PADI specialties and money

[anakin]

Dont forget, PADI makes money on the books/videos sold for the specialty course as well, so they make just as much as the instructor and the the Dive shop.

Remeber as well, most of the people who take Boat diver specialties are also just looking to get into diving again, or want ot dive but dont know anyone so they take a course, not to mention the tonnes of people that just want to be taught directly instead of figuring stuff out for themselves and willing to throw money at any instructor to do it for them.

 

[asaara]

Considering PADI teach controlling your buoyancy solely with the drysuit, you're almost certainly better off going off and working it all out yourself.

The PADI drysuit course I took had an instructor (granted, not exclusively PADI certified) who taught buoyancy with the BCD, suit squeeze with the suit inflator, so???

(not that I got the card to see which agency's name was on it, as while I was able to do my drills, the instructor was back by the shore with a freeflow and therefore no one was watching, when I was going back to get more weight, mine freeflowed, and by then they were out of spare regs...does that mean I'm qualified by your "working it out yourself" standards, since I didn't get around to freezing my arse off on another OW dive?)

 

[ScubaSista]

I just want to say, Don, I'm with you on this.

Also, I am constantly amazed at folks who poo poo continuing education in diving or other areas of life. We aren't born knowing everything already. If you're interested in something, why not look for further training or education from a professional? As for the boat specialty, I have to admit to viewing that one as a "fluff" certification, but then, I'm familiar with and comfortable on boats. I might be interested in taking the course just to see if there is something I could learn, but again, as pointed out by others, this would have a lot to do with my instructor and the boat captain.

 

[Ann Marie]

There are so many threads on continuing education. There are also so many people that feel strongly about it, one way or another.

Currently there are no 'diving police'. If you don't want to take any classes after open water, don't.

There are also people that feel more comfortable diving with an instructor or want to possibly shorten the learning curve on a specific type of diving. I say possibly because it really depends on the instructor and the student and what each one wants out of the class. Granted some specialties have very short learning curves while others take a bit longer.

Once you have an open water certification card, you don't have to apply for another. The cards are just to show recognition that you completed a specialty. (Though there are some occasions where you may need to show a specific specialty card)

Some people, I’m one, aren’t satisfied with just learning the bare minimum. When I was an open water diver I wanted to expand my diving horizons so I took specialties. I see specialties as just introductions into different types of diving. There were some specialties that I really enjoyed and that I continue to build upon today.

Yep, you could go straight from open water to 130’ dive with a buddy without having to worry about the diving police. But is your buddy going to be doing that dive solely to monitor you? Is he/she going to be watching you closely to monitor for narcosis, keep an eye on your air pressure, and make sure you are going to do the safety stops or is he/she going to be diving to look for the cool stuff down at that depth? Are they going to talk about deep stops, emergency decompression stops, hang bottles, and rock-bottom, are they going to have a first aid kit and emergency O2 on hand and know how to use it? What happens if stuff hits the fan? Hopefully your buddy is competent enough to help you out if the need arises.

Sure there are certifications that aren’t for all divers, but heck some are just plain interesting. (While on Kona I REALLY wanted to take a Manta Ray Specialty. Would that make me a better diver? No. Did I need that to dive with the Mantas? No. Would I have learned more and possibly enjoyed diving with them more? I bet I would have. I just didn’t have the time to do it yet.)

Some of us may see some specialties as ‘fluff’ but for another it may just lower the anxiety of doing a new type of diving. Or it could just be a way to learn something new about the ocean and ourselves.

 

[ppo2_diver]

I have found that many people just want to dive with an instructor for their first 5-10 dives post-certification. Especially in this area where the visibility and water temperatures are not ideal. It gets them a little more comfortable in the water and will eventually wean themselves off the instructor/DM. They can do this while learning a little more about scuba with continuing education and if the instructor is a good instructor, it will be a chance to mentor new divers to dive they way he/she teaches.

The problem that bothers me with PADI is that they have changed the standards to hurt independent instructors and help dive stores. For example, currently all Assistant Instructors must get certified through a PADI 5-star facility. They have just taken away a revenue stream for me. The extra money I pay to keep my IDC Staff Instructor rating isn't worth it anymore and I may eventually drop it as I can't teach AI's outside a dive store anymore. PADI has also changed standards recently to require that each student have all required materials. You can no longer share books, DVD's, etc. if they are required for the class. That means that I must raise my prices to cover the extra materials or make less profit. This doesn't hurt the dive stores much as they get the materials cheaper than I can since they buy in bulk.

Ok, my rant is over.

 

[pir8]

I keep reading about the boat diver Specialty book. When did they write that one. There really aren't that many specialty books at least as far as PADI is concerned.

 

[plot]

I have a boat diving book from SSI... have yet to crack it open. I'll check it out though and see if there's actually anything usefull in it.

 

[mirrocraft]

everyone gets something different out of each course some think its stupit and others do it just to dive with an instructor. we all have to make a living and feed our family you cant teach everything in the first class ,or you cant keep food on the table. alot of divers out there that have money to spend take to classes to have someone that has done it to show them how rather than learning the hard way. personaly im a solo diver and i didnt need a class to teach me that but not many people feel good enuff in the water to do it.