There are many reasons why Phuket is an awesome place to do your PADI IDC and start your Instructor career! Here are 10 to start with!
King Cruiser and other awesome dive sites
There are some great dive sites close to Phuket. You can make daytrips to the Koh Phi Phi National Park where you are almost guaranteed to see sharks or turtles. Another highlight is the King Cruiser wreck that is completely overgrown with colourful soft corals and has so many schools of snappers and barracuda’s that is sometimes difficult to even see the wreck.
From Phuket it is also possible to join a liveaboard to the famous dive sites of Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Liveaboards to the Similan Islands leave from close by Khao Lak. Both destinations are famous for whale shark and manta ray sightings.
A great place for dive instructors
Phuket is considered the “diving capital” of Thailand. Most well known diving brands like Scubapro, Mares and Aqualung, have their import and wholesale center in Phuket. It is a great place to do your PADI IDC and get started as a diving instructor. Thailand is one of the most popular counties to do your open water course. Plenty of opportunities to start teaching. There are many diving centers in Phuket and the neighboring islands so it is easy to find a job as a PADI instructor.
Phuket is beautiful
Phuket is known to many people as a busy tourist destination and a place to party. However Phuket is a very large island and the party scene is limited to one or two streets in Patong beach. Outside Patong you will very quickly find yourself in ‘the real Thailand’ and it is very easy to find quiet areas and even secluded beaches in Phuket. Most divers live in Chalong or Rawai area which both are about an hour drive from Patong.
Amazing food
Phuket has many western style restaurants where you can get Italian, German, Indian or even Japanese and Turkish food. Off course we advise you to try one of the many Thai restaurants or to get some great Thai food from the night market or one of the roadside stalls. For a few Baht you can enjoy awesome fresh fish, Pad Thai or Thom Yam soup. If you can handle the spices you should try green or red curry or papaya salad!
Other things to do
Phuket is not all about diving. There are many other things to do! If beach bumming is your thing you can find some very nice beaches. For sightseeing we recommend Promthep Cape or Big Buddha or the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. You can try a Thai cooking class or Muay Thai lessons (after you have finished the PADI IDC please 😉 ). Phuket is very close to Khao Sok National park where you can do great trekking and also very close to Phang Nga bay where you can enjoy awesome limestone formations including the famous ‘James Bond Island’.
Awesome facilities
Asia Scuba Instructors IDC’s are conducted in cooperation with Sea Fun Divers and take place in the luxurious Le Meredien Resort. Without any doubt we can say that we have perfect facilities to conduct PADI IDC’s! Three air-conditioned classrooms and a huge pool for practice sessions. The dive center is located right at the beach. If you had enough of the classroom sessions you can grab a tank and make a dive on our house reef!
Value for money
When you compare prices for IDC’s worldwide you will see that Thailand IDC prices are very competitive. You should also consider cost of accommodation, food and traveling. Putting it all together shows that doing your IDC in Phuket is an excellent choice if you are on a limited budget. On top of that Asia Scuba Instructors IDC’s offer many extras like our Nitrox Instructor course that is included in the IDC for free.
Language support
On your IDC with Asia Scuba Instructors together with Sea Fun Divers you will have great language support. We support English, French, German, Swedish language and more. We have all important training material available in your own language and you can even do the instructor exam in your own language.
Although you can do the complete IDC and IE in your own language, we encourage our candidates to also practice teaching in English. This will boost your confidence to teach English courses as a diving instructor and it will greatly increase your chances to find a job!
Conservation
We care about our oceans! At Asia Scuba Instructors we actively promote and support SeaShepherd, Shark Guardian and off course Project AWARE. For instance, if you decide to join the optional MSDT program we will include the Shark AWARE conservation course.
Real job finding support
At Asia Scuba Instructors we will provide REAL job finding support. We’ll show you how to (re)write your CV and we will actively help you to find your first instructor job within our network of diving centers all around Asia. Anyway, in our IDC we don’t just teach a few ‘tricks’ to pass the Instructor Exam. You will become a safe and confident PADI instructor. Dive center managers know this and candidates from Asia Scuba Instructors IDC always come with the highest recommendations!