PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC)

A busy diving and teaching year has passed!

I spread my wings earlier this year and am now teaching PADI IDC's with 5* PADI IDC Centers and PADI 5* IDD Resorts around Thailand; on Koh Samui with The Dive Academy, on Koh Phangan with Haad Yao Divers, on Koh Lanta with Scubafish and Blue Planet Divers and in Kao Lak with Similan Diving Safaris and Sea Dragon. Next year I'm also scheduling an IDC on the small island of Malapascua in the Philippines, home of the Thresher sharks.

Great diving was done at various locations and wreck diving trips to Pattaya were on the schedule with an absolute highlight during the exploratory wreck dive trip into the Gulf but also other wrecks were dived, the Boonsung in Kao Lak and the Inch Cape 2 in the United Arab Emirates!

Another fantastic highlight were the Manta Ray encounters at Hin Daeng and Hin Muang in December. This was easily the best diving experience this year and it's great to still enjoy some fun dives besides getting wet whilst teaching all the time!

Back to the teaching side than, with great pride I received for the Platinum Course Director rating, the 4th consecutive time in a row, since PADI Asia Pacific introduced this rating. Less than 49 PADI Course Directors worldwide receive this award.

On the IDC front it was really busy with 12 IDC's being conducted by me! That's the highest number of IDC's taught by me during one calender year.

The total number of IDC candidates reached 27 this year, the lowest number of candidates since I became a PADI Course Director in March 2003. Maybe a reflection on the worldwide economical state, the strong Thai Baht plus the social unrest earlier this year in Bangkok.

The IDC's were fun though and the initial pass rate of all my candidates during the PADI IE's was 100% this year! For the first time I conducted IDC's outside of Koh Samui and the honor for this went to Koh Phangan with Joep and Aldo. Koh Lanta followed with two IDC's, one in October/November and one in December and in-between I also conducted an IDC in Kao Lak.

I also had candidates for the first time participate in a Phuket PADI IE.

Furthermore I had 5 PADI Instructors complete their IDC Staff rating, well done to Preben, Thomas, Dijana, Ami and Philip. As if this wasn't enough, plenty of IDC Staff instructors helped me staff some IDC's this year and two have sent in their applications for becoming PADI Course Directors. Good luck to Richard and Jeffree.

On the EFR Instructor course front I certified 16 Instructors this year and I took a step back during the end of the year when Richard certified some of my EFRI students. Well done and thanks to Richard for helping out and I hope you enjoyed getting the experience.

On the Specialty front it was busy, but most of the certifications were handled by various Staff Instructors who're looking for their continual education certifications, so that one day they can apply for their own PADI Course Director rating, Paul, James and Richard were handling some of these certifications, leaving me some Emergency Oxygen Provider and Gas blender certifications. Thanks for the help guys and I hope you enjoyed the experience.

On the Specialty Instructor front it was different cookies though and I certified Instructors in 108 Instructor Specialties. Nitrox and Digital Underwater Photography were the most popular ones but Deep and Wreck also proofed to be favorites.

This year I taught an Open Water Diver course to my sisters son and her husbands son. This was fun and I'm looking forward to see them back soon and get some more diving done with them.

I participated in two major clean ups on Chaweng Beach , one was the Dive for Earth Day in April and the other one was the yearly Project Aware Beach & Underwater clean up. Great fun and interesting to see what can be found off Chaweng's beach. This remains one of my fave dive spots on Koh Samui!

My new look website was launched earlier this year, still with the same URL; www.idcthailand.net. You can also join my IDC Group on Facebook, don't be shy and spread the word!

Check my Samui info and weather blog for a review of the 2010 highlights.

Thanks to everybody who took courses with me, who worked together with me and put up with me! Looking forward seeing you in the 2011!

Camille