PADI necessary hidden skills

[Storker]

I think a lot of the skills covered in PADI specialty courses can be learned with a more experienced buddy, some online reading, a good briefing from the dive guide that day, and/or trial and error

I totally agree.

Problem is, where do you find an experienced and competent mentor? In a club environment, you have a fair chance, even if there are some... "personalities" in any diving club. So caveat empor. If you aren't in a club environment, where are you going to find that mentor? You rather probably won't, and then it's only the course track left to consider.

 

[Sbiriguda]

Yup, calling out the people who just say things they can't back up. Almost always, people are denigrating courses that they themselves are not interested in (or think they already know-it-all), or Distinctive Specialties that are taught by only one or a few people.

Well that might be the explanation. I opened elsewhere a thread on PADI specialties that explains my personal conclusions. I am very far from believing that I already know-it-all in any case also for the courses / specialties I didn't take it's a matter of choices I absolutely do not believe they are useless. Simply I can't or don't want to take them all

 

[Esprise Me]

I totally agree.

Problem is, where do you find an experienced and competent mentor? In a club environment, you have a fair chance, even if there are some... "personalities" in any diving club. So caveat empor. If you aren't in a club environment, where are you going to find that mentor? You rather probably won't, and then it's only the course track left to consider.

True, but there are dive clubs in places where people don't actually get certified by clubs. I belong to several around here. They have lots of experienced divers, and they're always welcoming to newbies. I've learned a lot from diving with those guys. But yes, for some folks, paying for additional instruction may be the best or only option. I'm not sure that's such a terrible thing.

 

[Storker]

I belong to several around here. They have lots of experienced divers, and they're always welcoming to newbies. I've learned a lot from diving with those guys.

I might probably have mentioned it once before (or, more probably, multiple times), but I'm almost religiously a club diver. I've learned a crapload by diving with more experienced clubmates and am now paying that debt back by accepting n00b buddies and trying my best to mentor them to the best of my abilities.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

The PADI (and most WRSTC members) and BSAC systems are targeted towards very different people. And one appeals to a much larger group than the other.

if only the BSAC system existed, there’d be fewer divers. I’m not denigrating the BSAC system as I like their more thorough training. However, for people who just want to look at pretty fish in a tropical location once in a while, the cookie cutter system is much more appealing. And with teaching off the knees/proper weighting, you don’t get the stereotypical results.

 

[jlcnuke]

"Hidden skills" is probably not the right term, but I will make an example
In PADI nobody officially taught me how to start a shore dive. I mean, obviously they did since I made plenty of shore dives. But this was not clearly considered a specific "skill", let me say like the "24 skills" that are clearly listed one by one. My understanding is also that in PADI it is up to the instructor to decide if the want to teach you shore diving or not. Though it might sound absurd, it is not listed as a "compulsory" skill to learn to pass an examination. So (I am guessing) you could become OW or AOW without being taught anything about shore dives
This is what I meant (more or less)

I've never been officially taught anything about shore dives. I've done a number of shore dives and never felt the need to be taught anything to do them safely. Same with boat dives. Rolling backwards, giant striding off a boat, and climbing a ladder etc. aren't exactly something that most people need to be "taught" in order to do so safely. I learned to do night dives by doing night dives, and having a brief on a liveaboard once. Not rocket science... and certainly not something I'd want to pay someone to teach me how to do. Pay someone to teach me to dive in a wetsuit?? Aren't all the skills for that covered with basic open water training already? What could you possibly gain by needing students to wear a wetsuit (if they aren't already) in an OW class? Most of the stuff in the OP list are things we laugh about PADI having a course for at all, since almost every person on the planet with an OW cert can easily figure out what/how to do them, except for nitrox and drysuit (debatable)...

 

[Miyaru]

Low-visibility dive – a dive in visibility ranging between 2m and 4m

A high-visibility course dive actually makes sense for lots of experienced high-horse cold water divers.

I've seen enough of them panicking during a free descent in the blue without reference.

A specific environment doesn't make you a better diver.

 

[Bob DBF]

Problem is, where do you find an experienced and competent mentor? In a club environment, you have a fair chance, even if there are some... "personalities" in any diving club. So caveat empor. If you aren't in a club environment, where are you going to find that mentor? You rather probably won't, and then it's only the course track left to consider.

Not saying I'm an experienced and competent mentor, but I was a mentor. I met the diver at in a specialty class, he was a DM trainee at the time.

Getting togather for a dive turned into many because he made himself avaliabe almost anytime I was going diving, as well as helpful and good company. We talked diving constantly and dived a lot, increasing our knowledge and experience. The most interesting was his constantly asking why I did things the way I do, as I had to dredge back decades sometimes to figure out why.

Unfortunalty, he moved and we only chat on the phone occasionally. I guess part of finding a mentor is finding a candidate and turning them into one. Although we dove togather for quite a while, you don't need to find a perfect mentor, just good enough to move you farther in your journey. Oh yeah, he was a natural underwater, better than I.

Since mentors were the way I progressed when I started, diving with new divers and instabuddies doesn't give me the fear I hear about online, it's mostly been good times and a bit of learning all the way around. The classes I have been involved in recently have nothing about giving back to the sport in the form of mentoring (possibly disrupting their cash flow) or just diving with new divers to help with their experience and confidence.

 

[Storker]

Not saying I'm an experienced and competent mentor, but I was a mentor.

You and me, my friend. You and me.

 

[Edward3c]

All of the supposedly BSAC dive center I have contacted in the past "say" that they offer BSAC training in their advertising but when you contact them or show up at their facility to discuss training they will steer you to PADI or other agency's program. BSAC program is disappearing from the scene gradually and it is almost non-existent at the international scene.

The training courses were never developed t be commercial, but, as you rightly say, teach people to dive in temperate waters.

True, but there are dive clubs in places where people don't actually get certified by clubs. I belong to several around here. They have lots of experienced divers, and they're always welcoming to newbies. I've learned a lot from diving with those guys. But yes, for some folks, paying for additional instruction may be the best or only option. I'm not sure that's such a terrible thing.

As a BSAC club member you don't pay for instruction, its part of the membership fee, whether you receive training or not.