Course Questions

IDC Common Questions & Answers

Where should I take my IDC?

The answer depends on a few things like your budget, the time you have, your intentions after the IE and the Course Director, a full list about where to take your PADI IDC

I want to do my IDC in Phuket, but cant decide between Pattaya and Phuket, what are the differences?

You only have to visit the two places to see the difference and that’s without even going underwater, although Phuket does have without any doubt Thailand’s best diving – most noticeably The Similan Islands and Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

I have full PADI Instructor Manual & Crew Pack from 2008 (PADI # 60033, including decal and many other books). Can I still use them for my IDC and IE, so that I don’t have to buy new ones, is this correct?

The 2008 Instructor manual and the old IDC Candidate Workbook are of no use anymore, the knowledge reviews from the independent section at the beginning and the Exams at the end in the Study Tools section would be worth keeping. The 2010 IDC curriculum and materials are mandatory for any English language IDC / IE as of June 1st 2010. All Course Directors are now teaching the new 2010 curriculum.

What has been updated in terms of manuals for the new 2010 IDC Curriculum?

The main thing is that the PADI IDC Candidate Workbook which had the Silver sticker in it has gone and been “replaced” by ‘The Guide to Teaching’ which now has the Silver Sticker and the only way you get The Guide to Teaching with sticker is to buy the IDC pack.

I have a limited baggage allowance when travelling to my PADI IDC so for my IDC and IE can I “forget” some books which one are mandatory to carry with me? (the ones I am thinking about ‘forgetting’ are Open Water Manual, Adventures in Diving manual, Rescue Diver manual).

No, these are prerequisites for your course and you will need and use them during your IDC and IE.

I am not up to the 100 required dives for my IE, what would you suggest as I am on 75 so need 25 more dives (to get that minimum 100 for IE).

A good idea would be to arrive in your IDC resort / location a week early and go diving, you can log each dive as two, by that I mean if you are doing a 50 minute dive then just ascend halfway through then descend and log it as two 25 minute dives, this is perfectly fine if diving conditions allow you to surface during your dive. An official PADI training dive must be 5m for 20 minutes minimum so if you are logging 20 / 25 minute dives then that’s fine. Additionally there are no standards on “fun dives” in terms of time of the dive or depth. You will also do a minimum of 5 dives on the IDC (sometimes as many as 6 or 7 dives ) then you will have your 100 logged dives necessary for the IE.

I am worried about my baggage allowances for my PADI materials so I will speak with the airlines to see what my baggage limits are in regards to bringing my dive gear, PADI Materials, clothes and all the stuff I need to complete my IDC in resort.

What would you suggest to cut down the weight when travelling to the PADI IDC?

Normally we suggest buying some of your required materials for your courses in your PADI IDC resort – that will save you a few kilograms is luggage allowance  and you can then mail them back to your home address which is what a lot  of people are now doing, you will need to be careful as most airlines are being particularly strict about weight allowances at the moment, we would recommend taking your big manuals as hand luggage, this will also allow you to do some in-flight revision.

As my CPR will be over 24 months old upon my arrival, Will I need a EFR refresher with my IDC Course Director?

Yes that is normally done in the IDC Prep  and normally the tuition is free. You would need to pay for any materials including the PADI PIC. It should take just be a couple of hours depending on class size.

I am an Australian and I am pretty sure that as I am staying in my Thailand IDC resort for less than 30 days can you confirm that I dont need a Visa for my IDC?

You need to check with a Thai Consulate in Australia. They have recently changed the law again, this time to try and encourage more tourists but not sure how it affects Australian passport holders, the best thing is to just send them an e-mail or phone them up, previously it used to be one month stamp in your passport on arrival.

Regarding possible jobs and employment now that I have passed my PADI IDC and IE and I am now an OWSI, I have not received any emails back from the dive centres and shops I sent my CV to but this is to be expected.  I know that I will have to go to the dive centres personally when I get to resort.  I did receive a disappointing email from a job that I have arranged an interview for but it seems that they want me to have MSDT, this was more than what I was planning to get short term.  I am not sure if I am quite ready for that yet.

For work you really do need to be in the resport as opposed to just e-mailing as there are so many people looking for work, it’s really only the remote dive centre like in the Maldives islands that take people over the internet as they no one walking into their dive centres. The other reason dive centers accept and take on staff without having met them is because they have such a huge turnover of staft, in which case you probably don’t want to be there anyway as there will probably be a reason for the high turnover of staff like poor pay, bad working conditions or poor diving.

PADI fees and required PADI materials seem to be very high for the IDC is there anything that can be done to lower them?

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about the PADI fees or the price of the required IDC materials. There is nothing stopping you selling your materials once you have no longer any use for them though or even shopping around for the best deals on IDC Crewpacks that contain all you need for your IDC.

Do I need to have my own professional liability insurance while I am doing my IDC?

You will only need it if you are teaching / working in a country which requires it – apart from Australia and NZ no Asian countries require it and you definitely do not need it for your PADI IDC and IE

For my IDC what PADI Materials and equipment do I need to bring? I have the IDC crew Pack 2010 (latest version) complete with hologram intact, which has The Guide to Teaching all the slates and the exams in it.

All you need to bring with you on top of the IDC Crew Pack would be your OW, AOW, Rescue and Divemaster manuals, Divemaster Slates, Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving and Diving Knowledge Workbook, your two RDPs ( RDP table and eRDPml ) as well as the How to Use and Choose Dive Computers manual and your scuba equipment.

I am looking to take my diving theory test and have just bought the idc guide DVD / Revision Documents. I have been diving before when I was age 13 up until the age of 16 at least 5 times a year. I am aiming to become an instructor and would like to know what steps I have to take to become this. I would like if you could help or advise me.

The good news is whatever stage you are at there is an Internship or Course that you can take to become an instructor, depending on your stage in your diving career these courses can be taken anywhere in the world with an appropriately qualified Instructor, to begin an IDC there are some pre-requisites (see here https://www.idc-guide.com/prepare-padi-idc-ie/ )

If you dont meet these requirements yet then you can work through your courses and diving with a dive centre or some dive centres to reach the standard you need to be at, I will get a few course directors to email you and you can follow the emails up with them, do you have a preference where you want to do your dive courses?

Our PADI Course Directors hold courses in the following countries UK / Egypt, Caribbean, Dubai, Vietnam, Phuket, Germany and Cyprus.

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