PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC)

The year 2009, time to look back on PADI IDC's and diving with PADI Course Director Camille Lemmens on tropical island destination Koh Samui in Thailand

The year 2009, time to look back

Another interesting year has been completed. Some great trips were made over the year and some great and fun IDC's were conducted on Koh Samui by me at World Resort.

Highlight of the year was another year being rewarded the Platinum PADI Course Director rating for the third consecutive year running but most unexpected and highly appreciated was the PADI Instructor Development Award that was awarded to me by PADI and was handed over to me by Drew Richardson, the President and Chief Operations Officer for PADI Worldwide.
It was a good year for awards!

This years number of PADI IDC candidates tally stopped at 29 split up over 9 IDC's. All passed but two, who were not successful on the General Standards exam and one candidate did not pass his Confined Water presentation. One candidate failed his Open Water presentation after I advised him not to go into the PADI IE because in my opinion he wasn't ready for it. They all passed their second attempt except one candidate who couldn't pass his second General Standards exam despite intensive study and help in preparation. Strange considering that this is an open book exam. Good luck to him on his next attempt in 2010.
This year saw 4 IDCS candidates successfully take on this course and advance their professional diving career. This year saw also James and Paul staffing a few IDC's with me, which was a change in pace for me during the IDC's.
The first stand alone Asisstant Instructor course that I ever taught was also being completed, just a few days ago with Steve.
Congratulations and good luck to all of you.

Furthermore 21 EFR Instructors were certified this year by me and I taught 29 Specialties (mainly Nitrox, Gasblending and PADI Emergency Oxygen provider courses) and 147 Instructor level specialties, with the most certifications in the Nitrox Instructor rating.

The Divemaster carousel was also turning around nicely and it's always good to see former Divemaster trainees move on to complete their IDC and participate in their first Instructor steps when they teach their first courses as part of the MSDT internship.

On the diving front, there were excellent trips to the Similan islands in January, a trip I can highly recommend to each and every diver and hopefully I get the opportunity to dive there again next year.

There were also wreck diving trips to Pattaya in April and October. It's always good to get away from Samui once in a while and enjoy another environment and Pattaya is always a great trip. There's already a 2010 trip planned to Pattaya during late February next year.
The dive with the Sharks in Bangkok was also a great moment and experience to remember and look back at. Thanks Robin and Toby! It just shows that there's even diving to be had in Bangkok!

It was a while ago, but this year I taught an Open Water Diver course again to my friend Marc and his wife and his and my sisters children entourage participated in Discover Scuba Dives with me. A great time was had by all of us and this files under 'good times'!

Interesting was also two PADI Course Updates in one year, one in April and one in December, a very unusual situation considering that they are usually only held once every two years! There was also a very interesting PADI Risk Management seminar conducted by Richard Evans.

Project AWARE's yearly beach clean up day was once more very successful and proved to be good fun and there were plenty of participants!

I managed to log just over 100 dives this year, including a few as a tender at the local recompression chamber in Bang Rak and a few more at Chaweng Beach a dive site that enjoy a lot and keeps growing on me, year after year.

A very busy and interesting year and I'm looking forward to next year to new challenges and fun!

Thanks to all the readers of my blog for popping in on a regular base and I wish you Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Camille