SCUBA Instructor

Description

SCUBA Instructor: also known as the Open Water SCUBA Dive Instructor, or ‘the person who showed me how to really live!’.

The SDI Open Water Scuba Diver Instructor (OWSDI) course is designed to teach current Divemasters or Assistant Instructors certified with a recognized dive training organization the knowledge to effectively function as an open water scuba diver instructor. Depending on where you train, this program is divided into two sections, an instructor development course (IDC) and an instructor evaluation course (IEC). However, as a 5 Star Professional Development Center we are able to co-teach this course with any two of our Course Director (CD)-Instructor Trainer (IT), or two IT’s at the same time, reducing the overall cost and travel requirements, as well of increasing the ease of scheduling training.

Who this course is for:

• Individuals that wish to share their love for the underwater world with others

SCUBA Instructor Course prerequisites:

• Minimum age 18
• Certified diver for a minimum of 6 months
• Proof of 100 logged dives completed in a number of different environments with varying depths
• Be certified as a SDI Divemaster, SDI Assistant Instructor, or equivalent
• Provide proof of current CPR, first aid and oxygen provider*, where local law permits

* Note: If you don’t have your current CPR, first aid, and oxygen provider certifications, this can be taught here as part of your course. 

What you can expect to learn:

The SDI OWSDI course takes an in-depth look at all of the following and more:

• SDI Standards and Procedures
• History of SDI
• Products and procedures
  • How to place an order
  • Registration procedures
  • Yearly renewals
• Liability and insurance
  • Risk management
  • Waivers and releases
• Filling out an accident report
• Methods of instruction
  • Teaching theory, methods and oral communications
  • Lesson preparation
  • Use of training aids
  • SDI home study program, use of knowledge quest
• Successfully selling scuba
  • Budgeting courses
  • Recruiting students
  • Organizing and scheduling a course
  • Retail sales
• Instructor ethics
• Physics and physiology of diving

Some of the required skills you will have to demonstrate include:

• Present a minimum of
  • Two classroom presentations
  • Two lessons in confined water
  • Two lessons in open water
• Show preparation, planning and control in
  • Dive management
  • Diving activities
• Perform, to demonstration quality, one complete rescue scenario
• Perform a 10 minute survival-float, without the use of swimming aids
• Complete a 400 meter swim on the surface, non-stop, any stroke, without the use of swimming aids, in less than 10 minutes; swim goggles permitted
• Complete a 800 meter swim with mask, snorkel, and fins non-stop without the use of arms in less than 17 minutes
• Bring a diver, simulating unconsciousness, up from depth, not greater than 6 meters / 20 feet; at the surface swim them 100 meters in less than 4 minutes
• Pool/confined water
  • Candidates must perform, to demonstration quality, all skills listed in the SDI Open Water Scuba Diver Course
  • Pool/confined water problem solving
• Open Water
  • In open water candidates must perform, to demonstration quality, all skills listed in the SDI Open Water Scuba Diver Course
  • Open water problem solving

Courses you can teach as a SCUBA Instructor:

Once you pin on your strips as an OWSDI, a world of possiblities open up to you. There are an entire list of specialty courses that you can train to teach, there are some you can administratively upgrade to teach, such as deep diving, underwater navigation, and night/lim-vis. There is also an entire list of things that you automatically qualify to teach, such as:

• Discovery SCUBA
• Snorkler
• Open Water SCUBA Diver
• Rescue Diver
• Divemaster
• and more!

For more information on becoming a SCUBA Instructor, please see the Course Standards and Procedures.

If you have already completed the IDC portion of your course and just need the IEC evaluation portion, please see our Instructor Evaluation Course.