PADI Tec Instructor

[gr8fuldiverNC]

2 ways to do it, take a class, or self certify. The requirments are the same either way (or were before the new class, but I think its still the same). You must be tec certified, have helped out with 2 classes, have the requisite amount of dives (not that many), be a PADI nitrox and deep instrutor with a certain amount of students (again not that many), pass the Instructor exam (at an IDC, free till the end of the year but for tec 40 only), and be signed off on skills by someone who is a PADI MSDT and a tec instructor (but not necessarily a DSAT tec instructor oddly enough, probably just an oversight on PADIs part). Then you just apply. If you take the instrucotr class with a CD, you can get your peer review and exams done at that time, but the class is not required, and is pretty expensive .

For crossovers, you must have another tec instructor cert, the min dives, the test, not sure about the peer review but I think so, and have help with 2 classes at the appropriate level (doesnt have to be PADI). Call PADI for crossover class equivalents.

 

[azchipka]

Ok the stats being discussed here are just simply wrong:

Tec Instructor requires:
* Be a renewed PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (or a PADI Instructor with a higher rating)
* Be a PADI Enriched Air Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
* Be a PADI Enriched Air Instructor, or have successfully completed a PADI Enriched Air Instructor Training course.
* Be a PADI Deep Diver Specialty Instructor or have successfully completed a PADI Deep Diver Speicalty Instructor Training course.
* Have a minimum of 100 logged dives where at least 20 dives were made with enriched air nitrox, 25 dives were deeper than 18 metres/ 60 feet and at least 15 dives were deeper than 30 metres/ 100 feet.

These are the requirements to enter the DSAT Tech 40 Instructor course not be a DSAT Tech 40 Instructor.

To be a DSAT Tech 40 Instructor you must have the above to enter the course. Then complete the entire course with a Instructor trainer. Following this you need to attend a IE and take the tech exams. This makes you a Tech 40 instructor which is basically a IANTD or TDI tech lite instructor.

 

[TSandM]

I think the requirements have been adequately discussed.

I'd like to talk about the financial viability of doing technical instruction.

When I decided to get some technical training, I looked long and hard at my options. I wanted to know what the training my instructor had had was, and from whom he had gotten it. I wanted to know if he was actively doing technical diving. I wanted to know what his general reputation for instruction in the community was.

The first person from whom I took more than recreational instruction had done archaeological projects at 300 feet in the Mediterranean. The second had been the director of training for a technical agency, as well as having many deep technical and cave dives in his resume. The third was trained by the second and certified by him, and is an active technical diver in our local waters, as well as enjoying a superb reputation as a diving instructor in general.

In short, I don't think many students looking for tech training just sign up at the nearest dive shop, as OW students do. By the time you're looking for tech training, you've been around the block a few times. I think most people are looking for a substantial record of successful technical diving, as well as a considerable amount of teaching experience. I realize all tech instructors will have their first students -- I wasn't my most recent instructor's first tech student, but I was one of the first -- but again, I knew his "pedigree", which helped a great deal.

Just doing the minimum to get a PADI tech instructor certificate, I fear is unlikely to add that much to your business. And you WILL have to take time out from the teaching you are already doing, to get the technical dives done that you need to do.

 

[Rhone Man]

Just doing the minimum to get a PADI tech instructor certificate, I fear is unlikely to add that much to your business. And you WILL have to take time out from the teaching you are already doing, to get the technical dives done that you need to do.

Reminds me of the old joke:

Q: What do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school?

A: Doctor.

 

[Pearldiver07]

First, I think that this is a great thread.

I agree that I am not comfortable taking this level of class from someone who has the minimum qualifications to teach. I have seen this as well at all levels of instruction. Teaching a specialty because PADI allows them to after 25 general certifications and 20 dives within that specialty. This may be the minimum, but for many instructors, this means that it's all they have to do.

But, I am not going to choose an instructor just because he has countless dives in challenging environments. Nor am I particularly drawn to someone because they have a lot of student certifications under their belt.

But as TSandM mentioned above, you have to look for a good instructor with appropriate balance of practical experience and instructional experience. All of the experience in the world is useless if the instructor cannot translate it into a student's scope of understanding, and all the instructional capability in the world is useless if there's no experiential base to draw from.

