PADI Dive Instructor Internship
Koh Tao Thailand

Brief: Dive Instructor Internship

Spend 7 amazing months on the tropical island of Koh Tao becoming a PADI dive instructor; get qualified to teach new divers and work in the diving industry, exploring coral reefs & shipwrecks, meeting people from across the world, soaking up the tropical island life and having a great time.

Description: Escape to tropical Koh Tao

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

PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors (OWSI) are the most in-demand professionals in the dive industry. This internationally recognized qualification allows you to work in diving across the globe.

Our 7 month scuba diving internship trains you from beginner right through to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, giving you all the training, skills and experience you need. You’ll log hundreds of dives, exploring tropical coral reefs and deep sea pinnacles, home to awesome marine life.

Best of all, you’ll meet and dive with people from all over the globe, becoming a valued member of the Simple Life crew, becoming an expert level diver and having a great time along the way. This is the adventure of a lifetime and will open many exciting opportunities.

Our includes absolutely everything which you need – scuba diving training, dive gear, materials and accommodation. Let’s look at each in more detail:

PADI Courses

The internship follows PADI’s diver education system in sequence. Here are the steps:

1. PADI Open Water Diver:

Our experienced PADI Instructors will teach you the basics of scuba diving. This will include with diving theory such as how scuba gear works and how water pressure affects our body. You’ll make a shallow water session where you learn to operate a scuba unit, then we’ll make 4 proper dives, checking out amazing coral reefs and exploring to a maximum depth of 18 meters.

Full description: PADI Open Water Diver Course

2. PADI Advanced Open Water Diver:

Building on your foundation, the advanced course includes a deep dive where you’ll go right down to 30M, introducing nitrogen narcosis for the first time. You’ll try night diving, exploring the darkness with a flashlight. You’ll also work on your underwater navigation, improve your buoyancy control and air consumption, and learn about the aquatic life of the Gulf of Thailand.

Full description: PADI Advanced Diver Course

3. Emergency First Responder:

As a PADI Dive pro you must be CPR and First aid trained. We’ll cover through some basic theory, practice important life saving techniques in a workshop and give you a short quiz to make sure you understand all topics.

4. PADI Rescue Diver Training:

The PADI rescue diver course is a lot of fun. First we’ll look at how to perform surface rescues dealing with panicked, tired and unconscious victims, Plus we’ll investigate underwater problems such as poor buoyancy, overexertion or missing divers. You’ll learn how to anticipate and prevent problems, plus manage and control emergency situations. The course concludes with final scenarios, where you’ll take charge of the dive boat, responding to simulated scenarios.

Full description: PADI Rescue Diver Course

5. PADI Divemaster Internship:

Now training steps up a gear your first first professional rating; the PADI Divemaster internship. Working closely together with our team of Instructors and Divemasters, you’ll become an expert level diver able to coordinate diving trips, overseeing all logistics such as sorting scuba gear, briefing divers and scheduling the boat. You’ll learn to guide certified divers on underwater tours, pointing out marine life and guiding them back to the dive boat, plus you’ll be helping our instructors to train new divers. As you build up experience you’ll become a valued member of our dive crew, involved in the running Simple Life. As part of the training you’ll map a dive site, create an emergency assistance plan, develop professional quality scuba diving skills and get to grips with theory covering physics, physiology, decompression theory, scuba gear and more. Being a Divemaster is a fantastic experience where you’ll learn a huge amount and have a great time.

Full description: PADI Divemaster Course

6. PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC)

Finally, you’ll learn how to teach diving safely. You’ll learn about the PADI standards which we work to as dive instructors and practice you how to deliver classroom presentations, confined water classes and open water training. You’ll learn to control a groups of students in the water, and identify and correct student diver difficulties, making sure all you teach in a safe and smooth flowing way. This is an intensive program with a steep learning curve, with a real sense of achievement as you raise your level.

7. PADI Instructor Examination (IE)

Your final step is the PADI Instructor Examination (IE). An external team of PADI instructor examiners visits us from head office, to evaluate instructor candidates in a 3 day evaluation. You’ll be assessed on your diving knowledge, classroom teaching, shallow skills presentations and open water training. You’ll deal with simulated problems and show that you’ve got what it takes to work as a PADI Instructor. Your time with Simple Life will have you more than ready for this examination, and once the IE is complete you’ll qualify as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) and there’ll be a bit of celebrating ;-).

Full description: PADI Instructor Course

Unlimited Scuba Diving

During your time here you can make as many dives as you want. At any stage you can take a break from the training and enjoy some ‘fun dives’. Pairing up with a dive buddy, you can head out on the boat to explore the Koh Tao’s dive sites, improving your underwater navigation skills and becoming acquainted with the coral reefs and pinnacles.

Scuba Diving Gear

The package includes rental of all the scuba equipment. We us professional quality dive gear from leading manufacturers (Aqualung, Scubapro etc). All our gear is maintained by our in-house fully certified western technician.

If you have some spare cash, you have the option to purchase some or all of your own dive gear.

PADI Course Materials and Certification Fees

The package includes all the PADI manuals, slates, cue cards and certification fees. There are no hidden extras.

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

That’s a lot of books! If you have a laptop computer, bring it with you and you can opt for digital versions of most of these materials. Will save a lot of space and weight in your luggage, plus is easier to navigate.

Experience TEC Diving

Try technical diving with our ‘Experience Tec’ session.

Technical diving goes beyond the bounds of normal scuba, diving deeper for longer. Tec diving opens up the chance to access deeper dive sites beyond the limits of most divers, such as deep shipwrecks.

Technical diving is challenging & requires special training, techniques and equipment configuration; for example using multiple tanks containing mixed gas blends and performing decopression stops during ascent to the surface.

Our ‘Experience Tec’ program lets you try technical diving in sheltered conditions; twin set (two tanks on your back), wing, harness and deco cylinders, practicing skills and drills to give you a taster of the cutting edge of scuba. Plus gives you the chance to make a mean looking facebook photo 😉

(If you enjoy the intro to tec diving and want to continue, we offer a full range of technical diving courses).

Accommodation on Koh Tao

The program also includes 7 months accommodation.

You’ll have your own room with double bed, TV, refrigerator, WiFi and bathroom with hot water shower. Clean and comfortable.

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

Already a Certified Diver?

If you already hold a dive certification we’ll be able to customize the dive internship for you, saving both time and money.

Let us know what qualification you currently hold and we’ll send you full info on the revised package and schedule.

Internship Start Dates & Booking Procedure

We run our internships all year round as a rolling program so you can begin whichever month you prefer.

If you are interested in finding out more and/or booking, please complete the following form. We’ll reply asap with full details.