So I sat down for a minute and tried to decide how I might author a Zombie Course. I decided my outline would essentially mirror Peak Performance Bouyancy with referees (i.e. Zombies) at the bottom of the ocean/lake and placed near obstacles. Get too low, or too high and the Zombies will catch you and eat your brains! I think if you wrap meaningful information and skills development in an intriguing package, I have no objection. If it's movie night at the dive shop and $10 worth of air for $200, then well... A fool and his money, I guess.
PADI Zombie Apocalypse Diver Course
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freewillie
Contributor
If I was in charge of a global sports agency and needed a new and novel way to attract younger divers or more importantly get families involved this would seem like a fun and novel concept. I actually came across the marketing class in an ad for the kids sea camp. Make the class relevant for kids (nothing gets young kids to stop paying attention faster than overly technical information in a dry boring lecture) and fun for mom and dad and you can get parents to drop a few bucks.
The class has aspects of survival skills, buoyancy skills, search and recovery skills, rescue skills, first aid skills, all of which we would like to develop in our own diving skills repertoire. If you can get a kid to develop these skills wouldn't you want that diver as a dive buddy? Probably also includes night diving skills which would be an amazing experience for kids to go on a night dive, which is actually my favorite type of diving.
Yes, very corny way to market a class. I certainly wouldn't sign up for the class if it was just me, but when my 8 year old starts to dive and he is about 12 I would certainly look at this class for a vacation activity or even a summer camp activity if it is close. In the grand scheme of summer camps I just shelled out about $1,400 for 3 kids and their activities this summer anyways. For $200 not cheap, but not a bad deal.
The class has aspects of survival skills, buoyancy skills, search and recovery skills, rescue skills, first aid skills, all of which we would like to develop in our own diving skills repertoire. If you can get a kid to develop these skills wouldn't you want that diver as a dive buddy? Probably also includes night diving skills which would be an amazing experience for kids to go on a night dive, which is actually my favorite type of diving.
Yes, very corny way to market a class. I certainly wouldn't sign up for the class if it was just me, but when my 8 year old starts to dive and he is about 12 I would certainly look at this class for a vacation activity or even a summer camp activity if it is close. In the grand scheme of summer camps I just shelled out about $1,400 for 3 kids and their activities this summer anyways. For $200 not cheap, but not a bad deal.
elmer fudd
Contributor
This should be a dive shop event, not a class.
As a promotional event it would be great. Who hasn't wondered about finding a body underwater?
As a class it makes everyone involved look like schmucks and shysters. Which is also what all the other beyond trivial classes do.
As a promotional event it would be great. Who hasn't wondered about finding a body underwater?
As a class it makes everyone involved look like schmucks and shysters. Which is also what all the other beyond trivial classes do.
Schmucks and shysters? That's a strong statement, given that none of us knows what the requirements are. I think HIGHwing's ideas are great; adding the concept onto an existing basic outline? Do you think that those of us who encourage our students to take a Peak Performance Buoyancy course are also schmucks and/or shysters? I also think freewillie has some great points. What if the underwater navigator course offered the zombies up at any wrong turn? You'd be motivated to learn to use that compass, I'm thinking.
What's wrong with corny marketing? We use (and fall for) corny marketing all the time. I don't want to assume that my customers (students) are idiots; I'll let them decide for themselves whether an offering is worth their hard earned money. And fun, creative ways to do things they want to learn to do anyway, perhaps with their families, are good things.
Turning a great idea for a promotional event into a class doesn't make you a schmuck or a shyster in my book. That may just be me. Also maybe just me, but that seems like that's just dragging out the tired old "PADI's only in it for the money" line. In fact, there might be an instance where a great idea ALSO means revenue for a dive shop or instructor.
What's wrong with corny marketing? We use (and fall for) corny marketing all the time. I don't want to assume that my customers (students) are idiots; I'll let them decide for themselves whether an offering is worth their hard earned money. And fun, creative ways to do things they want to learn to do anyway, perhaps with their families, are good things.
Turning a great idea for a promotional event into a class doesn't make you a schmuck or a shyster in my book. That may just be me. Also maybe just me, but that seems like that's just dragging out the tired old "PADI's only in it for the money" line. In fact, there might be an instance where a great idea ALSO means revenue for a dive shop or instructor.
elmer fudd
Contributor
If peak performance buoyancy or underwater navigation were completely unrelated to scuba diving and had no basis in reality, then yes encouraging your students to pay $200 to take them would put you both into the realm of schmucks and shysters.
If it were just something fun that you were doing for zombie enthusiasts or charity or promoting your shop or whatever, then that's great and I think everyone would understand a charge to cover expenses, but as a course from an agency that purports to be serious about training divers it's ridiculous.
If it were just something fun that you were doing for zombie enthusiasts or charity or promoting your shop or whatever, then that's great and I think everyone would understand a charge to cover expenses, but as a course from an agency that purports to be serious about training divers it's ridiculous.
It IS something fun that an individual instructor (perhaps instructors) created for his batch of zombie enthusiasts. As with any other "distinctive specialty" he then put it forward to PADI, so that his niche market could gain a certification from it. PADI didn't start this; they're just enabling both the instructor and the students to meet their goals.
Underwater frisbee is completely unrelated to scuba diving, and yet it's fun to do in PPB. It's unlikely that you're ever going to NEED to do a somersault underwater, but again it's fun. Oh, and it has a side benefit of getting a student understand that where their head points they're likely to go. Ah! Doing something unrelated to scuba, that is fun, actually teaches someone something that ultimately relates to scuba. That's AWESOME. As instructors, we are always looking for creative ways to have our students learn something, want to repeat it, and ultimately be better divers.
I believe that PADI purports "serious fun."
And zombies are fun.
Underwater frisbee is completely unrelated to scuba diving, and yet it's fun to do in PPB. It's unlikely that you're ever going to NEED to do a somersault underwater, but again it's fun. Oh, and it has a side benefit of getting a student understand that where their head points they're likely to go. Ah! Doing something unrelated to scuba, that is fun, actually teaches someone something that ultimately relates to scuba. That's AWESOME. As instructors, we are always looking for creative ways to have our students learn something, want to repeat it, and ultimately be better divers.
I believe that PADI purports "serious fun."
And zombies are fun.
It's all fun and jokes now...but this is seriuos stuff. 
Just you wait and see. Will YOU know what to do when you come up for a SI on your next Cozumel trip and a Zombie offers you a sliced orange (or is it a sliced two day old brain).
Just you wait and see. Will YOU know what to do when you come up for a SI on your next Cozumel trip and a Zombie offers you a sliced orange (or is it a sliced two day old brain).
elmer fudd
Contributor
Sorry, but I think that PADI endorsing every meaningless course that people are willing to send them cash for trivializes them as an agency. At some point these things come back to bite you. When you teach thing like zombie apocalypse diving or underwater quidditch eventually people are going to stop taking you seriously.
Maybe not so original.
If the CDC Office of Puplic Health Preparedness and Response can offer a course on Zombie Preparedness, why not Padi?
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm
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I'm going to agree to disagree. People want FUN experiences, and there are lots of ways to teach important, perhaps even life-saving, skills in a fun manner.
It's unlikely that any of my Emergency Oxygen Provider students are going to need to set up the O2 kit blindfolded, but they all can. And each and every one of them thought it was FUN. Fun, and built their skills.
Quidditch you're going to have to explain to me. I didn't read those books.
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