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Gap Year Thailand: Beginner to PADI Scuba Instructor Internship

7 Months | 260,000 baht

PADI Scuba internship includes:

• PADI scuba diving courses from beginner through to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) & Emergency First Response Instructor
• Your own complete set of scuba diving gear
• All PADI Manuals, course materials and course certification fees
• Unlimited dives - you'll log many hundreds of dives on Koh Tao
• 7 Months accommodation near Simple Life Divers

PADI Internships Thailand: Dive Instructor Program

Imagine teaching people how to scuba dive on a tropical island. Warm sunshine, happy customers, great scuba diving...this is exactly how scuba diving instructors on Koh Tao make a living.

PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors are the most in-demand professionals in the scuba diving industry, and this internationally recognized qualification allows you to work in diving all over the world.

Our 7 month PADI Instructor internship trains you from beginner right through to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, giving you all the training, skills and experience which you need along the way. You'll get to log hundreds of dives, explore Koh Tao's tropical coral reefs and deep sea pinnacles, plus witness the awesome marine life inhabiting the Gulf of Thailand.

Best of all, you'll get to meet and work together with people from all over the globe, and as your PADI internship progresses you'll become a valued member of the Simple Life dive team, taking on responsibility, becoming an expert level diver, and have a great time in the process. This really is the adventure of a lifetime and will open up many exciting opportunities.

Our PADI internship includes absolutely everything which you need to train through to PADI Instructor - scuba diving training, equipment, materials and accommodation. Let's look at each in more detail:

Scuba Diving Courses: Open Water to PADI Instructor

The dive internship follows PADI's scuba courses in sequence, building new diving skills and experience at each stage. Here are the steps:

1. PADI Open Water training: Our experienced PADI Instructors will teach you the basics of scuba diving, including dive theory such as how scuba equipment works and how pressure affects our body. You'll make a shallow water session where you master lots of important diving skills, then we'll head out on the dive boat to make 4 open water dives, checking out Koh Tao's amazing coral reefs and building up dive experience to a maximum depth of 18M.
2. PADI Advanced Open Water training: Next it's time to go deeper and further, building on your open water dive experiences. Training includes a deep dive where you'll go right down to 30M encountering nitrogen narcosis for the first time, plus you'll try night diving, exploring the darkness with an underwater flashlight. You'll practice your underwater navigation, improve your buoyancy control and air consumption, and start to learn about the aquatic life of the Gulf of Thailand.
3. Emergency First Responder: As a PADI Dive pro you must be CPR and First aid trained. We'll run through some basic theory, practice important techniques in a workshop and give you a short quiz to make sure you understood everything.
4. PADI Rescue Diver Training: The rescue diver course is a lot of fun. We'll look at surface rescues dealing with panicked, tired and unconscious divers and snorkelers and investigate underwater problems such as bad buoyancy, overexertion or missing divers. You'll learn how to anticipate and prevent scuba diving problems, plus manage and control a diving emergency situation. The course concludes with final scenarios, where you'll be in charge of the dive boat, whilst the staff simulate problems which you'll need to respond to.
5. DAN (Divers Alert Network) Oxygen Administrator: Victims of scuba diving related illness stand a much better chance of making a full recovery and avoiding permanent problems if administered 100% oxygen as a first aid treatment. You'll learn to administer emergency oxygen, choosing the best delivery system, controlling flow rate and monitoring exposure, whilst you evacuate the victim to professional medical care.
6. PADI Divemaster Internship: Now we step up a gear with PADI's first professional qualification. Working closely together with our team of experienced PADI Instructors, you'll become an expert level diver, able to organize diving trips, overseeing all logistics including sorting out scuba equipment, briefing divers and scheduling the boat. You'll learn to take certified divers on tours of the Koh Tao dive sites, showing them lots of marine life and guiding them back to the dive boat, plus you'll be helping the PADI Instructors train new divers. As you build up experience as a PADI Divemaster, you'll become a valued member of our dive team and will get a lot of satisfaction being involved in the running Simple Life. Along the way you'll map a dive site, make an emergency assistance plan, develop demonstration quality scuba diving skills and get to grips with detailed scuba diving theory covering physics, physiology, decompression theory, scuba equipment and more. Being a Divemaster Trainee is a fantastic experience where you'll learn lots and have a great time.
7. PADI Instructor Development Course: Finally, we'll train you how to teach diving in the PADI Instructor Development course (or IDC for short). You'll learn about the standards which we have to work to as scuba diving instructors and we'll teach you how to deliver classroom, confined water and open water teaching presentations. You'll learn how to control a group of students in the water, and identify and correct student diver problems, making sure all your students qualify as safe, confident divers. This is an intensive course with a steep learning curve - throughout the instructor development course you'll develop a strong sense of camaraderie with your colleagues and achieve a real sense of achievement as you raise your level.
8. PADI Instructor Examination: The last step is the PADI Instructor Examination (IE). Each month, an external team of PADI instructor examiners visits us from their head office in Australia, to evaluate Koh Tao's latest instructor candidates in an intensive 3 day evaluation. You'll be assessed on your scuba diving knowledge, classroom teaching, shallow water skills presentations and open water teaching. You'll be required to deal with simulated problems and show that you've got what it takes to work as a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor. Your PADI Internship with Simple Life will have you more than ready for this examination - once the IE is complete you'll be certified as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and there'll be a bit of celebrating ;-).

