PADI speciality courses

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Devon Diver: My point of view was that I had "been there, done that" on most of the stuff and that the cert didn't have any consequences, good or bad, as far as my ability to dive, now or in the future, was concerned. Thank you for your concern.
 
Nitrox also teaches new skills.

Analyzing tank contents would seem to be the only "new skill" in the Nitrox course. If you learned other "new skills" I am not sure those are included in other PADI Nitrox Instructors classes. :idk:
 
Yep. As far as i can see the Nitrox course as its taught now introduces no new skills except analysing a tank and hitting a button on a computer.

It USED to have mandatory new theoretical skills...
 
Obviously, whether these certs are worth the money and vacation time is a personal decision. For me, it was relatively easy since I'm a warm water wussie living in a cold water climate. Other than my OW and AOW certs, I try to avoid diving locally although I'm still talked into it every now and then. I travel to dive (and my wife says I dive to travel).

Just wanted to point out that with a little bit of advance planning you can save yourself some valuable vacation/dive time by ordering, then studying, the course materials in advance. I did that and should have the materials pretty well memorized by the time I get there.

While the general consensus is that Rescue Diver is well worth taking, there's a lot of disagrement over the specialties

Learning new skills and polishing up old ones is a pretty fun way to spend a vacation, imho.

Well in the essence I can agree. If a person decides to work it into his vacation then I would assume its not taking anything away from the vacation time. My statement was geared towards more of the once a year family diver who loads up the kids and wife/husband and travels to some exoctic location.

Now there are those who gear vacations soley around diving hince the existance of live aboards for one.

And I agree because as I said earlier I cant bad mouth specialties and for the same reason you mentioned I have a list myself of specialties. I was refering in part though to the fact a lot of people right now are tight on cash and there is a false sense in some cases that the only way to learn a specialty is to take the class.

As Devon even agreed one can self learn these courses. You trade one of two things to do this though. You either spend a lot of time playing in the water or you spend a lot of money to not have to be in the water as long to learn.

Do I think the specialties are worthless? Not at all but I do question the price tags that sometimes accompany them. I dont know much about jack questow (I cant spell that name for the life of me so sorry if its wrong) but if he were alive (Forgive me but I just dont know if he is or not) then it may be worth taking a fish ID course from him for say a couple hundred dollars since he is a world reknowned diver known for his exploits from the world over. But I just cant see someone charging 150 dollars to just rush through a book and say "This is a butterfly fish and on the opposite page we have a goat fish. If you turn the page......"

The problem is I think rather then push people towards specialties which so many places I have seen do. They should encourage people to get out and dive more get comfortable in the water and enjoy diving. After they have experimented with a good dive buddy (As mentioned earlier) if a diver finds that he may say want to go deep in the water and ponders on it then yes get the deep cert. But dont let someone scare you into it saying things like an open water cant go deeper then 60 feet by padi standards. It would be ok if the wording were changed to something like "Padi recommends an open water dont go deeper then 60 feet"

When you push people to get things like AOW and Deep it results in the delima we now have with alot of dive shops and the ever well known phrase (PADI = Put another dollar in) as for the LDS it makes people start to believe your all about money and nothing else. And we all know how hard a bad word can hit and how far a bad word can spread. One black listing on here and people in Australia know how Dive Shop x is greedy in Oklahoma.

So if you want to take specialties by all mean do so. As I said earlier I am planning on getting more myself soon. Just do it for the right reasons and do it because you trully enjoy what your going to gain out of it. Other wise you just spent alot of money on nothing at all.
 
I just cant see someone charging 150 dollars to just rush through a book and say "This is a butterfly fish and on the opposite page we have a goat fish. If you turn the page......"
That's not what the Fish ID course standards require. It's not a "heavy" course by any means, but there's more to it than having somebody flip the pages in a fish ID book, even when the instructor isn't a world-renowned expert (and imagine how much it would cost to go to Oz to take this course from Neville!).

It would be ok if the wording were changed to something like "Padi recommends an open water dont go deeper then 60 feet"
Actually, there are no specific limits at all for certified divers. What we have are training limits, and those are 60 feet for Open Water divers, but with additional experience, those limits can be extended. Now your insurance provider may establish limits for each level of certification, beyond which they won't pay in case of injury....

Here's PADI's exact wording, and I suppose that other agencies have similar relationships between training standards and the qualifications that certs confer:
PADI Open Water Divers are qualified to:
• Dive with a buddy independent of supervision while applying the knowledge and skills they learn in this course, within the limits of their training and experience.
• Plan, conduct and log open water no stop (no decompression) dives when properly equipped and when accompanied by a buddy in conditions with which they have training and/or experience.
 
Actually, there are no specific limits at all for certified divers. What we have are training limits, and those are 60 feet for Open Water divers, but with additional experience, those limits can be extended. Now your insurance provider may establish limits for each level of certification, beyond which they won't pay in case of injury....

I understand your point. I just hear alot of times diving instructors telling their students that they are certified to 60 feet and thats their diving limit. Now I know as well as anyone else these are just a few apples in the basket and not every instructor tells their students this.

And yes the trip to Oz and the price to pay would be exorbent
 
"PADI or any other RSTC member Open Water Divers are qualified to:
• Dive with a buddy independent of supervision while applying the knowledge and skills they learn in this course, within the limits of their training and experience.
• Plan, conduct and log open water no stop (no decompression) dives when properly equipped and when accompanied by a buddy in conditions with which they have training and/or experience."


So when they are not able why do they still possess a certification card? I've seen more than enough people who should still be in the pool sitting across from me on dive boats. They have cards yet they require a DM to put their gear together, lead them around, plan their dives, keep track of their air pressures, etc. Why were they issued an OW card? Acccording to the quoted item they should not have gotten one. In all seriousness, why did they get a card when they are not able to meet the above stated goals?
 
halemanō;5698291:
Analyzing tank contents would seem to be the only "new skill" in the Nitrox course. If you learned other "new skills" I am not sure those are included in other PADI Nitrox Instructors classes. :idk:

Yep. As far as i can see the Nitrox course as its taught now introduces no new skills except analysing a tank and hitting a button on a computer.

It USED to have mandatory new theoretical skills...
I add up also some orientation on the 2 blending techniques for those interested in technicalities, and the maths part.
 
Jim Lapenta: That's sort of how I was when I finished with the OW class but I had enough sense to realize that I was on a suicide missiion if I didn't get some more instructions. My next diving was in Fort Laudale a few weeks later, hooked up with a lady instructor, doing reef dives together for a few days. After that I had quit a bit of confidence and have never looked back. It's always been a wonder to me that more new divers don't drown right away. I guess that it really isn't that complicated.
 
halemanō;5696593:
The Navigation Specialty should be a mandatory Specialty (along with Deep) for Master Scuba Diver (like AOW's required Deep and Navigation dives).

I think the "average" Navigation Specialty involves more "learning/teaching" than any other "average" PADI Specialty. I feel the same way for "good" versions of PADI specialties as well. :D

Without getting into agency specifics, I'm gonna agree with those comments ... there's more to learn in a navigation class than just how to read a compass and do patterns ... and a good navigation specialty will not only teach those techniques, but give you plenty of practice learning how to find your way around underwater.

I think this is one of those specialty classes that ... if taught properly ... is worth every dime you pay for it, particularly if you dive in places where the vis isn't all that great ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 

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