Course overview

Step up from guiding to teaching with the SSI Open Water Instructor programme on Tioman, a big, green island ringed by easy reefs inside a UNESCO marine park off Malaysia's east coast. The warm, calm water around Salang Bay and the gentle boulder reef at Renggis Island give candidates a stable setting to master teaching presentations before the SSI Instructor Evaluation. You qualify ready to certify your own students and teach the full range of SSI programmes.

What you’ll learn

• Teach SSI academic, confined-water and open-water training sessions
• Apply the SSI training system and total-diver-experience philosophy
• Demonstrate and evaluate student skills to professional standard
• Manage groups and diver risk during training
• Brief, supervise and debrief students effectively
• Prepare for the SSI Instructor Evaluation

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 18
• SSI Dive Guide or Divemaster, or an equivalent leadership rating from another agency
• Certified diver for at least 6 months
• Logged dives meeting SSI professional requirements (typically 75+ for the Instructor level)
• Valid CPR, first-aid and oxygen-provider training
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician

What's included · What's not

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Teaching foundations

   Orientation to the SSI training system and your first academic teaching presentations.
2. Day2
   Confined-water workshops

   Rehearse skill demonstrations and confined-water teaching in the calm shallows near Salang Bay.
3. Day3
   Open-water teaching

   Lead open-water teaching circuits at gentle reef sites such as Renggis under evaluation.
4. Day4
   Standards and risk management

   Cover SSI standards, risk management and the dive-business modules.
5. Day5
   Theory and rescue assessment

   Complete the science-of-diving exams and rescue assessment to instructor standard.
6. Day6
   Evaluation preparation

   Mock presentations and a full briefing for the SSI Instructor Evaluation.

Verified through iDive

Every partner school in the iDive network is vetted on safety, instructor credentials, equipment standards and student feedback. Talk to a iDive dive pro on WhatsApp for current availability and reviews specific to Tioman.

Frequently asked questions