AIDA Freediving Instructor

$1,980.00

AIDA Freediving Instructor

Prerequisites

To enrol in this course a student must:

  • Be 18 years of age or older.
  • Have completed the AIDA 4 Master Freediver Course or have completed the AIDA 4 Crossover Evaluation if crossing over from another freedive organisation.
  • Have completed the AIDA Medical Form.
  • Have completed the Liability Release form.
  • Have completed a course in First Aid with CPR within the last 2 years.

Purpose

The Instructor course (IC) is for students at the AIDA 4 Master Freediver certification level or equivalent who wish to become professional freediving teachers and coaches by challenging themselves with not only greater physical challenges of breath hold, depth and stamina but to undertand the AIDA system of education.  Freediving is experiencing exponential growth in Australia and overseas and as such there are increasing opportunities for casual, part-time and full-time freedivng teachers. For students who graduate from the Freediving Gold Coast AIDA Instructor Course, there are opportunities to be employed by Freediving Gold Coast. For the select few who are talented, highly motivated and organised you will be invited to run your own freediving school as part of Freediving Gold Coast network of schools and clubs.

The Freediving Gold Coast AIDA IC utilises a number of delivery modes of learning as follows:

The Residential or on-location mode of learning is undertaken full -time over a minimum of 5 days (ideally including the weekend) to complete all pool, ocean and teaching sessions. We recommend allowing a week for these activities on the Gold Coast or at our other location of the Crater Lakes (with a depth of 65m) in far north Queensland. If you are interested in completing your course at the Crater Lakes rather than the Gold Coast please see our Crater Lakes Freediving Retreats. This latter retreat enables an instructor student to spend time training for the depth criteria.

The Part-time mode of learning is conducted over 5 to 10 weeks with one to two three-hour theory evening sessions per week to fit into the working lives of our busy students. As such these evening sessions may be face to face in our offices on the Gold Coast or conducted by distance learning using Zoom to whereever you live in Australia (or oeverseas).

Our recommended option for Australian residents is to begin the AIDA IC with the part-time mode of learning with evening theory sessions Face to Face or by Distance learning using Zoom. Then IC candidates travel to the Gold Coast or the Crater Lakes (with a depth of 65m)in far north Queensland) for our Residential of a minimum 5 days to 7 days to complete all your pool, ocean and teaching sessions. This Part-time AIDA IC with our intensive Residential has the following components:

Theory

All the theory components will be conducted by Face to Face or by Zoom on one or two evenings per week. For example, Monday and Wednesday evenings 7 to 10pm.  There are 9 Face to Face/Zoom theory sessions of three hours. IC candidates are also welcome to attend in person if you live locally or able to get to our offices in Ashmore on the Gold Coast.

Performance Criteria

There are 2 pool sessions and 3 ocean days (6 sessions) conducted on our Residential long weekend from Friday to Monday.

You must be physically dive fit and capable of achieving the following performance requirements during the course:

  • Static Apnea of at least 4 minutes.
  • DYN performance at least 90m.
  • DNF performance of at least 50m.
  • CWT dive to a depth of 40-50m.
  • FIM dive to a depth of 40-50m.
  • Long CWT 30m Dive of at least 1:30.
  • Long FIM 30m dive of at least 2:00.
  • Deep rescue (25m) rescue followed immediately by 50m tow.
  • Hang at 15m for up to one minute followed by rescue.
  • Stamina test 5 x 20m CWT dives with one minute surface interval.
  • CNF to 20m.

We strongly recommend that you are engaging in a regular program of specific physical training leading up to the course to accomplish the performance criteria in the minimum number of sessions. We would recommend that you come out on one or more of our DDD (Deep Dive Days) before commencement of your IC to feel confident and at least capable of depth diving in the 35 to 40 metre ranges. 

Teaching Sessions

The main objective of the course is about learning, understanding and teaching the AIDA system. You are required to teach material from the AIDA 2 and AIDA 3 courses. While this can be conducted in a role play format to Instructor Trainer, Clinton Laurence, one of the unique advantages of doing an IC with Freediving Gold Coast is we can offer actual teaching to students on AIDA 2 and AIDA 3 courses. Ideally we would like to try to provide these opportunities to you during your AIDA Instructor course. For example, our AIDA 2 courses are conducted on a Friday evening, Saturday and a Sunday every second week and you could teach students on these days to fulfill part of the teaching requirements including setting up the dive site with ropes and knots. Similarly, it should be possible for you to do some teaching during an AIDA 3 course.

