I will be taking my RAID crossover on Tuesday

[Wookie]

The VERY first thing I do with students is the pool is "stand with full gear, put reg in your mouth, put face in water and take 3 breaths". The VERY second thing I do is start buoyancy drills and skills. Within 20 minutes of the first pool session my students have good buoyancy skills and all those other skills are done neutral. Thank you SDI-TDI.

Funny story, I has a referral student come in from another agency (P_ _ _) for her OW checkout dives. First session at BHB her buoyancy check went great. She had really outstanding buoyancy for a OW student! The first skill I signaled was mask clear. She immediately dropped to her knees and cleared her mask. <sigh>

I think that neutral buoyancy instruction is an instructor mindset, not an agency thing. If I were coming up through PADI now with someone like BoulderJohn as an instructor, I would learn neutral from the start, and therefore teach it that way.

I felt I needed a break from the same old same old, and that means (to me) getting away from PADI and all of the mental baggage I have with them. I was a 20 year PADI instructor, and a good one back when I taught, but going forward I want a new feel and new set of slates and a new mindset. I will not be dropping my SDI membership, because I feel very strongly that there needs to be a card issued for solo diver, and RAID feels just as strongly the other way, but I feel that I have come to an organization that feels the way I do instead of there being a constant uphill grind that I no longer wish to participate in. That grind may be all in my head, but there you have it.

 

[Bubblesong]

Thank you for posting about this interesting new agency, I wiill have my daughter look into it when she settles into college.
However I had one of those inner city childhoods in which "Raid" means maple flavored poisoned air and bugs dropping from ceiling to hair, (poetic, no?) so I am struggling with the branding. Next generation does not have this Hangup thank God!

 

[Patoux01]

However I had one of those inner city childhoods in which "Raid" means maple flavored poisoned air and bugs dropping from ceiling to hair, (poetic, no?) so I am struggling with the branding. Next generation does not have this Hangup thank God!

Australians do, it's still fairly popular there.

 

[kelemvor]

Thank you for posting about this interesting new agency, I wiill have my daughter look into it when she settles into college.
However I had one of those inner city childhoods in which "Raid" means maple flavored poisoned air and bugs dropping from ceiling to hair, (poetic, no?) so I am struggling with the branding. Next generation does not have this Hangup thank God!

Yup, that's what I think of when I hear the name as well. Always gives me a chuckle! Next comes to mind a redundant array of independent disks.

 

[The Chairman]

Also similar to NASE with regards to some of the limitations on the website from the sound of it

And they track hours and not dives. I like it.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

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From the site, note it is hours not dives. None of this 100x 20 min dives I've seen over the years...



• To have a minimum of 100 logged underwater hours on Open Circuit.

With my awful SAC rate it would take me 261 dives to reach the minimum number of hours to become a DM. I know my SAC will get better with more dives but man is that a daunting number.

Having said that I do think hours underwater is a good way to track experience in relation to when you should be able to start your DM or any other course.

RAID is impressive from what I have seen thus far.

 

[Wookie]

I remember my PADI logs tracked number of dives as well as time underwater, so that isn't a stretch to record in either case. And 261 dives is a better starting point than 100 dives. My dive computer also tracks dive time as well as number of dives. But it won't take you 261 dives to get 100 hours. It just looks that way from here.

 

[JohnnyC]

@RainPilot you don't happen to be one of the cloud seeding guys out of Abu Dhabi do you? We've had some pretty serious weather lately here in dxb.

Is there a DM crossover? I'm an inactive PADI DM but may be interested in getting an instructor ticket for some work I'm doing over here. Mind shooting me a PM with your e-mail address? I'd like to ask you a few questions.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I remember my PADI logs tracked number of dives as well as time underwater, so that isn't a stretch to record in either case. And 261 dives is a better starting point than 100 dives. My dive computer also tracks dive time as well as number of dives. But it won't take you 261 dives to get 100 hours. It just looks that way from here.

Oh I track my dives and total hours (or minutes) underwater. I make all kinds of notes in my log to help remember dives especially when I have more dives logged.

I am sure I will hit 100 hours before 261 dives but had to look at it from a worst case scenario. Thanks for the assurance that my air consumption will get better. I know it will be it is still nice to hear from people with who are experienced divers.

 

[ffdiver]

So in order to crossover I would have to meet with an IT? And what's this being part of a dive center? How do independent instructors logistally funtion within the raid agency?