After weeks of preparation and anticipation, the Instructor Exam (IE) is done and dusted. And thankfully, I passed! Pleased is an understatement. So, what was it all about then?
You can only enter the IE if you have passed your Instructor Development Course (IDC), and your Course Director is willing to enroll you in it. Fortunately for me, I passed the IDC and my CD, Pedro, was kind enough to put me forward for the IE.
The IE is a two day examination, overseen by an independent PADI Examiner. We were very fortunate to be assigned BK, a PADI Examiner from Korea. During the orientation, he explained what would take place over the next two days, and put our minds at rest; there were five very anxious and nervous candidates following his every word!
Our schedule was as follows:
Day 1
Dive Theory & PADI Standards Exams
Skill Demonstration (any 5 skills, chosen at random, performed in Confined Water)
Confined Water Teaching Presentation
Knowledge Development Presentation
Day 2
Open Water Presentation
Rescue Exercise #7
I was candidate #1, which meant I was first to do each requirement. Whilst that may seem daunting, I preferred it that way. Funnily enough, I was probably more nervous when acting as student, as I didn’t want to make the lives of my fellow candidates any more difficult than they needed to be!
You are assigned your specific tasks during the opening briefing, and then you simply get on with it. I was really pleased that we had a lot of time to prepare for the various presentations.
During the actual assessments, it very much felt like BK was looking to make sure we could do what was required, rather than trying to make our lives difficult, or deliberately trip us up. Because of this, we all relaxed, and we all passed.
Because the first day was quite loaded, we were finished by lunchtime on Day 2, which meant we had time for a celebratory dive, followed by a great evening of beers and pizza, put on by Asia Divers.
So that’s it; I’m now an official PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, and I can’t wait to teach my first classes back in Hong Kong!
