Is the PADI Underwater Naturalist specialty worth a damn?

[emttim]

Alright, so here's the sitrep. My instructor has given us the option of doing a sixth dive when we go down to do our AOW dives which will count as an underwater naturalist dive, which in combination with the other one, will allow us to get our PADI Underwater Naturalist specialty. Now, I'm all about getting one extra dive in, and having another cert card is probably cool and all, but is that specialty worth the $100 for the cert fees and course materials cost?

I'm just honestly wary about paying that much for one dive, because if the specialty isn't worth it, well hell I can go dive channel islands for the day with $85 and I'll have $15 leftover for a tip....plenty of other specialties to get such as PPB, Cave diving, etc. that seem actually useful and will still count toward PADI Master Diver.

 

[Burnsie]

Save up for Nitrox or Deep. Wreck is interesting if that's your type of thing.

 

[archman]

Short answer: No. It's not worth a damn.

Long answer: There are a VERY FEW instructors that teach wonderful, dedicated UW Naturalist classes. These are almost always taught as standalone specialties, not bundled up with other specialties or certs

How you can tell if you have one of the really good UW Naturalist classes? Ask for a summary of the specific tasks and learning involved. If it looks like the vague, canned crap straight from the manuals, odds are it's a lame class. But if you get this synopsis that's beautifully personalized with site-specific chores, individual animal/plant species you'll be seeing, and exact run-downs of what goes on during each dive, then you probably have a winner.

 

[pir8]

It is worth as much as you are willing to get out of it. Any specialty can be good or bad depending on how much effort you expend in learning the material and how interested you are in the sbject. Granted the course can also depend on the knowledge level of the instructor presenting the material but if you don't attempt to aborb it, it won't be worth much to you.

 

[Jim Kerr]

PADI= Put Another Dollar In

Sounds to me like he's trying to make some easy money. Don't be swayed by another useless card. Take courses that will improve your diving skills. Deep, Wreck, Nitrox, Peak Performance Bouyancy, Rescue and EFR.

But I totaly agree. The Channel Islands sounds like alot better use for that money.

 

[driftwood]

All the previous posts are hitting very close to the mark! Unless you have a great instructor, will be learning observation skills for critters where you will be diving regularly, or you are chasing the "black belt of scuba diving", the PADI Master diver. Save your money.

There are three groups of OW students on a boat. The boat sinks, stranding all of them in the water. One group swims to shore because the dive plan is blown. The group from the local community college floats in the water waiting for someone to tell them what to do. The PADI instructor says, "Now if you will give me $100 dollars, we can do our first wreck dive.".

 

[livewire]

Okay, as a PADI Assistant Instructor I'm probably supposed to be telling you what a wonderful person you'll be after taking the UW Naturalist Specialty. As your friendly neighborhood dive buddy I'll tell you to go to your local library and check out a good California Fish ID book, learn about some of these fish and their behavior, and then spend that cash on a boat trip to Catalina and see it live. One of PADI's big themes is ongoing education to keep divers active. Active divers are safer divers, etc. Nothing wrong with that, just the way their trained.

In California I don't believe you'd get as much out of this course as you would in say, the Galapagos or Cocos, or some other tropical place where it's far easier to ID and observe behaviors of many more varieties of life. Having the card isn't going to help you get any special treatment anywhere either. I did the UW Naturalist specialty along (have a stack of specialty cards here) and basically we just identified local species and had some discussions about each. I may have picked up a thing or two, but I've learned far more about certain critters from other divers, books, and the Discovery Channel! Not to mention just getting wet and simply taking my time observing with a critical eye.

Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[Michael Schlink]

Post # 3 is closest to the mark. Years ago I had a couple that I taught "Naturalist" as part of their AOW and they actually learned something. Their specific problem was, they were swimming around the reef, but had no idea what they were looking at or where to look, if they were interested in finding something in particular. I cleared that up with a couple of reef fish books and a "hands on" dive. Point being if you want to find some nudibranchs, look closley to the reef, they aren't going to be swimming in the blue water and you won't need to use your spiffy new light to find yellow headed jawfish under ledges.......Anybody can learn something useful while diving, it requires a willing student and a QUALIFIED instructor. A lot of diving can be self taught, but the learning curve will be longer and the possibility of bad habits being formed is greater. jmho

 

[Garrobo]

I think that the whole AOW is nothing more than a way for them to take your hard-earned and give you nothing in return except a plastic card which is worthless.

 

[Hank658]

I think that the whole AOW is nothing more than a way for them to take your hard-earned and give you nothing in return except a plastic card which is worthless.

Well that didn't take too long!