Planet Scuba India is India’s First ever IDC!


INDIA’S FIRST EVER INSTRUCTOR DEVELOPMENT COURSE (IDC) AND INSTRUCTOR EXAM (IE)

BECOME A PADI INSTRUCTOR AND BE A PART OF INDIAN DIVING HISTORY!

Here is the basic information that you need to know. To ask any questions, confirm your attendance, order your PADI Materials or just have a chat call, David Perry on +91 94493 51192 or email at dave@planetscubaindia.com.

When?
The IDC runs from 16 November to 27 November including a free 2-day mock IE to fine tune your examination skills. The IE is on 28-30 November.

Where?
The IDC will be held at Planet Scuba India’s new purpose-built Instructor Training facility in Port Blair, Andaman Islands. With the latest multimedia classroom, an Olympic size pool and crystal clear waters on the doorstep the facilities will be unrivalled. The IE will also be in Port Blair.

Course Director
The Course Director running the IDC will be Matt Bolton – a Platinum Course Director normally based in Thailand who is generally considered to be one of the world’s top Instructor Trainers.

How much?
This first IDC will be cheaper than most comparable IDCs in the region and so the price of the IDC will be just 50,000 Rs (1,038 $USD)! This price includes your Instructor Candidate Workbook, open and confined water Lesson Planning Slates and your PADI IDC fee – worth over 12,000 Rs (250 $USD) in total!

You will pay direct to PADI the cost of the Instructor Exam (695 $AU).

Pre-requisites
You must be a PADI Divemaster or an Instructor in good standing with another recognized organisation, have 100 logged dives and have been diving for more than 6 months since your entry-level diving course.

If you are crossing over from another certification body or are unsure about your knowledge of PADI skills or current diving theory, we will be arranging a Pre-IDC Preparation Course.

You must also become an Emergency First Response Instructor prior to the IE (unless you are a current Instructor with DAN, Red Cross or other approved organisation) and we have scheduled an EFR Instructor Course for 14-15 November immediately prior to the IDC for all those candidates who need it.

PADI Materials
In addition to the Instructor Candidate Workbook and Slates included in the price of the IDC, PADI give the following list of Required Materials that you must have at the IDC/IE:

PADI Instructor Manual (digital or paper but must be legal and up to date i.e. 2009 version)
Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty Instructor Outline
Diving Knowledge Workbook
Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
Project AWARE Specialty Instructor Outline
AWARE – Coral Reef Conservation Specialty Instructor Outline
RDP – Table and eRDPML including associated Instructions for Use booklets

PADI Open Water Diver Manual
Open Water Diver Quizzes & Exams booklet
PADI Adventures in Diving Manual
PADI Rescue Diver Manual
Rescue Diver Final Exams booklet
PADI Divemaster Manual
Divemaster Final Exams booklet
Aquatic Cue Cards – for Open Water Diver, Adventures in Diving, Rescue Diver, Divemaster and Discover Scuba Diving

Please note that the various Manuals must be complete and up to date with the Knowledge Reviews intact.

You may have access to some or all of these materials – for anything that you don’t have simply order it through Planet Scuba India at a special wholesale price.

What should you do now?
Once you have decided to take part in the IDC, you simply contact me by email and we will arrange for you to pay a deposit of 10,000 Rs (208 $USD). We will then send you your Instructor Candidate Workbook so that you can make a start on your Independent Study – 17 Knowledge Reviews to do before the IDC starts!

David Perry will then stay in touch with you on at least a fortnightly basis to give you further information.

* Currency conversion based on current exchange rate

** please message for more information

Do your part


24th Feb 2009 is the next PADI- Open Water Diver Course. Sign up with us now, so that your summer holidays will be a fun filled scuba diving one. But to more serious news.

One Fifth of World’s Corals Gone: Climate Change Battle to Rescue Remaining

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008, released in Washington, DC, December 2008, declares a 19 percent loss of coral reefs worldwide. 

Launched by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the report identifies which coral reefs are recovering and which are declining worldwide. The report states if current trends in carbon dioxide emissions continue, many remaining reefs may be lost over the next 20 to 40 years with alarming consequences. 

Project AWARE Foundation, partner behind the project and supporter of the launch event, is encouraged by the report that 45 percent of the world’s reefs are currently healthy. But the Foundation also recognizes a focus on climate change, now considered the leading threat to coral reefs today. Threats including increasing ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are intensified by other threats including overfishing, pollution and invasive species. 

“If nothing changes, we are looking at a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide in less than 50 years,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme, one of the organizations behind the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. “As this carbon is absorbed, the oceans will become more acidic, which is seriously damaging a wide range of marine life from corals to plankton communities and from lobsters to seagrasses.” 

Hope is also found in the ability of some corals to recover after major bleaching events, caused by warming waters, adapting to climate change threats. However, the report also shows the recent downward trends have not been reversed in the last four years. And corals have a higher chance of survival against climate change if other human threats are minimized. 

“The report details the strong scientific consensus that climate change must be limited to the absolute minimum. If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions, says Clive Wilkinson, Coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. 

Ten years after the world’s biggest coral bleaching event, we know that reefs can recover given the chance. Unfortunately, impacts on the scale of 1998 will reoccur in the near future, and there’s no time to lose if we want to give reefs and people a chance to suffer as little as possible,” says Dr David Obura, Chair of the IUCN Climate Change and Coral Reefs working group and Director of the Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean Programme (CORDIO) in East Africa.  

The GCRMN is a network of people, governments, institutes and NGOs in more than 80 countries, with many partners, including: CORDIO, Reef Check, CARICOMP, Project AWARE Foundation and AGRRA. All reports are available through www.ReefBase.org. To read more of such articles visit ProjectAware

Scuba Diving – The Ultimate Adventure Sport!


Most sports are played with national pride at stake, and few others are played with a competitive streak. But there are certain sports that border on a particular way of living and are niche to adrenaline junkies. Scuba diving is one of them.

The thrill of adventure and the rush of blood while taking that first dive into the deep blue waters are fantastic catalysts for most people who love adventure. Scuba diving is popular all over the world and in India, it is now picking up pace mainly due to the efforts of Planet Scuba India. The country’s first inland scuba diving school, based out of Bangalore, is aiming at making scuba diving one of the premier leisure activities for Bangaloreans, without the hassle of travelling to the diving hot spots across the country.

Very few adventure sport in the world matches up to scuba diving in terms of fascination, and most people in the world would like to try it out, given a chance. The chance is here. The time is now.

Leisure and adventure are two faces of the same coin, when it comes to sports like scuba diving. Once underwater, the diver can experience the beauty of the marine life in near weightlessness, and that feeling is incomparable. It has become a way of living for many people across the world and Indians are taking to the sport like a fish takes to water, all puns intended.

So, give the adrenaline junkie inside you a chance to take you through an exhilarating experience. Anyone can dive at Planet Scuba India!