And, throughout your PADI internship you can make as many dives as you want. At any stage throughout the internship, you can take a break from the training and enjoy some 'fun dives'. Pairing up with a buddy, you can head out to explore the Koh Tao diving sites, improving your underwater navigation skills and familiarizing yourself with the coral reefs and pinnacles.

PADI Internships: Scuba Diving Equipment Package

Your dive internship includes your own set of scuba diving equipment, professional quality and perfect for tropical Koh Tao's scuba diving conditions. You'll receive:

• Mask
• Snorkel
• Regulator Set (First Stage, Primary and Alternate 2nd Stages, Gauges and LPI hose)
• Buoyancy Control Device (BCD)
• Rigid, Open Heel Diving Fins
• Wetsuit booties
• 2.5mm Shorty Wetsuit
• Stainless Steel Dive Knife
• Liquid Filled Underwater Wrist Compass
• Safety Marker Buoy (SMB)
• Pocket Mask
• Underwater slate
• Whistle
• Gear bag

PADI Dive Course Manuals and Certification Fees

The PADI Internship includes all the PADI manuals, slates, cue cards and certification fees which you need to train through to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor:

• PADI Open Water Diver: Open Water manual & Recreational Dive Planner, Table Version
• PADI Advanced Diver:Adventures in Diving manual, Underwater navigation slate
• Emergency First Responder & PADI Rescue Diver: EFR Candidate Manual, Rescue Diver Manual and Diving Accident Flow Chart
• PADI Divemaster Training: Divemaster manual, Encyclopedia of Scuba Diving, Divemaster Knowledge workbook, DM cue cards and electronic dive planner - multi level version.
• Instructor Development Course (IDC): PADI IDC Candidate Workbook, PADI Instructor Manual, Lesson Preparation Slates, Instructor Cue Cards, Student Exam Booklets (OW, Rescue, DM), Emergency First Response Instructor Manual

Clearly, that's quite a lot of books! If you have a laptop computer, bring it with you and you can opt for digital versions of many of these materials, which will save a lot of space and weight in your luggage.

Accommodation for your PADI Internship in Koh Tao

For the 7 months of your PADI Internship you'll be staying in a nice resort close to Simple Life Divers. The accommodation is simple but clean and pleasant and you'll be sure to be comfortable.

You'll have your own room with double bed, mosquito screens on the windows, electric fan to keep the place cool, television (with movies, sports and news in English, plus a bunch of Thai, Italian, French and Japanese channels), refrigerator and bathroom with hot water shower. More than enough to keep you comfortable on a tropical island!

Everything you need is within just a few moments walk. Simple Life Divers is about 3-4 minutes walk away and you're close to the beach, many Thai and Western restaurants, bars, internet, ATMs and shops.

