PADI specialty dive question

[Justink25]

I am relatively new to scuba and am curious about the specialty dives. I have a few dives booked coming up in next few months. Georgia Aquirium, Bonne Terre, Stuart cove shark dive, and a couple more. They are all offering specialty dives. My question is what exactly are the specialty dives? Do they do anything for you? More dive time? Have not been able to find a clear answer for this.
Thank you In Advance for any and all responses!
Merry Christmas!!!

 

[Larryjd1]

I've done a few "specialty" dives, including the Stuarts Cove Shark Dive.

When my then high school aged son and I did it about 5 years ago it consisted of two dives at the same location. The first was a generic guided dive at about ~30 fsw where you may catch a glimpse of reef sharks swimming by. The most interesting part of that one for us was I did find two shark teeth on the sandy bottom - which was something they mentioned to look out for during the pre-dive briefing.

For the second dive, they place you individually next to pre-positioned rocks in a large circle whereby a guide in full chain mail attracts and feeds the sharks using a metal pole with fish he extracts from a metal box. After doing this a number of times from the center of the circle, he moved in rotation to the front of each diver so you can get an even closer view of the strike as well as photo opportunity by the staff photographer as it happens.

The photo of my son with the teeth baring shark made it into his senior high school yearbook when they asked the students to send in "What you did over the summer" photos and the teeth we found on the first dive made a nice keepsake.

We've also done the Manta Ray dive on the Big Island where they similarly place you in position to view the Manta feed on the plankton attracted by pre-placed lights as well as ones held by each diver. Amazing to see how graceful the Mantas are as they move and flip backwards - sometimes two in mirror image synch.

The Pelagic Magic dive on the Big Island is a night time dive where you are tethered to the boat above a 3,000 foot abyss where you have the opportunity to view the different life that you would never see in normal daylight Simply amazing! I wasn't in the water more than a minute before a squid swam directly into my light, and after a second to recover from the unexpected impact, released a cloud of ink - all a single foot in front of me.

In general, at least for most of the ones I have done, these "specialty" type dives aren't your typical swim around and look at things type diving as much as an "experience" that doesn't require much scuba skill than an entry level diver would possess.

At the same time, we've also done a hammerhead dive in Hawaii where there were advanced level requirements as the location they visit generally has strong currents with a drop entry and trailing line exit.

My suggestion would be to speak with the operator to find out more specifics about a particular dive and any skill requirements needed.

 

[jlcnuke]

Specialties vary from very, very helpful in making you a better diver all the way to "really, I paid for that??".

PADI allows distinct specialties for all kinds of things (carving a pumpkin underwater is a specialty), some helpful (dry suit diver for instance) and others not so much (i.e. pumpkin etc). Ask the instructor what you will learn before considering any, and make sure that is something you want to learn or, at least, something you need the cards to get you something else with.

 

[Justink25]

That’s kinda where I am at a loss. The specialty part doesn’t seem anything more special from what I am already paying to do. Example at Stuart cove. We get the do the shark feeding already with the dive I purchased. So am I basically paying an extra 80-100 bucks to get specialty card nothing more?
I already did the Georgia aquarium dive and all we really got was 5 extra minutes in the water looking at a whale shark. the other divers who did not buy the specialty did not get to do. It was awesome but not worth the 80 extra dollars over the price of the original dive.

 

[tursiops]

Not sure you should generalize about all specialty dives from two rather specialized and unique experiences.

Is there any skill (like Navigation) or subject (like Fish Identification) you'd like to learn more about? With a good instructor of course.

 

[Justink25]

Not sure you should generalize about all specialty dives from two rather specialized and unique experiences.

Is there any skill (like Navigation) or subject (like Fish Identification) you'd like to learn more about? With a good instructor of course.

Always wanna learn. but nothing particular at this moment. Just curious about the specialty’s being offered. I am going to Bonne Terre next, next weekend to be exact. They offer a specialty if you comeplete 2 dives with them. I asked what the specialty consisted of and they never gave me a direct answer of anything other than doing the 2 initial dives I already paid for. So main question is what is the specialty I am paying for? Is it mainly just a card I give $85 for saying I am a Bonne Terre Mine specialist diver? If so is there a purpose for these kind of specialties or just one of those things you do to say you have it?
Does this make since? Sorry I am just confused about the process of it.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

It depends which one are you talking about.

At the risk of being hunted down by Padi's Assassin's , i will say that a lot of those specialty's are worthless or can be learned very easily with no need for an actual course. (Boat specialty is the first thing that springs to mind)

Don't get me wrong, some of them can be important and even crucial depending on the dive that you are doing, but the majority of them are not.

. So main question is what is the specialty I am paying for? Is it mainly just a card I give $85 for saying I am a Bonne Terre Mine specialist diver? If so is there a purpose for these kind of specialties or just one of those things you do to say you have it?
Does this make since? Sorry I am just confused about the process of it.

This sounds like another one of those silly specialty's that the local dive shop has decided to make up. Its incredibly specific to that location and i can bet there isn't anything new being thought there that cant be thought on regular specialty's. or even alone.

 

[northernone]

Depending on the instructor a specialty COURSE is different from just doing two dives of the same type and paying a fee to get a card.

Here's a list of some of the more unusual cards available:
PADI Distinctive Specialty Courses

If the instructor or shop can't outline the course they are selling it's very likely to contain very little learning value for the extra cost of hiring an instructor to certify you in a specialty. In that case, just do the dives you like and use the savings to buy more diving.

I've seen them being basically worthless money grabs or very valuable training opportunities with a skilled instructor... Your experience may vary.

To clarify, a specialty is a mini certification course with a dive professional teaching you. Whereas, the exact same dive not as training you may not have an instructor (or DM) paying special attention to teaching you about that environment and you won't have performance objectives or learning criteria as part of the dive.

Clearer?
Cameron

 

[tursiops]

Always wanna learn. but nothing particular at this moment. Just curious about the specialty’s being offered. I am going to Bonne Terre next, next weekend to be exact. They offer a specialty if you comeplete 2 dives with them. I asked what the specialty consisted of and they never gave me a direct answer of anything other than doing the 2 initial dives I already paid for. So main question is what is the specialty I am paying for? Is it mainly just a card I give $85 for saying I am a Bonne Terre Mine specialist diver? If so is there a purpose for these kind of specialties or just one of those things you do to say you have it?
Does this make since? Sorry I am just confused about the process of it.

Your three examples -- Stuarts Cove, Georgia Aquar, and Bonne Terre Mine -- are egregious examples of specialties in which you learn very little, but can pay for a card that says you had the experience. Frankly, they are silly.They are all three "distinctive" specialties, which means an individual instructor wrote them and no one else teaches them. By and large, they have little value and it is an embarrassment that they exist. There are exceptions. The other examples I gave (navigation and fish id) are full, standardized, supported specialties and can be excellent if taught by a good instructor. The example denigrated by the previous post #7 (boat) used to have little content and no in-water skills, but its modern version is a much better course, although still without in-water skills. No in-water skills does not mean a specialty is bad; Nitrox is an example. The previous post #7 is way off base when he says the majority of specialties are, well, (paraphrased) worthless. They may be of no value to him, but he can't decide that for you.

 

[Justink25]

Thank you both. This does make since in both your posts. I got the Nitrox specialty and yes that was money well spent. These others to me seem like money grabs. Just wasn’t sure if there was some reason of their worth I was missing.