I have a cert question. I was certified by the PDIC (professional diving instructors corporation) and am looking to continue my education buy getting some advanced training in the not-too-distant future. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on the curriculum put forth by the PDIC. Is it as good as PADI? Does it cover all the same stuff? How is it different from PADI? Will I need to (or should I consider) taking a PADI open water before taking something like PADi advanced open water, or will the PDIC open water cover all the same stuff I'd need to know before taking the PADI advanced?
Thanks.
To be honest with you, the training standards of PDIC exceed those of PADI for most courses from Open Water through Instructor. While PADI's instructor development program is excellent for quality control of a diving professional, the actual diving standards PADI instructors are held to may not be as broad-based as some other agencies demand at the instructor level. PDIC Open Water demands more skills and a greater knowledge base from the student. For example, PDIC training asks the open water student to complete air sharing skills with and without the facemask in place which would include making an out of air/gas ascent without a mask both using an additional second stage "octopus" regulator and buddy breathing with a primary regulator. The PDIC Open Water program asks the student to be able to perform self rescue and buddy rescue including the ability to perform rescue breathing in water while towing the buddy toward shore or a boat. The PDIC program also teaches the divers to use US Navy No-Decompression and Standard Air Decompression tables and be able to plan dives at altitude, plan deco dives and conduct omitted decompression procedures at the Open Water level.
The PDIC Advanced Open Water program focuses on boat diving, navigation, search and recovery, diver stress and rescue, limited visibility and night diving, deep diving and decompression diving on air. These are the core requirements. The minimum dives include a skill development and evaluation dive, natural navigation dive, compass navigation dive, night dive, and deep dive. PADI courses allow a little more "fluff" to be interjected at the AOW level. Some PADI instructors will let you earn your AOW by taking fluffier components while others will encourage you to take the components such as those PDIC requires to help educate a diver for better performance at the advanced level.
Personally, I use the skill development dive to demonstrate some technical swimming and propulsion skills and introduce the student to better trim and buoyancy. I introduce the proper use of a reel and line during the natural navigation dive and begin to reinforce the concept of MOD awareness to prep the student for nitrox instruction. I also begin using liftbags as DSMB's at the start of the course. During the compass navigation dive we swim search patterns to locate large objects such as a sunken boat and small objects such as brake assembly and use a liftbag for lifting artifacts. The during the night dive we learn the proper use of lights, good team light communication and how to handle out of air/gas emergencies at night. During the deep dive we plan simulated air decompression dives and handle emergencies such as out of gas deco stops, omitted deco, loss of depth and timing devices, no mask ascents while in deco, etc. I try to get my students to take the night, deep, search and recovery, wreck diving, and other specialties so we can have the time to really get into the nuts and bolts of each discipline so that a night diving certification isn't just going underwater at night looking at fish and coming up to a handshake, but the ability to handle a night dive with good team awareness, light discipline and eventually the ability to safely ascend in the dark while air sharing without lights and perform like cave trained divers in the dark. These are examples of how I care to do a good job as a diving educator for PDIC. There are instructors for other agencies who care to do a good job too and will try to give their best to their students. So, it is the instructor that makes the difference in your training more so than what agency will issue the C-card.
And, yes, you can take a PDIC OW card to a PADI instructor and enroll in a PADI AOW class. The biggest concern for instructors isn't so much what agency issued a card, but how much experience a diver has and how often that diver dives. Divers who continue their education and experience by actively diving tend to be better students.
I'd be happy to come to Alaska and teach you a PDIC AOW course for airfare, a place to sleep, and some cheap food.
~ Trace
