Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
I have a question about developing specialties.
Hers’s what I’m up against.
As some of you might know, I’m doing a project in Northern California involving bull kelp restoration. Our work involves removing voracious purple urchins to create safe areas for kelp to re-establish.
All the diving is shore diving based (for now).
It involves using large game bags, lift bags, lines, navigation, use of specialized rakes, a lot of task loading, physical stress (it’s a lot of hard work)
I’ve recruited a group of volunteer divers to help me and so far we’ve removed about 13,000 lbs. of purps out of Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.
We have a lot of work to do still.
Here is where it gets interesting.
We have a sign up sheet at the local dive shop.
We also have an instagram page.
Some people join up from word of mouth or see us at the site diving and want to join.
Not all divers are cut out for this I learned.
In the worst case scenario is we get a brand new diver that certified in warm water on vacation and has never dived cold water much less has ever done a shore dive in full cold water gear and has a grand total of 5 dives to their name, but they want to help.
Put that same diver in all rental gear with an ill fitting rented wetsuit and unfamiliar rental BC, no time for a proper weight check and no acclimation dive(s), and we have a recipe…
I think it’s time for a class.
There is a lot to urchin harvesting. Handling bags, raking urchins, minding by-catch, I.D.’ing different types of urchins, trying not to destroy everything while collecting, managing full bags, use of lift bags (safely), etc. thick wetsuits, managing surge, tolerating cold water in high 40’s low 50’s, there’s a lot to it. It’s diving with a purpose but it’s also hard work. It’s way more than a newbie can handle without some guidance and training. We get a lot of one and done’s because of the difficulty, they try it, get overwhelmed and say forget it!
I’m sure some new divers could figure it out but a class would fast track them to be much more efficient and safer. I think they would be more committed to show up, more motivated to purchase their own collection gear and show up for the dives if they had proper training to do this and were more prepared and confident.
When new people show up I have no idea who they are or their skill level. It can get a little un-nerving. We do have a waiver that divers are on their own but that doesn’t change the fact that some are just not ready. A training class would also reduce our liability to some degree by having a more competent crew.
My question is:
I know PADI has a program where instructors can develop new courses based on a need. I ‘heard’ there was a kelp restoration specialty but I’m not certain. I looked at PADI’s website and their specialty list buy couldn’t find anything. The only reason I’m mentioning PADI is because that’s what most shops around here are and we need some sort of card or proof of completion, not just an unaffiliated random course that someone puts out. It would be better if it was officialized through an agency that way if kelp restoration expands beyond what we’re doing that specialty could apply to other programs and the people running the programs would know that the diver had some official training. We would develop the program based on everything we’ve learned and figured out doing this. There was no standard before we began doing urchin removal for recreational application, we’ve had to figure it out and find the best and most efficient ways to do it.
Maybe @boulderjohn and/or @tursiops and anybody else with knowledge about creating new courses can chime in.
I’m not an instructor so I would have to propose this to the dive shops instructor staff/owners of all the shops in the area.
They did something like this with the Tankers Reef Project in Monterey, several shops taught the urchin smashing course and they charged whatever they thought was appropriate, all of them were different. I think there was about 4 shops involved from what I was told, all in the south bay and in Monterey.
Collection is a lot more involved and requires a whole different skill set.
Thoughts?
Hers’s what I’m up against.
As some of you might know, I’m doing a project in Northern California involving bull kelp restoration. Our work involves removing voracious purple urchins to create safe areas for kelp to re-establish.
All the diving is shore diving based (for now).
It involves using large game bags, lift bags, lines, navigation, use of specialized rakes, a lot of task loading, physical stress (it’s a lot of hard work)
I’ve recruited a group of volunteer divers to help me and so far we’ve removed about 13,000 lbs. of purps out of Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.
We have a lot of work to do still.
Here is where it gets interesting.
We have a sign up sheet at the local dive shop.
We also have an instagram page.
Some people join up from word of mouth or see us at the site diving and want to join.
Not all divers are cut out for this I learned.
In the worst case scenario is we get a brand new diver that certified in warm water on vacation and has never dived cold water much less has ever done a shore dive in full cold water gear and has a grand total of 5 dives to their name, but they want to help.
Put that same diver in all rental gear with an ill fitting rented wetsuit and unfamiliar rental BC, no time for a proper weight check and no acclimation dive(s), and we have a recipe…
I think it’s time for a class.
There is a lot to urchin harvesting. Handling bags, raking urchins, minding by-catch, I.D.’ing different types of urchins, trying not to destroy everything while collecting, managing full bags, use of lift bags (safely), etc. thick wetsuits, managing surge, tolerating cold water in high 40’s low 50’s, there’s a lot to it. It’s diving with a purpose but it’s also hard work. It’s way more than a newbie can handle without some guidance and training. We get a lot of one and done’s because of the difficulty, they try it, get overwhelmed and say forget it!
I’m sure some new divers could figure it out but a class would fast track them to be much more efficient and safer. I think they would be more committed to show up, more motivated to purchase their own collection gear and show up for the dives if they had proper training to do this and were more prepared and confident.
When new people show up I have no idea who they are or their skill level. It can get a little un-nerving. We do have a waiver that divers are on their own but that doesn’t change the fact that some are just not ready. A training class would also reduce our liability to some degree by having a more competent crew.
My question is:
I know PADI has a program where instructors can develop new courses based on a need. I ‘heard’ there was a kelp restoration specialty but I’m not certain. I looked at PADI’s website and their specialty list buy couldn’t find anything. The only reason I’m mentioning PADI is because that’s what most shops around here are and we need some sort of card or proof of completion, not just an unaffiliated random course that someone puts out. It would be better if it was officialized through an agency that way if kelp restoration expands beyond what we’re doing that specialty could apply to other programs and the people running the programs would know that the diver had some official training. We would develop the program based on everything we’ve learned and figured out doing this. There was no standard before we began doing urchin removal for recreational application, we’ve had to figure it out and find the best and most efficient ways to do it.
Maybe @boulderjohn and/or @tursiops and anybody else with knowledge about creating new courses can chime in.
I’m not an instructor so I would have to propose this to the dive shops instructor staff/owners of all the shops in the area.
They did something like this with the Tankers Reef Project in Monterey, several shops taught the urchin smashing course and they charged whatever they thought was appropriate, all of them were different. I think there was about 4 shops involved from what I was told, all in the south bay and in Monterey.
Collection is a lot more involved and requires a whole different skill set.
Thoughts?
