Aquanauts Makes It a Perfect 3 Years with 4 New PADI Instructors

Aquanauts Dive Centre made it a full three years with a perfect, 100 percent pass rate on the PADI Instructor Exam when four more of its professional scuba diving interns passed their exams with flying colors in Pattaya.

Lana Brook and Stephen Bodell of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Davis of Australia and American Greg Kuchan sailed through their three-day exam May 18-20 at Pattaya’s Discovery Beach Hotel. All are off to new adventures around the world teaching as PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors.

May’s instructor training also saw the certification of American John McGraw – who first became an instructor at Aquanauts is 2009 – as an IDC Staff Instructor.

This was the second IDC Aquanauts has done under PADI’s new 2010-format Instructor Development Course. The IDC has been shortened from nine days to seven with the dropped material moved online for students to complete before the classroom session begins.

While students do appreciate sitting in the classroom for a shorter period of time, the accelerated schedule does play on the nerves. Up until the last day before the exam Bodell was still nervous about his physics knowledge, but once he got to the exam he found it was easier than expected. All the students agreed Aquanauts’ thorough teaching methods results in the exam being easier than the IDC.

The four graduations now make it three full years since anyone has failed an instructor exam at Aquanauts, the only internship program with that record. It’s one reason why only Aquanauts guarantees its results in writing.

The IDC was staffed by PADI Platinum Course Director Roger M. Smith and Master Instructors Gary M. Tytler and Meg Smith.