Become a dive instructor! You can become a dive instructor teaching others how to dive leading to an exciting career all over the world. This is a life changer, training under one of Koh Tao´s most established and successful course directors you can put the prospect of a 9 to 5 rat race well and truly behind you.
An unrivalled opportunity to ditch the day job and work anywhere in the world! Life is good as a diving instructor, we should know we have several on our staff at Xtreme Gap Year. In fact, you could say that we are diving nuts, so you have our full support and expertise if you are planning the ultimate career move into becoming a PADI dive instructor.
Prior to starting your IDC you will need to complete your Divemaster course. During which you will enjoy unlimited diving living on a tropical island paradise! The Divemaster course details you can find here: Divemaster training Thailand
Most of the time the sea is your class room! And your work uniform is swimwear, the cantina is a nice Thai restaurant and your teachers are all tanned and happy to help you out becoming one of them!
All of our gap year holidays are completely customised to your needs and prices will therefore vary based on things like the time of year and level of accommodation; but we want to give you as good an idea of how much this itinerary will cost.
There are some extra costs not included in the price you pay us, these are fees that are payable direct to PADI to sit your exams. At the time of writing they are (in Australian Dollars):The IE will now cost 865 AUD$ , the IDC application fee 249 AUD$ and the EFRI application fee will cost 172 AUD$ , all together adding up to 1286 AUD$.
Please note this figure is a guide and can change (it is set by PADI not Xtreme).
Yes, the Koh Tao course is adaptable. Eg. we can shorten your trip if you have existing qualifications when you start your Koh Tao IDC instructor course. However remember you need to have at least 6 months gap between gaining your first diving qualification (Open Water) and becoming a Dive Instructor.
To train on the Koh Tao diving course you will need to fill in a medical statement and pass a medical exam. You will definitely notice that your fitness levels improve significantly as you advance through the Koh Tao Divemaster course. Bear in mind you will be swimming for up to 4 hours, this has a great impact on your fitness and health. However before beginning the course you need to be reasonably fit and healthy. You will also need to pass a PADI instructor swim.
20 to 25 pounds a day should be enough for a great gap year. If you are not the drinking type and you like more quiet nights you could do it for 15 pounds. During the day you will only spend some money on food and water, and trust me, that is cheap!
The resort is part of the dive school. There is a reception, bar, restaurant with Thai and Western food, a big pool with sun beds pool, friendly reception, spacious rooms, and internet. The resort is a 2 minute walk from the beach, the bars and the restaurants.
You do not need experience. But you do need to be able to swim, not excellent, but you need to be able to swim around the dive boat. The diving in Thailand programme of Xtreme Gap gives you plenty of time, more than most programmes. But please do realize it is a big commitment so make sure you really want to do it.
Yes. We do never know exactly how many, but there is always an average of 5 to 12 travellers from Xtreme Gap.Not all gap year travellers will be doing the Thailand dive programme. There are also options to do Martial arts on Koh Tao, Yoga, Free diving and rock climbing. For more gap year Thailand ideas please check our site. Everyone will stay in the same resort.
You can buy anything you need on Koh Tao, and it is much cheaper than back home, so pack light! The shops are all close to the resort. You can buy souvenirs, sun lotion, mosquito repellent, swim shorts, flip flops and everything else you might need.
If you are from the UK you can book gap year travel insurance online on the Xtreme Gap website. You would need the backpacker option and then the upgrade since you will be diving up to 30 meters deep during your gap year. We have chosen to work with this company since they are good value and cover the necessary diving and sports options Xtreme Gap has for gap years.
The first thing we should mention is rules do change very frequently in Thailand, so this is just a guideline and you need to take responsibility for checking the accuracy. Having said that this is a question we are asked often and this is the current advice we are giving regarding visas.
Before you travel to Thailand you will need a double entry 60 day tourist VISA. This will enable you to get 60 days when you first enter Thailand which can be extended by 30 days in Koh Samui either personally or we can send yourpassport over to our representative and they´ll do it for a fee, then at the end of that 30 days you will have to do a visa run and going over to Burma.
This is the closest place to do a VISA run, which takes place overnight you leave in the evening and you are back on Koh Tao the following morning. When you re-enter Thailand you will get the second 60 day visa activated. Once this is nearly expired this can once again be can be extended by 30 days in Samui.
This takes you to 6 months. If you are on the seven month course you will still need an additional month which requires you to do one final VISA run.
Some people from certain countries do now get 30 day tourist visas when they enter Thailand over a land boarder, the UK is one of these, but Ireland isn´t. The list of countries which now get 30 day visas when they cross a land border is;
So if you are from any of the above countries you are able to do one additional VISA run to complete the trip, if you are from other countries you may need to do to visa runs, please check with the course director to ensure that your visa runs do not interfere with the timing of the final instructor exam.
Dive Instructor Course Philippines
Taking your IDC or Dive Instructor Course is a life changing step. Gone are the days of commuting, offices and general dis-satisfaction of everyday life in a modern world. Enter a life of living in the worlds most amazing beach resorts, a genuinely rewarding job and qualifications you can use to earn a living anywhere in the world. Hello complete freedom.
So you've seen the trip and you like what you see, but you've still got questions?
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