How Should I Prepare for My SSI ITC?
Arrive ready to teach, learn and improve. Use this practical guide to prepare your digital learning, dive theory, SSI standards, equipment and demonstration-quality scuba skills.
A little preparation makes the ITC much more enjoyable
The SSI Instructor Training Course is not the ideal place to begin relearning basic dive theory or discovering the SSI materials for the first time.
Arriving prepared allows you to concentrate on developing the new skills that matter: teaching, demonstration, student supervision, evaluation and professional decision-making.
Your goal is not to memorise everything. You should understand the core concepts, know where to find the standards and be comfortable demonstrating your diving skills slowly and clearly.
Areas to prepare
Focus your preparation on digital learning, dive theory and standards, demonstration-quality water skills, and practical course organisation.
If you are unsure where to begin, send Ocean Tribe your current certification history and planned course dates.
The four pillars of ITC preparation
Digital learning
Complete every assigned ITC section, review question and assessment before live training begins.
Theory and standards
Refresh your dive theory and become familiar with locating information in the current SSI Training Standards.
Dive skills
Practise each skill slowly, neutrally buoyant where appropriate and with every key step clearly visible.
Practical readiness
Check your equipment, medical, certifications, travel arrangements and required professional materials.
Build your readiness step by step
This is a suggested preparation structure rather than a fixed SSI schedule. Start earlier whenever possible and adapt it to your experience.
Organise your course
Confirm your prerequisites, medical, certifications, logged dives, course dates, accommodation and equipment requirements.
Complete the learning
Work steadily through your ITC Digital Learning and refresh your Science of Diving knowledge.
Refine your skills
Practise the full scuba-skills circuit, rescue skills, navigation, lift-bag use and professional dive briefings.
Arrive rested and ready
Review weak areas, prepare your equipment and materials, then avoid exhausting yourself immediately before training.
Know the theory—and where to find the standards
You do not need to memorise the entire SSI Instructor Manual. You do need to understand its structure and locate the correct standard efficiently.
Dive physics
Pressure, volume, density, buoyancy and the gas laws that affect divers.
Dive physiology
Pressure-related injuries, decompression illness, narcosis and oxygen exposure.
Dive equipment
Equipment function, configuration, care, problem recognition and appropriate use.
Decompression theory
Dive computers, tables, ascent procedures and responsible dive planning.
Dive planning
Environmental conditions, navigation, gas management and emergency planning.
SSI Training Standards
Program prerequisites, ratios, depth limits, supervision and certification requirements.
The SSI Diver Diamond
How knowledge, skills, equipment and experience combine to develop capable divers.
Environmental awareness
Responsible diving, marine protection and managing training around local conditions.
Practise your demonstration-quality skills
Your demonstrations should be slow, controlled and easy to understand. Exaggerate important actions and pause so students can identify each step.
Useful practice: ask another professional to watch your demonstrations or record them on video. What feels slow to you may still appear fast to a student.
Equipment, entries and regulator skills
- Equipment assembly
- Buddy check
- Deep-water entry
- Buoyancy check
- Regulator clearing
- Regulator retrieval
- Snorkel-to-regulator exchange
- Free-flow regulator breathing
Mask and buoyancy skills
- Partially flooded mask
- Fully flooded mask
- Mask removal and replacement
- No-mask breathing
- Neutral buoyancy using the LPI
- Neutral buoyancy using oral inflation
- Five-point descent
- Five-point ascent
Emergency and equipment-removal skills
- Emergency swimming ascent
- Emergency buoyant ascent
- Equipment removal and replacement at the surface
- Equipment removal and replacement underwater
- Weight-system removal and replacement at the surface
- Weight-system removal and replacement underwater
Rescue, navigation and professional skills
- Unconscious diver at the surface
- Surfacing an unresponsive diver
- Reciprocal compass heading
- Exiting an unresponsive diver
- Rigging and using a lift bag
- Panicking diver: surface approach
- Panicking diver: underwater approach
- Managing a panicking diver underwater
Make sure nothing is missing
Use these guides alongside your digital learning to prepare your qualifications, equipment and professional training materials.
ITC prerequisites
Confirm your professional certification, logged dives, medical, First Aid training and specialty experience.
Check the prerequisites →Required equipment
Check your personal dive gear, signalling equipment, teaching accessories and professional equipment configuration.
View the equipment list →Required materials
Prepare your digital resources, wetnotes, evaluation slate, computer or tablet and study materials.
View the materials →Before travelling to your ITC
Use this quick checklist shortly before your course begins. Contact Ocean Tribe immediately if any required item is incomplete.
Digital Learning, reviews and assigned assessments completed.
Medical clearance, CPR and First Aid certification are current.
Certification history and logged dives are available for review.
Dive equipment has been checked, serviced and correctly configured.
Laptop or tablet, charger, stationery and SSI materials are packed.
Travel, accommodation and arrival details have been confirmed.
You have rested and avoided exhausting final-minute preparation.
Prepared to begin your instructor journey?
Choose your ITC dates, complete your preparation and arrive in Diani ready to develop into a confident SSI diving instructor.
