Advanced Instructor Course

 

Course Overview

As a BSAC Open Water Instructor you will have already gained experience teaching a wide variety of different theoretical and practical subjects. You will have also at the same time have gained a more in depth and breadth of personal diving experience. The BSAC Open Water Instructor, will have already been teaching courses from Ocean Diver up to Dive Leader level and may now want to move on to the next level, which would be the BSAC Advanced Diver qualification.
The BSAC Advanced Instructor Course is designed to introduce you to teaching more advanced topics. Topics such as, Seamanship, nautical navigation, comprehensive dive planning and management and planned staged decompression diving procedures, all of which are covered in the Advanced Diver Course.
In order to teach the Advanced Diver course, the instructor will need to be of a higher calibre with a high level of diving knowledge and diving experience. The Advanced Instructor meets these requirements.
The Advanced Instructor Course is the next step from Open Water Instructors.

 

 

Course Entry Level

The entry level for this course is BSAC Advanced Diver + BSAC Open Water instructor.

There are no equivalent instructor grades that are offered by other diver training agencies. Therefore, it is not possible to crossover at this level. The only exception to this is if you are CMAS qualified. CMAS divers who hold the CMAS 3 - Star Diver rating, and also hold the CMAS 2 -Star Instructor qualification will be considered as equivalent and can enroll on this course.

Although, not compulsory, it is strongly recommended that the candidates have received some training in Seamanship and Navigation skills. If this is not the case, candidates can enroll on the BSAC Thailand Seamanship course.

Course Duration

The duration of this course is 2 – days. The course consists of 2 theory lessons - candidate classroom presentation, dive-planning workshops. 2 dry practical demonstrations and 2 open water dives – where the candidate will teach 1 lesson which will involve teaching a dive topic and the other dive where you will teach a advanced skill  

Theory Lessons

The course starts with the course Instructor presenting 2 theory lessons.

 Lesson 1 looks at “What is an Advanced Instructor “ and what are their roles. Lesson 2 shows you at what level you are expected to teach and how to teach more advanced skills and topics. These topics range from, driving small boats, gas compressor operations, Dive Planning - weather forecasting for divers, position fixing, locating new dive sites etc , up to rope work, under water searches patterns and recovering submerged  objects and diving with no clear surface etc.

 

Practical Lessons

Dive Planning Workshop:

The candidate will also demonstrate his/her ability, within the group, of how to plan a successful days diving. The chosen planned dives will be taken from those dives allocated by the course instructor. These dives will be conducted in the following open water lessons of this course.

The candidate will produce a comprehensive dive plan, which will include, the Risk Assessment Plans for both the dive, divers and of the dive sites. Predict and give a forecast of the weather for the days diving, produce a workable timetable for the days activities. Allocate roles of each dive member in the group, plan what equipment will be needed for your dives and allocate buddy pairs etc.

You will learn how to teach a complex dry lesson such as for example; set-up and perform a jackstay search pattern. You will teach your students how to do this, firstly by setting up the pattern on dry land. Once all of the students have practiced each step of the setup up and are comfortable with the procedures, you can then take the lesson underwater, where the students will repeat the set-up and will be able to perform the skill safely and effectively.

Open Water Dives

At this part of the course and after a thorough dive planning you will conduct 2 open water lessons. The first lesson will be teaching a specific dive topic. Examples of such a topic would be, the students first wreck dive, first wall dive, dive with no clear surface, a staged decompression dive etc.

On the second dive, you will teach some type of advanced skill. Typical skills would be running a distance line, horizontal decompression, simulated gas switching etc. On completion of this course the next step would be to take the Advanced Instructor Examination

BSAC Advanced Instructor Exam

This examination is covered over two days. The examination assesses your ability to teach a wide range of theoretical topics, dives and skills at the Advanced Diver level

The examination consists of six different assessments. The examination syllabus follows a similar format to the Advanced Instructor Course with some added assessments.

You will be examined in the following areas:

 

Dive Planning

You will be assessed on your dive planning abilities where within the group you will plan for the entire open water dives assessments of this course. Although this planning session will generally be done in a group the examiner will be looking at your active involvement and contribution in the planning process

 

Instructional Dive

This section is designed to assess your ability to teach a dive related lesson. The dive usually assumes that you’re student (s) are conducting this dive for the very first time. For example; the students first deep wreck dive or maybe their first no clear surface dive or deep wall etc. You will be assessed on your over all conduct of the dive as well as your leader ship skills. However, the main aim is by the end of the dive would the student learn anything from the dive and did you effectively teach on the dive.

 

Surface Teaching

As instructors, we should always look for the opportunity to teach the students something when the opportunity arises. For example; we may be on route to the dive site when we pass a Cardinal Buoy.  An Advanced Instructor should take this opportunity to explain to the student what this buoy means, why it has a color code or even the lighting sequence of the buoy; alternatively you may be setting up a Shotline for the next dive. Here you can show the students how to tie the appropriate knots to weight and buoy. Over the next 2 days of the course the examiner will be looking for you to take advantage of these teaching opportunities.

 

Project Dive

On this dive you will be assessed on teaching some type of advanced skill. Typicaly the type of skills that are to be taught on this section would be, the running of a distance line, set-up and use of a jackstay search or similar search patterns, recovering an object by use of lift bags and compressed air, teaching advanced staged decompression, a wreck or reef survey etc.

Classroom Presentation

You will be examined on teaching a classroom lesson to Advanced Divers. Typical topics that are likely to be taught are as follows, Ridged Hull Inflatable Boats, locating new dive sites, decompression diving procedures, tidal predictions, GPS and sonar use, wreck diving, gas compressors, using transits, weather and diving etc.

Theory Examination

The theory examination consists of 60 multi choice questions. The paper will assess your knowledge in the following areas, Physiology, diving physics, dive planning – decompression, altitude diving, gas calculations, seamanship and navigation, equipment and dive management

On completion of all section of the exam, successful candidates will be award the Advanced Instructor Grade