PADI Specialty Instructor Courses consists of minimal classroom time with a look at the course outline, structure and latest standards, student diver and Professional versions of the DVD and a look at the PADI materials followed by the dives themselves.

During the dives we look at how best to arrange the various skills, use the relevant specialty equipment and discuss some valuable tips and tricks you will find useful when teaching these courses. PADI Specialty Instructor Courses vary in length depending on the course, some have specific prerequisites (such as EANx or Rebreather) but most you can take straight after your IDC or IE as part of your MSDT and take one or two days depending on the number of dives..

Click on the Specialties below for some details:

AWARE - Fish ID Instructor 1 day

This is a great course for those who want to be able to teach more about fish families and the eco system.

During the Instructor Course you will practice the techniques overviewed in the classroom portion of the Instructor Course. Phuket is a GREAT place to take this course due to the multitude and variety of fish and fish families which inhabit our dive sites.

It is also a very easy course to market to your customers as they can take the first dive as part of the PADI Advanced Open Water Course which is a very popular option !!!

Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Instructor 1 day

In recent years Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) has become more and more a part of the mainstream recreational dive industry and in fact it can be hard to find a professional operator, whether liveaboard or land based who doesn't offer EANx (nitrox) !!!

This two day course reviews: the use of Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) mixtures between 22% and 40% Oxygen, the advantages and disadvantages of diving EANx (nitrox), equipment considerations for EANx (nitrox) managing Oxygen exposure, using the Enriched Air formulas, the correct procedures for analysing and EANx (nitrox) mixtures, and the standards and goals of The PADI Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Diver Course.

The new course also takes a good look at computer diving and EANx use.

We also have a close look at all the materials available: EANx DVD, EANx Prescriptive Teaching Lesson Guides (PTLG), the new Exams, and Knowledge Reviews etc.

A prerequisite for this Instructor rating is certification as an EANx (Nitrox) diver with a recognised training agency.

Those of you not yet certified, don't worry, the PADI EANx (Nitrox) diver course is part of the IDC Preparation program, with the Open Water Dives conducted during the IDC.

Semi Closed Circuit Rebreather Instructor 2-5 days

Click here for details

Oxygen First Aid Distinctive Specialty 1 Day

As a DAN Oxygen Provider Instructor you are able to then apply directly to PADI for the PADI Oxygen First Aid Distinctive Specialty Instructor qualification.

This is a very popular course as it is vital that you understand Oxygen Administration not only for yourself as a Dive Professional but also if you are not Oxygen qualified then how are you going to teach the Oxygen portion of the PADI Rescue Diver Course ???

This is a very necessary course and an easy one to market to all your PADI Rescue Divers and Divemaster Candidates !!!

Wreck Diver Specialty Instructor 2 Days

The most wanted PADI specialty course around the world and one of Chris's favourite pastimes !

This program covers the course standards, dive planning, organization, and potential hazards of wreck diving. It reviews the preparation and use of lights, air supplies, special equipment, penetration lines and reels, limited-visibility diving techniques and emergency procedures.

It is conducted over two days culminating in an actual penetration dive, conditions and logistics permitting. This is a perfect course on which to utilize the benefits of the extended time offered by Nitrox (EANx) diving !!!

Chris spent 6 years working in the Gulf of Siam on Thailand's East Coast, which is "littered" with wrecks. We used to run three day trips to explore coordinates where Thai fishermen knew there wrecks but no one had dived them.

Chris got to dive a LOT of wrecks in just about every condition from perfect to almost nonexistent and in viz ranging from 30 m to about 30 cm which was great experience for Training Wreck Diving Instructors !!!

Search and Recovery Instructor 1 Day

This is a fun course to teach as it introduces your student divers to many new things; not only rigging and lifting lift bags, but also different knots, general task management underwater and of course search patterns and recovery techniques used in a variety of different situations.

Some of the search patterns used include: circular search, u-pattern, expanding square and jack stay lines and for knots you will be teaching bow lines, sheet bends and half hitches.

This is generally best run from a beach as this gives us much more time in the water itself to set up properly and quite often we schedule this along with the Underwater Navigator Specialty Instructor Course.

A lot of fun to teach as well as fun for your student divers !!

Drift Diver Instructor 1 Day

Maybe it has something to do with my personnel diving history and experience but Chris has done a LOT of drift dives over the years and this was actually the first Specialty Chris took as a diver and then again as a PADI OWSI.

The course teaches your students how to use lines without ending up in a ball of spaghetti at 20 m (hopefully :) as well as looking at things like organised descents, something which a lot of dive leaders don't think about until it's too late, and how you control buoys from depth etc.

A very important course to be able to teach in some locations, and a good specialty to teach regularly to keep your own skills sharp.

Underwater Naturalist Instructor 1 Day

A long time favourite and for many years one of the most popular Adventure Dives from the Advanced Open Water Course (AOW), certainly in this part of the world !

This is a fairly simple course to teach, as long as you have made the effort to learn a little about the environment that you are teaching in and the local marine life you are likely to encounter.

Your student Divers will learn to recognise basic marine life classes and need to recognise some local examples of invertebrates, vertebrates and plant life during the dives.

You will find this a popular Specialty to teach no matter where you are teaching in the world, although I have found over the past 4 or 5 years now that the AWARE - Fish ID course is becoming more popular .. but it does depend on how you promote it to your student divers.

