IDI logo and name banner

Tired of the humdrum? Want an exciting career? Learn how to dive, weld and work underwater. Take our course in surface supplied mixed gasses (helmet diving) and get your commercial diving certification in just four months. Partial financing now available.

ADC International's logoInternational Diving Institute (IDI) is a member of Association of Diving Contractors International (ADC) and trains to the Standards published by the Association of Commercial Diving Educators (ACDE), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the National Association of SCUBA Educators (NASE), and the Sea Research Society (SRS). Each IDI elective course (advanced program or certification) that a diver takes increases the diver's overall effectiveness and thus his worth to his employer and should result in higher pay. Each elective should not only be thought of as an investment in a diver's financial future, but also an investment in the diver's personal safety and enjoyment of his work in the field of commercial diving. Whether you dive in the deep sea or in hazardous waste, the respect you get is real.

Logo for TTCIDI is officially affiliated with the Trident Technical College located in North Charleston, South Carolina. IDI students take their above water welding classes at TTC's campus.

Go to IDI's navigation buttons

Come Weld With Us! tm     
Your journey as a professional diver has just begun!
When you enter today's tough, but very exciting and rewarding field of commercial diving, you will have the opportunity to find yourself a career that offers you personal satisfaction, advancement and diversity of assignments.*

Today's diving industry calls for life-long training. Many people change careers two or three times in a lifetime. Commercial diving can provide a careerstudent welding underwater in 65,000 gallon tank with endless growth potential while engaging in a vast array of opportunities. 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.

diver at surface of training tankStudents 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. In September of 1995, at the official request of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, Dr. E. Lee 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 g
o to IDI's Mission Statement and Outline of IDI's Commercial Diver Certification Program.

Established in 1996
The International Diving Institute was established as the East Coast Dive Connection LLC in 1996 and has been actively engaged in teaching diving since that date. Its name was officially changed to International Diving Institute LLC in 2004.

Licensure
The International Diving Institute is licensed by the
South Carolina Commission on Higher Education , 1333 Main Street, Suite 200, Columbia, SC 29201; 803.737.2260.  Licensure indicates only that the minimum standards set by the State have been met and it is not an endorsement or guarantee of quality by the State.

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

Send an e-mail to IDI

instructor by dive port on training tank with diver inside
All IDI & NASE training is closely monitored

INTERNAL
NAVIGATION
BUTTONS

Return to IDI's Home Page
IDI's online catalog
IDI's owners and instructors
Outline of commercial diver program

Go to diving posters
Starting dates for training

IDI electives & advanced courses
IDI photo gallery
Yahoo! search window
Links to dive related publications
Links to dive related organizations
Links to dive clubs & divers
Links to dive equipment
Links to commercial diving webs
Links to shipwreck related web sites
Federal regulations for diving
Weather predictions
Currents & tides

Acronyms used by divers, with links
Shipwreck books by Alan Riebe
Add a link to IDI


EXTERNAL BUTTONS

These may take you off our web site. Please use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.
NOAA
Internet Archives

The Hunley dot com
Dr. Spence's discovery of the Hunley
Searches: Hunley, Cussler, Spence

IDI Links to additional resources
www.IDIdiver.com (IDI mirror site)
www.EducationDepartment.org
NASE/WASI certification
SearchtheOutdoors.com
Unclaimed Money Search
Why just hunt for treasure underwater? -it is estimated that 9 out of 10 people are owed unclaimed government money and
don't even know it! Find out how much you're owed with our free trial search.

 

SEA RESEARCH SOCIETY

NAVIGATION LINKS

SRS Sea Research Society website's homepage

SRS welcomes the International Diving Institute

SRS archives/library: Introduction

SRS archives/library: Florida shipwrecks

SRS forum on shipwrecks, underwater archaeology, salvage and treasure

SRINA: periodicals, maps, pictures (shipwrecks, divers, diving, salvage, archaeology, treasure)

SRINA: documents, books (shipwrecks, divers, diving, salvage, archaeology, treasure)

SRINA: shipwrecks of New York, New Jersey and Delaware waters
SRINA: shipwrecks of North Carolina waters

SRS Dr. E. Lee Spence's Sworn Affidavit on his discovery of the Civil War submarine H. L. Hunley
SRS About the objectives of the Sea Research Society
SRS CSS David Expedition
SRS SS Georgiana

SRS Shipwreck maps for sale
SRS Guestbook, please sign in
SRS Membership
SRS Board Members
SRS Degrees
SRS Tax Exempt Contributions
Trenholm the Real Rhett Butler
SRS International Marine Signal Flags
Shipwreck Consultants
D
r. E. Lee Spence, Shipwreck Consultant
Alan Riebe, Shipwreck Consultant
Riebe books on shipwrecks
SRINA: Hunley Archives
Affidavits
Jack Parker
Letters
Corps of Engineers to Spence May 10, 1975
SRS Project Viewpoint (German U-Boats)

ScubaLinx

         
Counter set to zero on March 31, 2005. Time is set to USA Eastern Standard Time. Date is Year/Month/Day.
 

Send an e-mail to IDI Be sure to include your contact phone numbers.

For standard 8.5"x11" size paper output: GO TO PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS PAGE
© 2005 by International Diving Institute LLC (All rights reserved. Click for expanded copyright & trademarks notice for International Diving Institute's commercial diving web sites.)

more info