PADI Course Director In Cyprus

PADI COURSE DIRECTOR IN CYPRUS

“We touch the lives of others in ways we often never know. People sometimes come into our personal world for fleeting moments and can leave us forever changed”

A Life Changing Experience! We have more power to create or to destroy, than we can ever imagine. We can leave things or individuals better or worse than we found them. A look, a word, a gesture has tremendous impact and frequently we blither along through our existence unaware of the mighty power that our communication wields. Here’s my story:

It was a rainy, humid day: the mother of all bad hair days. Just another cold dark winter’s day in England. I was taking a bus into town. The windows on the bus were covered in condensation so thick you couldn't see outside. Everyone was wilting and wet. I was sitting next to a man in a business suit and didn't pay much attention, looking into oblivion, until we both got off at the same stop and walked to the same newspaper stand to get a morning paper.

The man, owner of the stand was obviously having a bad day too. He was rude, abrupt and unsmiling as we bought our papers, with the news headlines to only add more gloom to my day. The businessman caught my eye and smiled. He then proceeded to smile brightly, thanked the newsstand proprietor for the paper and for being open on such a cold morning, making sure we were able to get our papers. In short, he expressed his appreciation for something most of us would take for granted.

The man running the newsstand responded only with a grunt and sour expressions. The businessman then pleasantly wished him a pleasant day. As we turned away, I asked this man why he had continued to be pleasant to the newsagent owner when he obviously didn't care about and didn't respond to his expression of appreciation and friendliness.
The businessman grinned at me and said, "Why would I let someone else control what I say, what I feel or what kind of day I'm going to have?"

"Diving and teaching can be a passion which changes your life and you can change other peoples life’s too"

You can say that again! It is a life changing experience for me...
PADI Course Director, Joey A. Ridge

 

I know how difficult it is to choose the right place to make your IDC, so the choice is obvious!  Little did you know that you could have picked a world class experienced Course Director! 

Joey’s passion for teaching Scuba has led to the creation of his Knowledge, Experience and Internship Scuba Training Courses. This is Joey’s commitment to support of Internship, IDC’s and the PADI Staff Instructors are taught. Prior Knowledge, materials helps us keep up to date and we like to be at the cutting edge of the dive industry, knowing this you can rest assure that Joey’s expertise is second to none.

Joey A. Ridge was born in the UK, where he lived until he was 18 and graduated from college. From that time, my passion was in Scuba Diving, I got my first seasonal Diving Job in Greece. I returned to Greece for three summers, working and gaining experience from a variety diving of centres.

My feet began to get hot and again, I travelled to the USA, helping dive centres in Florida, California and Hawaii. Australia wasn’t far, so I travelled over there and stayed a couple of years. But the most fun to be had for me was working in ASIA, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

There I had the pleasure to work for many good reputable Dive Schools, gaining valuable experiences along the way.  I lived and worked as a PADI Instructor and Underwater Photographer, Videographer in places around the world. The last 10 years I have been teaching the Padi System and conducting IDC’s.

I am the youngest local resident PADI Course Director in Cyprus. As I am English I speak English, Greek and a little Swedish. With support from my PADI Staff Instructors, I can teach IDC Courses in English, Greek, German, French, Finish, Swedish and Danish.

Now here in Cyprus for over 12 years, I have established myself and Easy Divers Cyprus with a firm foot hold in the dive industry here in Cyprus. Joey has a time-honoured and valued opinion as an Honorary Committee Member in the Cyprus Dive Centre Association (CDCA).

EZDivers Cyprus has a comprehensive selection of top Scuba Professional Traineeship programs, some designed by Joey himself. The Go Pro Scuba Internship caters for all budgets. Go from complete novice to Dive Master; take a look at our Instructor Internship / Trainee Programs. You can have that life changing Scuba Job and not only a dream wish.

Joey also runs the most dynamic, updated PADI Instructor Development Courses (IDC) in Cyprus. A full multimedia, network of computerized classrooms: laptops, LCD projectors, video etc. We will ensure that your PADI IDC experience is the most up to date, comprehensive and professional available.

