Technical diving instructor course: from Open Water Instructor into the technical diving world, Advanced Nitrox to Technical Instructor
The technical diving instructor course is the second path with the Instructor Trainer. It is for Open Water Scuba Diving Instructors who are technical divers themselves and want to start teaching technical diving. The ladder of instructor ratings goes from Advanced Nitrox Instructor through Helitrox Instructor to Technical Instructor. You dive on the walls of Playa del Carmen and in the cenotes. Candidates assist on courses before the instructor course. For candidates who then take the instructor course here, the assists are free.
Why take a technical diving instructor course?
A technical instructor teaches divers who already know how to dive and want to go further. That means deeper, longer, with decompression and with more gases. The work is more demanding than recreational teaching. So is the reward: small groups, serious students and courses where the diving is at its best. Playa del Carmen gives both classrooms at once: the ocean walls for depth and the cenotes for precision and control.
The ladder
- Advanced Nitrox Instructor: 7 days, 4 dives plus course assists. Prerequisites: 18 years of age, Advanced Nitrox Supervisor rating or equivalent. Experience: 100 logged dives, assisted on three courses.
- Helitrox Instructor (Advanced Recreational Trimix Instructor): 7 days, 4 dives plus course assists. Prerequisites: 18 years of age, Helitrox / Advanced Recreational Trimix Diver. Experience: 100 logged dives, assisted on three courses.
- Technical Instructor: 5 days, 3 dives plus course assists. Prerequisites: 21 years of age, Advanced Nitrox Instructor and Technical Diver. Experience: 350 logged dives of which 40 decompression dives, 8 courses taught and 2 years as an instructor.
- Rate: $428 per day in a group of two or more, $478 individually.
Assists before the course
Candidates assist on courses before their instructor course. For candidates who then take the instructor course here, the assists are free.
Applicants must
- Be a certified Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor
- Meet the prerequisites of the rating they apply for, listed above
- Be physically and mentally fit; obtain a physician’s prior written authorization for prescription drugs or any medical condition that may pose a risk while diving
How the course runs
Each tech instructor course combines a review of the standards and procedures of the level with a written exam. The candidate also plans lessons and gives lectures. In the water the candidate demonstrates the skills of the course at presentation level. Then the candidate teaches and evaluates them under the eyes of the Instructor Trainer. The course assists are real courses with real students, so the candidate takes a growing share of the teaching. The number of days and dives of each rating is in the ladder above.
Rules of the course
- Medical: every participant completes and signs the standard Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire before the activity. A YES answer to any question in its final section requires written approval from a physician before diving. Without it the guest does not dive.
- Liability: every participant signs the standard diving General Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk before the activity. Without the signed form the guest does not dive.
Your Instructor Trainer: Alexander Vronsky
Instructor Trainer and Course Director.
Alexander trains cave and technical divers, rebreather divers and the instructors who teach them, year-round, in the cenotes and caves of the Riviera Maya, home to the longest underwater cave systems in the world.
Cave and technical instructor trainer: Cavern to Technical Cave, Technical to Master Deep. CCR instructor: Dual CCR and Dual CCR Cave; GBM CCR from Nitrox to Trimix 100; S7 CCR from Nitrox to Helitrox; CCR Cave, CCR Technical Cave and CCR Expedition Cave on GBM, S7, SF2, JJ and Fathom. Authorized dealer for S7 and GBM rebreathers.
Elected representative of CREER, the regional cave diving committee of Quintana Roo (Comité Regional de Espeleobuceo, Ecología y Regulación).
Alexander teaches the cave and technical courses himself, in English and Russian.
An engineer by training, Alexander ran large-scale technical and broadcast operations in telecom and for the Olympic Games before diving became his profession. That experience shows in how every course here is planned and run.