Low/Limited Visibility Distinctive PADI course

[NW Dive Dawg]

So PADI approves these "distinctive" courses and then provides no useful information to it's members on how they are taught or who teaches them? Brilliant!!

 

[Wibble]

Would ERDI (a branch of TDI/SDI) be running something like this?

 

[LLCcom]

Would ERDI (a branch of TDI/SDI) be running something like this?

Unless I cannot find it- I had originally asked some places that do TDI/SDI and they run a similar course to PADI where it is limited/night visibility, but not in the context of what I am looking for/asking about (if that is clear in my reply).

 

[boulderjohn]

So PADI approves these "distinctive" courses and then provides no useful information to it's members on how they are taught or who teaches them? Brilliant!!

The list of courses would be enormous.

There is a good reason for these courses, and it has to do with legal liability. A friend and I got this bit of legal advice from an attorney after we had worked together to create a special instructional workshop, after which we made it a distinctive specialty instead. If you teach a scuba course you have created yourself created yourself, and there is an accident of some kind, there is a very good chance you will be sued. In the suit, the plaintiff will try to prove that what you chose to do in your course was not within the realm of accepted instructional practice and was thus unsafe. You will have to defend the legitimacy of your teaching. If, on the other hand, it is an approved distinctive specialty, then every part of the course has been reviewed and approved by the world's largest agency. The plaintiff would have to prove that either that agency is wrong about accepted instructional practice, or you violated the standards you yourself had written.

That is why you end up with the distinctive specialties that get mocked regularly as frivolous. If an instructor wants to create a fun activity that will attract divers, that instructor would be wise to have that activity officially approved.

 

[tursiops]

The OP has created two threads predicated on his assertion that a PADI Distinctive Specialty on limited visibility diving is a prerequisite to taking the PADI Pubic Service Diving specialty. This is, I believe, not correct. Firstly, the PSD course does not list such a prereq, and secondly I believe NO Distinctive Specialties are prerequisites for ANY PADI course.
The two threads are moot.

 

[Boarderguy]

The OP has created two threads predicated on his assertion that a PADI Distinctive Specialty on limited visibility diving is a prerequisite to taking the PADI Pubic Service Diving specialty. This is, I believe, not correct. Firstly, the PSD course does not list such a prereq, and secondly I believe NO Distinctive Specialties are prerequisites for ANY PADI course.
The two threads are moot.

Or in the words of Joey from friends, "the two threads are moo"

 

[LLCcom]

The list of courses would be enormous.

There is a good reason for these courses, and it has to do with legal liability. A friend and I got this bit of legal advice from an attorney after we had worked together to create a special instructional workshop, after which we made it a distinctive specialty instead. If you teach a scuba course you have created yourself created yourself, and there is an accident of some kind, there is a very good chance you will be sued. In the suit, the plaintiff will try to prove that what you chose to do in your course was not within the realm of accepted instructional practice and was thus unsafe. You will have to defend the legitimacy of your teaching. If, on the other hand, it is an approved distinctive specialty, then every part of the course has been reviewed and approved by the world's largest agency. The plaintiff would have to prove that either that agency is wrong about accepted instructional practice, or you violated the standards you yourself had written.

That is why you end up with the distinctive specialties that get mocked regularly as frivolous. If an instructor wants to create a fun activity that will attract divers, that instructor would be wise to have that activity officially approved.

I think he was more identifying that there should be access to information on how to connect to such courses, not that they are frivolous in nature or should be done outside of the approving agency.