You will be tired by day three. Not physically wrecked, but the kind of tired that comes from processing new information while performing underwater. Your brain has to do two things at once: execute a skill perfectly and think about how to explain it to someone who has never done it.
That dual load is what makes the ITC different from every certification before it. As a student, you learned to do. As an instructor, you learn to teach the doing. Ten days is enough. But only if those ten days are structured well.
Here is what happens.
Before you arrive
Two weeks before the course starts, I send you the ITC prep package. It includes the SSI Instructor Manual (digital), a list of academic topics you need to know cold, and a skills checklist. You are expected to review the Open Water curriculum as if you were teaching it tomorrow. Not studying for an exam. Preparing to stand in front of a student and explain why equalization matters.
If your dive theory is rusty, fix it before you get here. Physics, physiology, decompression theory, equipment. The ITC does not re-teach these. It teaches you how to teach them.
I also send you a self-assessment form. Honest questions about your water skills, your comfort with public speaking, your experience assisting courses. There are no wrong answers, but the honest ones help me plan your training.
Days 1-2: foundation
Day one starts at 8:00 at the shop. Introductions, paperwork, and a two-hour classroom session on SSI standards, ethics, and the legal framework you operate in as an instructor. This is not the exciting part. It is the part that keeps you and your future students safe.
After lunch, we go to Bachelor's Beach. Your first assignment: demonstrate every skill in the Open Water confined water curriculum. Not teach it. Demonstrate it. I need to see your baseline. Where is your buoyancy when you demonstrate mask clearing? How do you position yourself relative to the student? Can you perform a skill and maintain eye contact at the same time?
Most candidates discover gaps they did not know they had. A frog kick that looked fine as a Divemaster suddenly needs work when you realize a student will copy every detail. A regulator recovery that was functional needs to become textbook.
Day two is more confined water. You start teaching skills to other candidates, who play students with deliberate errors. One "forgets" to equalize. Another floods their mask and freezes. Your job: identify the problem, intervene appropriately, and get the student back on track without breaking the flow of the session.
You will make mistakes. That is the point of day two.
Days 3-4: academic presentations
You teach your first classroom topic. It might be dive physics. It might be equipment. You have 12 to 15 minutes to explain a concept clearly enough that someone with zero dive knowledge walks away understanding it.
I sit in the back with a feedback form. I am watching your structure, your pacing, your eye contact, your use of visual aids, your ability to check for understanding without asking "does everyone understand?" (which tells you nothing).
Each candidate presents twice on day three. After each presentation, I give detailed feedback: what worked, what did not, and specifically what to change. You present again on day four with the adjustments.
The jump between the first and second attempt is usually significant. Most candidates have never formally taught anything. The mechanics of holding attention, structuring information, and reading a room are learnable skills, but they take practice. Two days is a compressed version of what education students spend semesters on.
Days 5-7: open water teaching
This is the core of the ITC. You go to Something Special or one of our other training sites and teach an Open Water lesson to another candidate acting as a student.
The format: you brief the dive on shore, enter the water, set up your student at the appropriate depth, demonstrate the skill, signal the student to perform it, evaluate their attempt, and provide feedback. All while managing buoyancy, positioning, and awareness of the surrounding environment.
On day five, most candidates focus too much on themselves. They are thinking about their own performance, their own demonstration quality, their own positioning. By day seven, the shift happens. They start watching the student. They start anticipating problems. They start teaching.
That shift is the whole point of the ITC.
Shore diving makes these three days more productive than they would be on a boat. If your morning presentation had a positioning problem, we debrief on shore, and you go back in the afternoon to try it again. On a boat-based ITC, that second attempt is tomorrow. Here, it is two hours later. The correction sticks faster because the gap is shorter.
Days 8-9: refinement and mock IE
Day eight is a full rehearsal. You run a complete teaching segment as if the examiner were watching. I evaluate you using the same criteria the IE uses. You get a score, a breakdown of where you stand, and a clear list of what to tighten before the real thing.
Day nine is for fixing what day eight revealed. If your academic presentation needs a stronger opening, you rework it and present again. If your confined water demonstration was clean but your error recognition was slow, we run scenarios until the pattern clicks.
By the end of day nine, you know whether you are ready. And so do I.
Day 10: final prep
A half day. We go through the IE logistics: schedule, format, what to bring, how the scoring works. We do a final skills review. I answer questions. The afternoon is yours. Rest, study, or do a fun dive to remind yourself that this is supposed to be enjoyable.
Days 11-12: the Instructor Evaluation
The IE is run by an independent SSI Examiner. Not me. Someone you have not trained with, who evaluates you fresh.
Day one of the IE covers academic presentations and theory exams. Day two covers confined water and open water teaching demonstrations. The pass mark is 80% across all components.
I have written about the IE in more detail in the career path post. The short version: if I let you sit it, I believe you will pass. I do not send candidates to the IE as a "let's see what happens" experiment.
What most people get wrong about the ITC
Three things.
First, they think it is about diving skill. It is not. You already know how to dive. The ITC is about communication, observation, and standards compliance. Your diving needs to be solid, but the real test is whether you can teach someone else to be solid.
Second, they underestimate the standards component. SSI has specific ways things must be done. Briefing structure, skill demonstration order, student-to-instructor ratios, documentation requirements. Learning these is not optional, and forgetting them during the IE costs points.
Third, they arrive underprepared on theory. You will be asked to explain Boyle's Law to a room of non-divers. If you need to think about it for more than three seconds, you are not ready.
What makes this ITC different
Four candidates maximum. I run every session personally. Shore diving means more water repetitions per day. No rotating staff, no guest lecturers for the parts I do not feel like teaching.
The format is ten days ITC plus two days IE. Twelve days total. Some programs split this into separate blocks with weeks in between. I do not. The momentum matters. By day seven, you are in a rhythm. Breaking that rhythm and restarting two weeks later costs more than it saves.
Upcoming dates and pricing are on the Pro page. If you have specific questions about whether you are ready, message me directly. I would rather have an honest conversation now than a stressed candidate on day one.