You are required to teach a warm-up/stretching session. Again we can provide real class opportunities to do so in our HPC (High Performance Coaching) program on Tuesday or Thursday evenings or one of our weekend AIDA 2 courses.

In other words, where possible, our goal is to provide real life teaching opportunities and observations in actual courses. This is rarely possible on overseas instructor courses. The teaching sessions will be conducted over the Residential long weekend.

Academic Requirements

You will be required to:

  • Complete all AIDA 2 to AIDA 4 exams with a 90% pass rate.
  • Pass the AIDA Instructor exam with at least 90%.
  • Present a Special Presentation with a topic of interest
  • Provide a handout of your Special Presentation

You will need a strong knowledge of the science of freediving with the underlying anatomical, physiological, and training foundations. 

Employment Opportunities

On completion of the course we can provide employment opportunities to teach casually on our AIDA courses.  We are also looking for exceptional AIDA freediving teachers who can represent Freediving Gold Coast in other locations and who will follow our business model and practices.

Summary

Overall, our AIDA Instructor course has this format:

  • 9 X 3- hour theory Face to Face/Zoom sessions.
  • 2 pool sessions for the performance criteria/teaching session.
  • 3 ocean days/6 sessions for the performance criteria/teaching session
  • Teaching and participating in one of our AIDA 2 courses or simulated role playing.
  • Teaching and participating in one of our AIDA 3 courses or simulated role playing.
  • Conducting a warm-up/stretching session as part of HPC or an AIDA 2 Freediver course.

You will need to allow a 5 week period of time to complete the Part-time AIDA IC with two evenings per week for all theory sessions. We offer several payment options by Stripe online, credit card or split payments. The course fee does not include pool entry or equipment rental costs (though at this level you should have your own gear).  Prices are as follows.:

  • Full payment of $1980 prior to starting the course. This includes a 10% discount.
  • 6 fortnightly payments of $366.66 by Stripe online (see below); bank transfer; or credit card for total course cost of $2200 (including GST and certification fees).
  • Any additional theory, pool or ocean sessions required to complete IC criteria are $95 per session.

Certification

On successful completion of this course the student is awarded the AIDA Instructor certification and is registered on the AIDA website Education Online System (EOS). The AIDA Instructor Course Canditate has one year to complete all criteria. For example, if the Canditate cannot complete the CWT 40 metre dive they have one year to complete that requirement to pass the entire course. The Canditate cannot also not be certified until they have completed a first aid and CPR certificate.

Medical Conditions

If you tick “Yes” to any medical conditions on the medical form you must see your General Practitioner prior to attending your course. Download Medical Form Here. Please complete the Medical Form and present to your Instructor at the beginning of your course.

Cancellation Policy: The full details of our cancellation policy can be found under FAQ. Please read prior to booking any courses or IC sessions. 

Category:

Description

AIDA Crossover Evaluation for Instructor

All students who have been certified from another freediving organisation will need to undergo an AIDA Crossover Evaluation to ensure they meet the AIDA prerequisites for the Instructor course.  This involves:

  • Assessment of the level of knowledge of the student by means of passing the AIDA 4 Advanced Freediver written exam at 75% or higher. Allow 2 hours for this assessment.
  • Assessment of the pool or confined water skills equivalent to the level of the AIDA 4 Master Freediver course. Allow two hours for this assessment.
  • Assessment of all ocean or open water skills equivalent to the level of the AIDA 4 Advanced Freediver course. This is typically one morning of about 5 hours including the boat trip to and from the dive site.

Freediving Gold Coast charges $299 for this Crossover Evaluation. Though it is not mandatory to proceed to the Instructor course, if you would like the AIDA 4 Master Freediver certification it is an additional $35 which is paid to AIDA International. The first step is to come out on one of our Deep Dive Days so we can get an idea of your capabilities.

Freediving Gold Coast TV

In this Youtube video Clinton shows a CWT (Constant Weight) dive to 41 metres in about 43 metres of depth and 22 metres of visibility off the Gold Coast on the 8th May 2020.