Questions on IDC

[plongeursousmarin]

Hello,
I have a couple of questions about becoming a PADI instructor in my present situation.
#1: I became a Divemaster in 1995 but, living in Colorado, never got motivated to help in classes and pursue my professional education due to the lack of salt water and marine environment which got me into diving in the first place (but I digress), so basically I'm not current. Now I want to go back into diving and I want to take an IDC/IE. What I wonder is what I need to do to get up to speed (becoming a current divemaster and get myself ready to take on an IDC/IE) and if anyone knows of costs involved (tuition/books and any other PADI fees).
#2 As I stated above, I'm interested in an IDC. Does it make sense to do an IDC in Colorado or is it better to do it in California or Florida (I'm kind of allergic to fresh water for diving). I mean, is there a lot of theory that can be dispensed in Colorado as much as anywhere, or is there a good amount of open water diving that would make it more fun and real (waves, current, underwater marine landscape and conditions, etc.) to sign up for an IDC in a place like a resort, or Florida or California?
Thanks for any suggestion and advice!

 

[dlndavid]

You could do it in Cancun, talk with Cancun Mark here on the board.
He is an IDC instructor there.

 

[Otter]

The first thing you have to ask yourself is WHERE are you going to teach? Then try to take the class and get experience in that environment. Much of the diving in SoCal is shore diving, having to deal with surf entrys,poor viz, and 50F-60F water temps. Not as applicable in say Forida or Cancun, but then again those areas have their peculiarities.

That being said, much of the IDC is about HOW to teach, HOW to control the class/students. You should know your theory and have good dive skills before entering the IDC. Depending on the IDC and Course Director he/she will help you refine the presentation of the skills to students, but they aren't going to teach them to you.

BTW, Mark is a Course Director vs. an IDC Staff Instructor. Only Course Directors sign off on the IDC.....then a PADI Instructor Examiner administers the tests....including the written exams which cover theory (very similar to the DM exam) plus all the new stuff you learned in your IDC.

 

[scubacurt]

Best that I can recommend to you is go talk to a PADI facility here in Colorado. I am Master Instructor here and have lots of fun diving. If you don't like fresh water diving then Colorado isn't the place to be. To me it doesn't matter where you do your IDC what matters is how good your IDC is. Just like everything else, there are good and bad dive shops. Generally speaking I prefer knowledge gained from an ocean environment where there are lots of divers and diving, its just more fun. And more convenenient (if you are by the ocean of course)
-curt-
www.scubacurt.com