PADI ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR
Assist With Classes

Are you looking for something extraordinary? To do something others can only dream of? To help people transform their lives? To open doors you didn’t even know existed? All of this, and more, awaits you as a PADI Instructor. Teaching scuba allows you to share your love of the aquatic world with thers. PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors and PADI Assistant Instructors are the most sought-after dive professionals around the world because they’ve completed the program that sets the standard for training dive professionals.

PADI’s Instructor Development Course (IDC)—the core of PADI Instructor training – is composed of two distinct components: the first portion is the Assistant Instructor (AI) course followed by the Open Water Scuba Instructor program (OWSI).

The fun part of instructor training is interacting with student divers while creating friendships that continue long after the course concludes.

Candidates completing the Assistant Instructor course are authorized to conduct some PADI programs independently. Candidate may also go on to complete an OWSI program in the future. Candidates completing an entire IDC (or AIs who go on to complete an OWSI Program) are eligible to enroll in a PADI Instructor Examination (IE) conducted by PADI Staff. The IE evaluates the candidate’s teaching ability, dive knowledge, skill level, understanding of the PADI System, attitude and professionalism using standardized, objective criteria. When the criteria are met, candidates achieve the PADI Open WaterScuba Instructor rating.

Prerequisites for AI Phase:

• Dive Leader certification — PADI Divemaster or leadership-level certification with a recognized recreational diver training organization* who is either:
• An instructor member in good standing, or
• A diver with proof of certification in diver supervision and management including proof of rescue diving certification; 60 logged dives; documented experience in night diving, deep diving and underwater navigation.
• 18 years old
• Medical clearance attesting to dive fitness signed by a physician within the previous 12 months.
• Certified diver for six months.
• EFR Primary and Secondary Care course completion (or qualifying training) within the last 24 months.
• If not a PADI Divemaster, complete the PADI Divemaster course diver rescue skills assessment.
• Submit documentation of qualifying certifications for entry level, advanced, rescue and leadership level, as necessary.

Materials (Required):
The PADI Dive Center, Resort, Course Director and/or IDC Staff Instructor conducting the course ensures that instructor candidates have, in their possession, a personal, current set of the following materials for study and use during the course and for reference afterward; unless the materials are not available in a language understood by the candidate:

• PADI Instructor Manual
• PADI’s Guide to Teaching
• PADI Specialty Course Instructor Manual
• PADI Open Water Diver Manual or e-Learning
• Recreational Dive Planner – RDP Table and eRDPML, including Instructions for Use booklets
• How to Use and Choose Dive Computers book
• Open Water Diver Quizzes and Exam booklet
• Advanced Open Water Manual or e-Learning
• PADI Rescue Diver Manual or e-Learning
• Rescue Diver Final Exams booklet
• PADI Divemaster Manual or e-Learning
• Divemaster Final Exams booklet
• Aquatic Cue Cards for Open Water Diver, Adventures in Diving, Rescue Diver, Divemaster and Discover Scuba Diving Cue Card
• Confined Water Lesson Preparation slate
• Open Water Training Dive Lesson Planning slate
• The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
• Diving Knowledge Workbook or eRecord for Dive Theory Online

Instructor Candidate Materials(Recommended):

• All PADI professional videos
• All PADI diver videos
• PADI Specialty Diver manuals
• Rescue Diver Course Prescriptive and standard Lesson Guides
• Divemaster Course Lesson Guides
• Discover Scuba Diving Brochure
• Scuba Tune-up guidebook
• Skill Evaluation Slate
• Open Water Diver Course Prescriptive and Standard Lesson Guides
• The Law and the Diving Professional
• The Best of The Undersea Journal
• The Business of Diving
• Children and Scuba Diving: A Resource Guide for Instructors and Parents
• AWARE – Our World, Our Water manual – downloadable digital version
• Project AWARE’s 10 Ways a Diver Can Help to Protect the Underwater Environment brochure
• Discover the Underwater World video and The Snorkeler’s Field Guide
• PADI Pro log book

Required materials, equipment, entry fees and air fills are all Candidates responsibility.