Phase 3 - Module 1

Diving is an equipment intensive activity. As a professional in the diving industry you are working with equipment every day. You are not only concerned with your own equipment. Students and clients expect your advise on which items to buy, the rental equipment of the dive center needs to be repaired and maintained, you may end up in an equipment repair facility doing the repair of client equipment and while teaching you need to spot any malfunctioning immediately to keep the diving safe. And - you never know where you end up after your VIP training. Maybe you are going to work in retail or with an equipment manufacturer.

For this reason, a complete week of your training is dedicated to equipment. We are actually going to the extent that we will visit equipment manufacturers with you to observe the production process and to get first-hand information and training. The rest of the training is done at the Instructor Training College .

During the first day we will work at the Instructor Training College to learn the details of the functioning of diving equipment. This part will also qualify you as an Equipment Specialty Instructor. With that as a basis, we will then work the rest of the week to further develop your knowledge of equipment and improve your technical skills. On day two we will visit the European HUB from Scubapro to receive first hand technical training from the manager of the technical department.

The morning of day 3, a representative from Aqualung will visit the IT College to give a presentation on the selection of diving equipment based on technical features. In the afternoon we will drive to Italy to be ready early in the morning for a visit to the MARES factory. In the MARES factory you will receive after sales training for the complete range of their products and do a tour trough the factory to see the production first hand. This will take the complete day 4 - we will go back to Cannes in the evening.

The last day is dedicated to field repair. These are the techniques that are needed to solve problems with equipment at the dive site. This is actually harder than after sales service because you can not take the complete equipment apart. You have to diagnose from the outside what the problem is, and then only open the location of the problem. This training will improve your general understanding of the functioning of diving equipment enormously at the same time as learning some very useful skills.

During this module you are guided by an Instructor Kit from Scuba Publications and the documentation from the manufacturers.

For this module you will receive credentials from the manufacturers, as well as the PADI Equipment Specialty Instructor rating and an IT College certificate confirming your training in field repair.

Note: the course does not automatically give you the authority to repair equipment all over the world. It is always the local importer who sets the requirements for repair technicians. In some countries you can do repairs on basis of your diplomas, in others you need a separate authorization, which may involve additional training. In some countries and for some brands, maintaining the authorization to repair may require annual or bi-annual refresher courses.