Are PADI Specialties worth it?!?!

[Mike2Fst]

Once you get out there and put a number of dives under your belt, through casual observation of others, you'll begin to understand where some of these seemingly silly courses began their evolution. For some, skills come easy and are common sense, for others, that same skill may seem an insurmountable challenge and take hours of practice, and yes, even a specialty course. If your bouyancy skills are beyond reproach, it would be silly to take the PPB course, yet there are plenty of mud puppies yucking up great vis conditions, or then there are the folks who slam into the bottom and then over inflate their BCD and shoot to the surface only to repeat this activity a number of times. They may not know about the PPB course, please let them know. Take what will advance your skills and knowledge and that also pertain to the type of diving you wish to do, certainly Trimix will not benefit your tropical shallow fish watching adventures. When I began my journey into diving many years ago, it was the boot camp mentality, a big challenge, but this does not bode well with the common crowd and therefore prevents many dollars from flowing into the scuba community and the profit driven organizations. Many courses are a product of the profit driven organizations and the fact that for many, diving is very unnatural and suffer from the boat anchor/polaris missle syndrome. Glad you've joined the community, you sound like a natural, please be patient with those who struggle with the simplest of tasks like peeing off the side of the boat without wetting themselves, they are out there in abundance and usually need the boat diver specialty.

 

[Hawkwood]

.... Part of the 'blame' however, is the students themselves. The focus isn't necessarily on quality, but price. The shorter the training the better. It's the "I want it cheap and I want it now" attitude of today's consumer...

DCBC,

I appreciate you including the above in your comments. Although not always the case, it does happen. I had a student come for an enriched air class a few weeks ago. His attitude PO'd me to no end. He arrived expecting to write the exam and then leave. He had "allotted" me a half hour of this time, since there was "nothing to this".

Ha! Was he surprised! He spent the whole evening with me....he got much more than he anticipated. In this case, he got more than what he paid for!

 

[DCBC]

DCBC,

I appreciate you including the above in your comments. Although not always the case, it does happen. I had a student come for an enriched air class a few weeks ago. His attitude PO'd me to no end. He arrived expecting to write the exam and then leave. He had "allotted" me a half hour of this time, since there was "nothing to this".

Ha! Was he surprised! He spent the whole evening with me....he got much more than he anticipated. In this case, he got more than what he paid for!

I'll bet he was... I guess the lower standards are across the board and apply to all levels of certification, OW through instructor.

This reminds me of what martial arts training became. After 'Enter the Dragon' there was a big demand for instruction. Many schools dropped standards to accommodate students. As few wanted to work for it and invest the requisite time, some Dojos started to guarantee a Black Belt in 3 years (one night a week not the normal three). So it came down to getting the same qualification that I received after seven years in 15% of the time invested. All driven by money generation and not the same commitment to excellence.

Today, there is no comparison to the skill level required of divers in the past. In many cases, they are unprepared to be in the water and certified, but that's only one old fa*ts opinion...

 

[endurodog]

If its worth it or not is something you need to decide. What are you hoping to learn and what is being taught. Talk with a few instructors and if what they are teaching is what you want then it may be great. If not save your money and dive some more. Good luck

 

[boulderjohn]

Depends on the specialities. Cave? That ain't cave diving.

You might be surprised. The PADI cavern diving specialty is not cave diving by any means, and it does not pretend to be.

The PADI cave diving distinctive specialty (which I have) is indeed cave diving. The requirements for it are very thorough, about the same as you would need to get the full cave certification from agencies like NSS-CDS and NACD, and it is taught by instructors who also teach those classes. .

 

[fnfalman]

You might be surprised. The PADI cavern diving specialty is not cave diving by any means, and it does not pretend to be.

The PADI cave diving distinctive specialty (which I have) is indeed cave diving. The requirements for it are very thorough, about the same as you would need to get the full cave certification from agencies like NSS-CDS and NACD, and it is taught by instructors who also teach those classes. .

That's the PADI Tech diving course and not one of the specialties offered so that a rec diver can get the Master Scuba Diver card.

 

[Sleepdr]

If you want to really improve your diving skill, take a look at GUE primer or UTD essential of rec. Not certification course, but if you are committed and getting a card isn't your first priority, you will learn a lot. The instructors will make you work for it. Their standard is high. I would suggest you take one of these classes instead of AOW

I'm very inexperienced but agree with this idea, and opted for a GUE Primer before AOW. The Primer was this last weekend, and I'm still recovering. It took a while to get my "land legs" back - relaxing in the hotel after the class, my body had the strongest urge to get out of that upright position & back into prone. Getting a card wasn't a priority, and I spent plenty of $ for the privilege of a class designed solely for skills improvement. It was a worthwhile investment for a guy who got OW certified 21 years ago but logged few dives. The Primer gave me more in-water confidence with a skillset to practice when starting AOW. That isn't the path for everyone, but was perfect for my needs.

 

[Paulmal]

I would consider GUE Fundies an AOW equivalent (especially a tec pass) but you may not be able to get away with it in places like the keys where you need an AOW cert to dive certain wrecks. I have heard about guys that were trimix divers that were not allowed to dive with an operator in the keys because he did not have his AOW card with him.
You will be a better diver for taking Fundies, you will learn from AOW but not nearly as much a Fundies.

 

[eelnoraa]

I'm very inexperienced but agree with this idea, and opted for a GUE Primer before AOW. ..... The Primer gave me more in-water confidence with a skillset to practice when starting AOW. That isn't the path for everyone, but was perfect for my needs.

You will very highly likely to be disappointed by AOW after Primer experience unless you find a extreme high level PADI instructor. AOW requirement is NOT advanced in any way. In the general case, PP in AOW is a joke compared to what you get in GUE. Navigation, yeah, I can see some usefulness in it if it is taught well. Deep dive is all about gas planning, which should be well covered in Primer (I think).

Again, this is a general case. The main issue with AOW is one instructor will bring out 6 students, doing one dive per skill listed above. How much can you learn in PP and navi in that limited amount of time with such large student to instructor ratio?? If I were in your situation, I will go for PADI rescue with a good instructor. AOW isn't worth a while in your case anymore

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You cannot say that one instructor will do that. One may be allowed to bring six students but a good instructor will limit it to 4 or less. I don't take more than 3 and the third has to be a pretty exceptional diver to start with. Otherwise I am only taking one or two. It is easy enough to pick up the phone and verify a class size and composition. Not all AOW classes are the same and that goes for PADI classes as well. If he were to take an AOW from say Peter Guy I can pretty much guarantee he's not getting some lame by the book.class filled with useless crap dives. He'll get one tailored to his interests. and having more info put in.
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