PADI Internships Thailand Testimonial: Sarah

Name: Sarah O'Leary

From: North London, England

Prior to dive internship: I had just finished my first year of uni in Bournemouth, studying journalism, before i decided to head out to Thailand.

Life on Koh Tao? Amazing... I truly miss being on Koh Tao. I have printed my favourite pictures and they are currently blue tacked to my wall for me to dream over while it’s raining in England.

The island is perfect for a few months’ vacation and lifestyle. You have everything you need from food, parties, doctors, loads of places to sightsee and chill out and obviously loads of dive sites to choose from.

The dive training? Assisting is very educational and fun. With every course you see new problems and learn ways to deal with them, and ways to calm new divers who struggle with skills. It’s really insightful when you spend the whole course following someone from the beginning to when they finish and pick up on what the instructors do to help situations. I think its one of the most important aspects to completing your DM.

I was lucky when I first led a dive because I knew the site quite well and had a good DM helping me out along the way. I think you definitely need to check your compass as your going along and look out for what is familiar to make it an easy dive for you and the people your guiding. I found it ten times better though when your at the front and while your divers are following you, you can look ahead and not see another pair of fins in front, makes a world of difference.

Diving in Koh Tao? Chumpon has to be the best site. Starting off with the amazing boat ride out to the deep, jumping into the unknown to find sharks swimming around you, with amazing groupers, barracudas, batfish and loads of beautiful of types. Its different every time you enter the water, with crystal clear waters to an occasional bubble blanket. Different has the thrill factor is your looking for sharks in the distance while casually swimming around the pinnacle.

Sharks galore. I saw plenty, some a bit too close for comfort, but it just makes you realise how powerful and fast those things are. They are so majestic and big when they appear from the thermocline or deep blue as you look out. I was jinxed with the whalesharks it seems the few times I didn't dive there was always a whaleshark.

Nightlife, Food & Social: Koh Tao is a very friendly island. After a couple of weeks you'll start to recognise everyone and start learning who goes where which nights. Simple life usually has a good set of people hanging out at the bar, and in the shop. The night scene is just what you want for a small island. A different bar every night, which a slightly different setting. Although the Castle parties are brilliant.

Check out King crab - Thai green curry, best you'll find I reckon. Also the place behind lotus bar has amazing green curry baguettes. For cheap food there are loads of places down the back streets off Sairee beach, but the chicken satay stand by 7/11 is good for a quick bite to eat. Ali the pancake man is also mesmerizing after a couple of beers!

I attended plenty of full moon parties. It’s great going in a big group with simple life. Everyone usually gets t-shirts made, gets the boat over together playing the 'mine' game, and having a couple of beers. The experience is insane if you like to have a rave on the beach. Surrounded by other nutcases, you just dance till the sun comes up then head to the after party, where ever it may be, and then head back on the boat in the afternoon to finish off the experience on Sairee beach, before falling asleep covered in paint, with arm bands on and a bucket in your hands.

Funny stories: More then i can write about, mostly too embarrassing for me to mention! Glimpses include skinny dipping in the hidden pools, riding around on motorbikes, parties at the castle, full moon, simple life parties, getting seven balled too many times, fancy dress parties....

What Next? Due to still being at uni i have been a bit restricted with money and time. but i managed to get over to Egypt for a month in then Dahab and Malta, and even isle of Wight a couple of weeks, which is very, very cold! I am now assisting with courses for my boyfriend's dad dive school (Jim's Scuba Crew) in St Albans, UK. I help with pool sessions and I am hopefully attending some dive holidays later this year.

I think Koh Tao has a good name for turning out Divemasters. Living on the island and having the DM life defiantly opens your eyes to the possibilities in the rest of the world. It helps you know who you need to know to get the best equipment or courses and training, and teaches you generally how to socialise and meet other divers for those important connections you'll need.

Final advice: Enjoy every second, go on every dive your allowed to on the boat, assist as many courses as possible and really revise for the exams, and keep re-reading it when you’re done, as I’m sure along with other people my memory is struggling with certain bits now I’m revising for AI course!
Take a good camera with housing for your dives as every time you go down you'll want to take a picture of something new

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