Thanks for some info and offers to run checks but mine was more of an academic question about how the right to teach a specialty is granted. I'm not taking any specialty course atm and honestly don't see much value in some of them. I'm not knocking all of them-If I ever went up north to dive I would probably enroll on some courses about dry suite and cold water diving or at least make sure I was getting in the water with people that could provide me with needed info before the dive (probably still take the course anyway).
I was just wondering if the LDS offers a course in 'x' did the instructor have to take a course in 'x' before he could teach or did he just hook up with people who do 'x', kind of figured it out from there and then said 'hey, i think I'll offer a class now that I have done it a few times'. Worse, could an instructor from Guam who found himself in a very cold climate suddenly decide that after reading a book and watching a video that he was going to start teaching people to dive in the new frozen landscape?
Like I said, mostly just asking out of curiosity but it sounds like PADI actually has a system in place for this-I just wasn't sure about the others.