Although PADI requires an IDC to have a minimum duration of 7 days we have found some extra presentations and workshops highly beneficial to our candidates' success. To accommodate these extra presentations, workshops and courses that we have integrated into our program, we have found an 8 – 9 day Prep and IDC more ideal.

Extra workshops include our DM/IDC Prep: Ascents & Descents, Buoyancy control, Buddy Breathing both swimming and stationary, Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA), Rescue and Student Control, both under water and at the surface an added bonus.

Joey is always very helpful, friendly, thorough, funny, approachable, knowledgeable and professional. He somehow makes the gruelling IDC courses a lot of fun. All of Joey’s instructor candidates have passed 100%. Joey is determined that each person he teaches gets individual attention and personalised counselling. He doesn't just teach someone to pass the exams; he is passionate that his candidates are confident and knowledgeable and prepared to be an effective PADI Scuba instructor in the ever changing world of the dive industry. Joey’s motto is ‘You either know it or you don’t’.

One of my Staff Instructors once told me, I never realised just how much you taught me and I now realise the more I teach, not only in your Instructor Development Courses, the more I put into practice your training styles, you taught me to be a better teacher...how to pace a class and cover all course requirements but still keep it fun. Thank you. Joey you are such a great role model.

When I teach, I tell all my new students, that this day, I will learn something new from all of you? 
To all new instructors, I say you will definitely learn something from every new course you teach, from all the students you train! 

 

For one instance, PADI teaches us how important positive feedback is for our students. I love to watch this in action; I see how proud my students looks when I tell them that they performed a skill just right, Perfect!!  One of my very first Open Water students took the time to write some positive comments about me and PADI passed it on to me.  It was really nice to get that feedback.  This reminded me that my students aren't the only ones that deserve positive reinforcement!  We all do, so I wanted to take the time to say THANKS!!!

To all my students and New Padi Instructor Candidates who train here, I hope to pass on my relaxed positive attitude to everyone that joins me at Easy Divers Cyprus for their training.

 

PADI Course Director

The Course Director level is the highest level you can reach in the PADI System of diver education. Course Director hopefuls submit an application for acceptance into one of two annual Course Director Training Courses. From almost 200 applications submitted each year only about 70 participants are selected to attend the two week long Course Director Training Course (CDTC).

The Course Director rating is the equivalent of having a postgraduate degree in scuba diving instruction, there is not a more prestigious level of certification within the dive industry. Course Directors are the only people who may conduct the Instructor Development Course needed to become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

Prerequisites:*
Hold the PADI Master Instructor certification for at least six months
Have at least 250 logged dives
Be a renewed EMERGENCY FIRST RESPONSE™ Instructor

 

Scuba Diving

We are always told we should learn sports when we are young, when our bodies are more resilient to the bruises and bumps which can be afflicted on us when we learn a new sport. This is true to a certain extent.

Take for example, my experience learning wind surfing. I learnt the sport when I was 26. If I were to learn this sport now at age 37, chances are I would not go far and would probably give up after 1 or 2 tries. Learning wind surfing was like battling with all the forces at the same time! We're talking about trying to balance on choppy waves on a slippery wet board, at the same time maneuvering a sail which weighs more than you in the correct direction that you want to go.In the process, I contributed blood and flesh from cuts on barnacles and bruises from hitting the surf board more than once before falling into the waters.

But there is a huge difference with scuba diving. YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN SCUBA DIVING! I can never say this enough.

I learnt scuba diving when I was 17. Now I'm not saying that 37 is a ripe old age but still, the body does feel somewhat less strong and less resilient. Added to that, as we get older, we also seem to have more fears. Perhaps we feel we have more to lose?

I say middle age and beyond should never be a factor in learning scuba diving BUT you do need to have:

- an Passion - love for the sea
- a willingness to learn from someone younger than you
- relatively good health

and last but very important ... time and money.

Now I'm assuming that you are thinking of learning scuba diving because you want to make this a sport that you can enjoy every other weekend if time and money permits and not just learning for education's sake.

An Intense Love For The Sea

To enjoy a scuba diving trip, you will have to love the sea and I mean really really love it with all its wonderful creatures large and small. You will know what I mean on your first ever scuba diving trip after you have cleared your Open Water tests.

