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.
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Nitrox also teaches new 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.
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!).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......"
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....It would be ok if the wording were changed to something like "Padi recommends an open water dont go deeper then 60 feet"
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....
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.
I add up also some orientation on the 2 blending techniques for those interested in technicalities, and the maths part.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...
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.