Resident PADI Course Director Richard was hard at work training our Kota Kinabalu Divemasters on their internship recently.

Both local and international divemasters were enjoying the attention of Downbelow’s Go Pro team here in Sabah, Borneo as they worked on Skin Diver and Discover Scuba Diving skills.

Local interns Victor and Hillary, together with international interns Sara and Leanne, were learning various aspects of the two courses with Go Pro team members Alvin, James and Richard.

Today they worked on the Discover Scuba Diving Course, which as Divemasters will allow them to take DSD participants on experience programs, whilst yesterday they finished of Skin Diver.

The final step for our new PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors was to qualify as Emergency First Response Instructor.

Downbelow’s resident PADI Course Director and EFR Instructor Trainer, Richard Swann, took the helm to teach this course, and the Emergency Oxygen Provider Instructor course to the PADI professionals.

Also spotted on the course was Mia, MD of Wild Borneo Expeditions, who joined to upgrade her skills to that of instructor as well.

After 2 days of mostly hard work and a bit of fun, everyone successfully qualified as instructors in both the Emergency First Response course and the Emergency Oxygen Provider course.

Well done to all.

Nevertheless, Tiago, one of professional scuba diving Divemaster interns in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, took this test very seriously.

Tiago recently sat for and passed his Divemaster exam and, as a fully qualified PADI Divemaster, was required to pass this additional social test before being accepted into the professional diving fold.

During celebrations, which included the supportive graduates from the February Instructor Development Course, Taigo was put on the spot to the test.

The video below illustrates what’s involved in the Snorkel Test. Tiago was suitably speechless afterwards.

Our February PADI Instructor Development Course wrapped up here in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah when our candidates successfully completed the PADI Instructor Examination.

“The February IDC has been one of the best ever,” recalled resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann, “with a great group of candidates from all over the world.”

“We also had whale sharks during the course for everyone to see,” he said with a glint in his eye, fondly remembering the awesome whale shark photos he got of these gentle giants who couldn’t have made a more dramatic appearance in the waters of Kota Kinabalu’s TAR Park.

Our IDC candidates turned PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor have mostly completed their work here in Sabah, Borneo, although some will stay around longer yet to gain more experience teaching and diving during the tail end of their professional internships.

Gaining a qualification is one thing, but being able to go to your future employer with actual, on-the-job instructing experience puts you in a league above the rest.

For aspiring Open Water Scuba Instructors, Downbelow’s next Instructor Development Course is scheduled for 16 – 25 May with the Instructor Exam following right after on 26 & 27 May 2012.

Contact us to book your spot and Go Pro with Downbelow, or get experience before hand with our professional diving internships, which we will tailor to your needs, for anything from 1 – 6 months.

It was Day 1 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah of the PADI Instructor Examination.

PADI Examiner Robert Scammell is leading the February IDC IE and started off with an orientation for the IDC candidates, prepping them for what lies ahead.

Over the next 2 days our Instructor Development Course candidates will demonstrate to the examiner that they have the stuff of champions and are qualified to be PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors.

The PADI Instructor Examination starts tomorrow and it’s all hands on deck for our Instructor Development Course candidates.

They’ve been doing PADI IE dry run exams to expose the areas and skills, which require a wee bit more polish before the big test starts tomorrow.

Resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann and his Go Pro Team have been taking good care of the IDC candidates though, and the dry runs should give them the confidence they need to ace their exams.

We wish our candidates all the best and know that they will put the icing on the cake of what was possibly the best IDC ever.

Over the weekend our Instructor Development Course candidates found themselves back in the waters of the beautiful TAR Park in Sabah, Borneo.

On Saturday they did Rescue Skill 7 in the deeper waters near our Padi 5 Star IDC Dive Centre on Gaya Island.

The IDC ties up shortly, and then it’s time for our candidates to show what they’ve learned.

Although plenty of time is spent in our paradise island classroom at the PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre on Gaya Island, and more time in water, spending a few hours in the confines of a classroom is inevitable.

Our Malaysia Instructor Development candidates spent a few hours this week working on their presentation skills in the classroom at the Downbelow head office in KK Times Square, Kota Kinabalu.

Equipped with a projector and other presentation aids, the Downbelow classroom is conducive for the type of presentations Open Water Scuba Instructors will have to give during, say, open water courses.

Because a fair amount of information have to be conveyed to students, presentation skills are important for effective communications, which is why – like most skills – practicing it is important.

The Malaysia IDC candidates did vary their classroom time with some time in the water though, so they didn’t all dry up completely.

The February Instructor Development Course in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia continues.

One of the skills a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor has to teach new divers, is what to do should they run out of air, like CESA, for instance; Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent.

Our IDC candidates busied themselves with this and other skills earlier this week as they found themselves in the water going through the Instructor Development Skills circuit during the IDC in Sabah, Borneo.

CESA is something every open water diver will learn, but will hopefully rarely use.

As an important, potentially live-saving maneuver, it is vital for instructors to be able to effectively communicate this skill, so that new divers can easily remember it, should one day the need arise.

In a real situation CESA is performed vertically, but because of the risk associated with rapidly rising from depth, such as decompression sickness, the skill is practiced and demonstrated horizontally.

Our Sabah Borneo IDC candidates still have some distance to go, but is already more than halfway through the February IDC.

The candidates on the February PADI Instructor Development Course split their time between the water and the classroom this week.

Following the excitement of diving with a whale shark on their first in-water day on Saturday, it was back to the IDC to prefect and demonstrate those skills.

The February IDC runs until 13 February and is then immediately followed by the PADI Instructor Exam on 14 & 15 February.