Many people change careers two or three times in a lifetime. Many welders, plumbers and others realize that their skills could be put to use underwater. They realize that they could do much the same work they already do, but get the pay of a commercial diver. Commercial diving can provide a career with endless growth potential while engaging in a vast array of opportunities. However, today's complex diving industry calls for training and certification meeting specific standards. In just a few months you can be on your way to this highly respected career. Whether you plan to do underwater burning and welding or non-destructive testing, IDI can offer you the appropriate courses through IDI's top quality commercial diving school. This is accomplished through IDI's open water and hands-on commercial divers training which covers all levels of learning.

Real-world projects, pressures and deadlines are used to help acquire the high demand skills for commercial diving. IDI's curriculum provides both entry level and advanced diver training. IDI's facility is designed as a safe, yet realistic, open water work-site environment located on the old navy base in Charleston, South Carolina. IDI has on-site access to an ex-Navy, submarine, floating dry-dock for training purposes. IDI's students not only gain technical skills, but also develop the professional qualities that are attractive to employers of commercial divers. IDI houses Sea Research Society's library at its corporate office. That library includes thousands of books, magazines, maps and charts. It also includes tens of thousands of prints, photographs and slides relating to sport and commercial divers and a wide range of dive related work. Students can read about and research everything from sunken treasure to the evolution of diving gear. International Diving Institute (IDI) is a state licensed commercial diving school offering classroom instruction, in-water training and certification for commercial divers.

Students can take courses relating to SCUBA instruction (from basic open-water diver to instructor level) and surface supplied diving (including hookah and helmet diving). Other commercial diver certification courses cover CPR, Hazardous Materials (HazMat), mixed gas, saturation, non-destruct testing (NDT), hyperbaric chamber operation and even shipwreck research, search and salvage.

IDI has two 54" hyperbaric chambers (for recompression and decompression), one of which is fitted out for saturation diving (i.e. a dive bell can be attached to it). The other, built in the United Kingdom (UK), was certified by Lloyd's in 2004. IDI has a wide variety of equipment by manufacturers and designers such as Desco, Gorsky, Klein, Miller Dunn, and Kirby Morgan. Our main campus and dive site is located on the Cooper River less than one block from the H.L. Hunley submarine conservation lab and only minutes from the heart of historic Charleston's tourist center.  The Hunley was the first submarine in the entire history of the world to sink an enemy ship. The wreck of the Hunley was discovered in 1970 by shipwreck expert Dr. E. Lee Spence. However, in 1995, shortly after Dr. Spence published his book, Treasures of the Confederate Coast the Real Rhett Butler & Other Revelations, with a map showing the Hunley's correct location, a dive team funded by novelist Clive Cussler went to the Hunley site and, allegedly without following standard archaeological procedures for a wreck of significant historical importance, uncovered portions of the wreck to take pictures of it. Cussler then announced that NUMA had discovered the wreck but lied about the location. About five months later, at the official request of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, Dr. Spence, donated his rights to the wreck of the Hunley to the State. Dr. Spence is one of the owners of the International Diving Institute.

Divers can purchase or rent most types of sport (scuba) and commercial dive equipment through IDI's retail dive facility, located at their corporate headquarters in Summerville, South Carolina. Why train in weather that is either too cold or too hot? Be like the millions of tourists who visit Charleston every year, come and enjoy South Carolina's coastal climate, sand beaches and fine dining.

*  IDI prefers and uses the terms commercial diving, commercial divers and professional divers. However, professional divers are frequently known to the general public as deepsea (deep-sea) divers, helmet divers and hardhat divers.

Click here to go to IDI's Mission Statement and Outline of IDI's Commercial Diver Certification Program.

IDI Main Campus  & Dive Training Site 1400 Pier Side Street, Bldg 190 North Charleston, SC 29405 Monday through Friday 7:00 am - 5:00 pm   IDI Corporate Offices & Retail Store 206B East 5th N. Street Summerville, SC 29483 Monday through Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm   Phone & Fax Toll Free: 888-SAT-DIVE (888-728-3483) Phone: 843-821-0001 Fax: 843-821-9933

Sergio Smith, CEO E. Lee Spence, V.P.

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