How many divers are there out there who love diving but who do NOT want to learn about the underwater environment and the wonderful marine life they are looking at and diving with ???

Dive Propulsion Vehicle Instructor 1 Day

Another Specialty which had been growing in popularity over the past few years after all who has not heard of an Underwater Scooter ???

.. and who has heard of underwater scooters, would love to try one but has never had the chance ???

The answer is probably most of your divers

Highly addictive, all you have to do is start setting one up on the dive deck and see how many people come and watch.

And if you want to see how popular they are just tell everyone at lunch that there will be DPV free if anyone would like to have a go this afternoon and you will find your divers queuing up for a go !!!

Boat Diver Instructor 1 Day

Surprisingly this is quite a popular specialty with certain divers though by no means all.

I have done 90% of my diving from boats and I remember on my Advanced Open Water Course (AOW) thinking why do they offer this course as how else would you dive except from a boat ??

But of course there are plenty areas in the world where 90% of the diving is done from the beach and a boat dive then becomes something special which is only done occasionally or on holidays.

Again as with all standardised Specialty Courses if they have taken the Boat Dive as one of their Adventure Dives then they only need one more dive for the Specialty ...

Multi-level Instructor 1 Day

This is another Specialty which sells well in certain areas of the world and not in others in Phuket we sell a lot of these quite often packaged with Deep and wreck.

An ideal Course for "new" divers as it takes them deeper into decompression theory and explains about how tissues load, half times, M values and from that into what is a multi-level dive and then how do dive computers work.

The Similan Islands, Thailand's best diving, is one of the main destinations for Phuket's liveaboard fleets and the Similans, where wall diving and pinnacles are the norm, are perfect training grounds for these kind of specialties.

Chances are if you are working in Phuket or Khao Lak and are diving The Similans on a liveaboard you will find yourself teaching this quite often along with Deep, Drift, Night, Fish ID, EANx, DPV etc

Underwater Photographer Instructor 1 Day

Again another of the world's most sort after Specialty courses, after all who has ever looked underwater at the fish and coral and NOT wanted to take photos to show their friends ???

Not many ..

This course is a GREAT introduction into underwater photography !!!

It will NOT make you a professional underwater photographer overnight of course but it is great introduction into the world of underwear photography with excellent support materials: DVD, professional version of the DVD, manual all of which remain as popular as ever.

NOTE: as underwater photography does vary to an extent depending on what camera you are using it is very much encouraged to use your own camera - if you don't have one then no problem we will be able to rent you one.

Underwater Navigator Instructor 1 Day

How many times have you got lost underwater and had to surface "just to check that the boat is over there" ???

If you were anything like me quite a few times is the honest answer to that ?

There is nothing difficult about learning to navigate underwater it does however take time, patience, good buoyancy control and guidance from a PADI professional which is where you and this course come in.

This is a good specialty to teach as you will find that like good buoyancy control, navigation skills are something that "regular divers" are always jealous of and are always asking the divemaster and instructors . "How do you do it ??"

It does take a bit to organise this course and set up so this is another specialty which is best taught off the beach (in a Phuket setting anyway), this way you are not pushed for time by having to be back on board before the boat moves etc .

Again as it is a Core Dive from the Advanced Open Water Course (AOW) it is a popular one and which you future students will ask you about.

Night Diver Instructor 1 Day

Do you remember your first night dive ???

If you said no I wouldn't believe you :)

Chris will never forget his first night dive, although looking back 15 years later it was a pretty lousy dive in about 4 m of water, 1-2 m visibility and nothing to see apart from one blue spotted ray, but it was my first night dive and I thought it was absolutely FANTASTIC and I didn't stop talking about it for about a week.

You will find a great demand for this all round the world as Night Diving is something which everyone wants to know about; whether you love it, hate it or just want to try it you will find a lot of interest in this course.

Working in Phuket you will find this another popular Specialty to teach especially working out at the Similan Islands . because with Night Dives scheduled daily on liveaboards there is a more of less never ending supply of first time night divers.

It has always been on of my favourite types of diving.

Deep Diver Specialty Instructor course 2 Days

This program covers the course standards, dive planning, organization, and potential hazards of deep diving and trains the diver to the recreational diving limit of 40 metres.

As part of your Open Water Training we will go through the preparation and use of emergency decompression techniques, the deployment of "drop tanks", managing air supplies, special equipment including descent lines and reels, conservative diving practices and computer use.

You'd be surprised how many Instructors have had very little experience handling lines, managing narcosis, etc again Chris will be in the water with you ensuring that all "goes according to plan"

This is another popular Specialty Instructor Course as not only do a lot of people like going deep, but as the Deep Dive is a core dive from the Advanced Open Water Course (AOW), if you can teach the Deep Specialty, you will find a lot of your student divers go onto complete the Deep Specialty with you !

During the dives you will look at Nitrogen Narcosis, Pressure affected objects, Colours and Emergency Decompression Procedures.

AED Instructor - Distinctive Specialty 1 Day

As a DAN AED Instructor you are able to then apply directly to PADI for the PADI AED Distinctive Specialty Instructor qualification.

First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries - Distinctive Specialty 1 Day

As a DAN First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries Instructor you are able to apply directly to PADI for the First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries Distinctive Specialty rating.

This is a popular course and fits very well at the PADI Rescue Diver level. I quite often package it along with The PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response courses.

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