bht per night sounds fine. Please book it for us. If we need to deposit some money, please add it to the bill.
Arport pick-up sounds nice, how much would that cost? We will take an Air Asia flight AK826 from Kuala Lumpur, what is your address in Phuket? I’ve tried to find it through the web site but wasn’t successful.
I am considering purchasing all the necessary diving gear right away in Phuket. That way I could start diving as soon as I return to South Africa. Assembling the necessary equipment might be hard where I live. Perhaps you could put together a package you could recommend. It doesn’t have to be the cheapest level, I’d prefer good quality dive equipment for my new dive career.