PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC)

Daily weather update for tropical island destination Koh Samui in Thailand by long term resident Camille Lemmens

PADI Divemaster Program Revisions - First Look

PADI Divemaster Program Revisions - First Look

This article was originally posted at the PADI Instructor News blog, run by the good folks at PADI America's. Thanks for sharing!

The revised PADI Divemaster course will be launched at DEMA in November. The new materials aren't available for pre-order yet, but you can read about them below.

The information below is subject to change. Please refer to the Training Bulletin and 2011 Divemaster Instructor Guide (when it comes out) for final details.

The new program includes the most requested changes from PADI Members: emphasizing the dive guide role of a Divemaster, deepening candidate experience and skill background, and incorporating real-world, practical training for the programs DMs are authorized to conduct.

• Skill development through new workshops and practical applications. The new program has a 50 % increase in in-water training including:

• Five new Divemaster-Conducted Program workshops: one for each course Divemasters are authorized to conduct.

• Five Practical Application Skills:

1. dive site set-up and management
2. mapping project (unchanged)
3. dive briefing
4. search and recovery scenario*
5. deep dive scenario*

* A specialty diver certification in this area may fulfill this skill requirement at the instructor's discretion.

• Dive Skills: four skin diving skills have been added.

The skill evaluation slate is being revised (product no. 60228).
Things That Haven't Changed:

• Same number of dives to "graduate": 60
• Dive Theory Online is still an optional study tool.
• The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
• Mapping project

Revised materials (estimated ship date Dec 2010):

• Divemaster manual – expanded from 200 pages to nearly 300. Includes new course information and functions as an additional study tool for the DM exam. Each chapter now includes a case study based on real scenarios which illustrate sound judgment and other leadership skills.

• Divemaster DVD – now includes "demonstration quality" videos of all 20 scuba skills and the new skin diving skills (4) - plus new and updated footage.

• Divemaster DVD (Pro edition) - revised to reflect new course content and incorporate new footage.

• Divemater slates – revised slightly to reflect new course content

• Skill evaluation slate – includes four new skin diving skills.

• Divemaster exam/answer sheet/answer key – entirely updated

New materials (estimated ship date late Nov 2010):

• Instructor cue cards
• Prescriptive Lesson Guides (hooray!) – new PLGs integrated with standard lesson guides.
• Divemaster eLearning – $200

Unchanged materials:

• Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving (part no. 70034 book, 70833 DVD-ROM)

• Scuba Tune-Up Guide book - now a recommended item (part no. 70097).

• DSD cue card (must have 2009 revision of this item, part no. 60130)

• Diving Knowledge Workbook - no longer required, but relevant study tool for DM, AI and Instructor exams (part no. 70214).

Discontinued materials:

The September/October 2010 IDC on Koh Samui is under way on tropical island destination Koh Samui in Thailand with award winning Platinum Course Director Camille Lemmens

Tobias and Marlies sweating it out over the usual exam suspects, they did really well on all 5 topics!