It is unlikely that your scuba diving buddies on your first dive trip will be the same classmates in your scuba diving course. Because of time and money constraints, you will find that you may be the only one keen enough to join a scuba diving trip soon after your certification.

More often than not, your dive buddies will be a dive-crazy bunch who will do at least 4 dives a day plus another at night. This means that on a scuba diving trip, most times you will not do anything but dive, talk about the sea creatures and encounters of each dive, before suiting up for the next dive. For someone who only wants to do one dive a day and then go shopping, he/she may be disappointed as many great scuba diving spots have few of these shopping and entertainment facilities.

In case you are already getting stressed just thinking about this, don't be. Every scuba diving newbie goes through this. Just have an attitude of a newbie, be humble and you will find that the seasoned divers are more than willing to share tips and may even help you to gear up before a dive.

A Willingness To Learn From Someone Younger Than You

Your scuba diving instructor is likely to be someone much younger than you. Some dive instructors have an attitude and are cocky so you may have to live with it for at least 3 weekends before you become certified - 1st weekend for classroom and theory, 2nd weekend for pool sessions and a 3rd weekend for the actual open water tests. Put aside your ego and just bear with it, it'll be worth it in the end. this is if your being trained in the UK?

Having said that, that's not to say there are no good and kind scuba diving instructors around. Look at me? Just joking! I was fortunate to receive dive instruction from many different people from around the world. I learnt from some of the best Instructors and from some of the worst. This gave me a balance and taught me to learn from mistakes. Without this my diving, learning experience would not be as smooth and enjoyable.  

Relatively Good Health

It's not necessary to be in peak fitness or be a super athlete before you can take up scuba diving. However, you would need some strength to be able to walk with full scuba diving gear strapped on you. Once you enter the waters with all your gear, you are almost weightless. But it's the few steps you have to make to get into the boat or to cross the beach into the water that may be a challenge for a person who is not used to carrying heavy loads on them.

Having said that, some scuba diving resorts have fantastic dive staff who can help to overcome this by carrying the tanks and gear to the boat for you to suit up inside the boat. And of course if you are on a live-a-board (live, eat, dive, sleep, on board a boat throughout the dive trip), then this may not be relevant.

Time and Money

This is probably the 2 most deciding factors of whether someone continues to enjoy scuba diving after passing the PADI Open Water tests. Getting certified through a scuba diving course is very fast, just 3 weekends basically. And not too expensive, probably about £300 £400. But unless you live near a scuba diving area, you are most likely going to have to travel a distance or even out of the country to do a good dive. The Uk has lots of inland dive sites.

Now just think how much each trip is going to cost you and multiply that by how many times you would love to do scuba diving in a year. When you do the sums, it can be staggering. So you cut down the number of dives you want to do in a year, and then calculate and cut down some more. Most people will combine this with there main family holidays.

In your scuba diving class, it may be the only one who continued to dive after the class was over. Even then, they may not manage to do the number of dives they would really have loved to do in a year. That's how it finally ends up and are doing an average of 1 dive a year.

This more or less ensures that you will always be diving as a "scuba diving newbie". A scuba diver gets "rusty" when the interval is too long between each dive trip. Ideally, we should dive at least once each quarter. Take a Scuba Tune Up and refresh your diving skill if you have not dived in at least six months.

I have not even gone on to calculate the other "investments" to personalise your gear such as your own BC (buoyancy control), your own octopus (breathing appartus) and your wet suit. i think the most important gear is your Mask - Fins - Snorkel. With this you can even snorkel and get wet prior to going diving.

Having said all this, I still believe your never too old to learn and enjoy scuba diving. Even with our limited dives since we were certified and diving as scuba diving newbies, we enjoy each and every one of our dive trips.

Find the right people to dive with, find a fantastic dive spot that suits your preferences (whether macro, to check out small sea creatures, or see bigger fish) and nearby bar, it's a wonderful combination that will almost always ensure a great scuba diving experience! Take the PADI Digital Underwater Photography Course and make your friends Jealous, Who Knows?.

 

A scuba diving newbie can still enjoy happy diving!