But into a new direction... What are the minimums that some of the other agencies out there have to be a tech instructor? Since the levels of instruction vary, let's say we focus on being an instructor capable of teaching technical diving to about 50 meters, not in an overhead environment? Just to compare apples to apples, as they say.


BTW - my few "technical" certs are not PADI.

 

[azchipka]

Regarding it worth the investment etc and it being worth it from a customer stand point. I work with a shop that does alot of tech diving and I think from a customer stand point the biggest difference between tech and rec is that customers dont just walk in saying hey I wanna be a tech diver. Most who come in looking for instruction in tech have done there research and want a specific instructor from the shop.

Many are divers who start with us as Rec students and see that the instructors are doing tech and want to know more about it.

Reputation has was more to do with your success as a tech diver then Rec. Just being Tech 40 may be a great option for a instructor who wants to introduce there own students to Tech diving. If the students like it then you hand them over to someone you know who is more experience in Tech Diving.

None of my tech certs are being done through PADI but I intend on crossing over my Tech Instructor authorizations to PADI / DSAT. Although DSAT may not be the number one name in Tech it is very clear they hold the highest percentage of divers on the recreational side and its a great opportunity to get those same people involved in tech diving.

With the economy being bad new divers are down but the experienced divers remain steady with the sport they love. So this gives us the ability to provide something different to those who you already work with while staying with in the same general style of teaching.

Last but not least PADI Staff Instructors and Course Directors who are teaching tech now have the ability to do so with out having to deal with the who does not teach for other certifications agencies thing.

 

[TSandM]

I don't know about other agencies, but GUE requires that, to be a Tech 1 instructor, you must be Tech 2 -- and meeting the experience requirements at the Tech 2 level, which are 25 Tech 2 dives every three years. You have to do an instructor's course, and then you have to intern several T1 courses, and then you have to teach a couple of T1 classes under the stern scrutiny of one of the instructor trainers. And you have to pass a fitness test (and pass it every year that you remain active as an instructor).

 

[GShockey]

I don't know about other agencies, but GUE requires that, to be a Tech 1 instructor, you must be Tech 2 -- and meeting the experience requirements at the Tech 2 level, which are 25 Tech 2 dives every three years. You have to do an instructor's course, and then you have to intern several T1 courses, and then you have to teach a couple of T1 classes under the stern scrutiny of one of the instructor trainers. And you have to pass a fitness test (and pass it every year that you remain active as an instructor).

To kind of put it in perspective, There are 8 GUE Tech 2 instructors in the world, from a pool of about 70 GUE instructors of all levels. These Tech 2 instructors have approximately 25,000 to 35,000 dives worth of experience between them. You should feel relatively secure that choosing a GUE Tech 2 instructor is a safe bet for advanced technical instruction.

Merry Christmas,

Guy

 

[muddiver]

I think that, as an aspiring advanced, experienced and highly capable technical centric diver, I would be more concerned with whom the instructor is reccomended by. Just because someone has jumpped through all the hoops to receive a shinny litle card that has "Tech" printed on it does not necessarily speak for their abilities.

Tech divers dive with other Tech divers and, from my limited point of view, have been and/or are being mentored by someone who "has been there". I would seriously be concerened if the person leading me had the experience that AndyZ described earilier. That many issues in one dive just proves to me that that person has not been very serious about diving to start with. The main premis of Technical Diving is to think each dive through to anticipate and avoid any mistakes or system/technique failures. Experiencing a failure is a failure in planning.

Also, on an unrelated note, we need to remember that all of the techniques, systems, equipment and training today is based on the fact that someone was there before us and happened to return because "their" dive plan happend to work. All the tranning, equipment and S-drills in your life time will not save you from the un-foreseen or un-controlable, one must be flexable and able to think under pressure (literally).

 

[Rhone Man]

I would be more concerned with whom the instructor is reccomended by.

Lynne made the same point earlier, but I think that says more about where you live than anything else. If you live in California or Florida, great, take up references, interview your instructors and pick and choose from the large pool available to you so that you only get the very best people teaching you. I am afraid many of the rest of us have to put up with the instructors that we have (or take a looooong plane ride). We are pretty much counting on their shiny cards meaning that they meet the standard.

Last time I counted I could only find three English speaking trimix instructors in the whole Caribbean (and for two of them, English is a second language).