IDC in North America in February or March

[WantSomeScuba?]

Howdy all,

So I have a couple lines on doing a quick IDC in the next couple months. Rainbow Reef is my first choice.

I'm staying in North America because of work, and I have a bit of a time constraint (as in, I'm not doing an internship in Utila for 6 months). This is mostly a business decision for me, as my shop needs an instructor, and I've gone about as far as I'm going to go with the technician and DM route without just settling into that role, or going and getting an instructor rating.

I get the downsides of PADI mills, I understand that there's no perfect way to do a IDC and get instructor certified quickly, and I would much rather take a GUE Rec 3 course than get instructor certified, but I'm getting the PADI rating first so I can help fill in the gaps at work. Convenience is helpful, affordable is preferable, but not necessary.

Any recommendations outside of the easily available online schedules and course dates?

 

[yle]

My son and I did our IDC with RR in 2012. It was two weeks, all day every day. There were 10 of us in the class (from different corners of the country) and the shop provided housing in apartments above their store (where their classroom was also.) So we lived on site with the others in our class... very convenient for getting homework done together in the evenings.

Overall it was a great experience, notably because of the class size (not too big, but not too small) and because we were together 24/7. Of course the diving in KL is wonderful, the water is still warmish in February, and the accessibility to a major airport (either Fort Lauderdale or Miami) is hard to beat.

 

[rsingler]

My IDC was with RR as well. I would recommend just staying with the established course times and structure as well. I already had been both a DM and AI but I was glad I just went with the flow and did the first week with the class, rather than looking for a little discount (which they gave me, anyway).
By learning with the newbies, you get a better feel for your training buddies, and it does a lot for your confidence going into the exam.
A superb and well organized training experience. It's not a factory - these guys love what they do.