Course overview

Move from guiding to teaching with the PADI Instructor Development Course based at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. You rehearse classroom, confined-water and open-water teaching presentations in the same Galapagos waters where you will later certify students, then sit the independent PADI Instructor Examination. You finish ready to issue PADI certifications anywhere in the world.

What you’ll learn

• Deliver knowledge-development, confined-water and open-water teaching presentations
• Apply the PADI system of education and current dive standards
• Demonstrate, evaluate and correct the 24 core open-water skills
• Manage diver risk and run teaching sessions in current-prone Galapagos sites
• Brief and debrief students for challenging conditions like Gordon Rocks
• Prepare thoroughly for the independent PADI Instructor Examination

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 18
• PADI Divemaster or a qualifying leadership rating from another recognised agency
• Certified diver for at least 6 months
• 60 logged dives to begin and 100 logged dives to sit the Instructor Examination
• Emergency First Response Instructor rating (can be completed alongside)
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician

What's included · What's not

Not included? Sort the rest of your trip

Flights and accommodation aren’t part of the course price, here’s how to book them around your dates.

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Teaching foundations

   Orientation to the PADI system of education, then your first classroom knowledge-development presentations in Puerto Ayora.
2. Day2
   Confined-water workshops

   Practise demonstrating and teaching the core skills before you take them to open water.
3. Day3
   Open-water teaching

   Run open-water teaching circuits at calmer local sites such as North Seymour and Santa Fe under evaluation.
4. Day4
   Standards & risk management

   Work through dive standards, risk management and the business of diving, with a focus on briefing students for Galapagos currents.
5. Day5
   Theory & rescue assessment

   Sit dive-theory exams and complete the rescue scenario assessment to IDC standard.
6. Day6
   IE preparation

   Mock exams, presentation polishing and a full briefing ahead of the independent Instructor Examination.

Verified through iDive

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Frequently asked questions