I’m a bit delayed writing this post, but work and life have gotten in the way for the last couple of months. At the beginning of May I was fortunate to be able to take Robert Singler’s ( @rsingler ) Regulator Technician Seminar. I wanted to write a quick review, especially given that I was also recently able to take the SCUBAPRO “Intro Tech” and “Pro Update” classes with René Dupré (SCUBAPRO’s Technical Training Manager.)
I first want to say that the SCUBAPRO classes are quite good and René's reputation as a great educator is well deserved. He goes through servicing many of the current SCUBAPRO regulator models step by step and includes many useful tips for making your workbench and servicing techniques more efficient. But, as you might imagine, given that they are manufacturer provided classes meant to bring every service technician up to a basic level of competency (whether they are truly interested in the theory behind the regulators or not), the focus is more on formulaic following of the maintenance procedures rather than the general regulator technology (more emphasis on the “how” rather than the “why” of servicing regulators.) In reality, this is not a bad thing and it ensures SCUBAPRO shops have the ability to train their technicians to safely service most regulators. But given my background in engineering and my desire to expand my knowledge into more than just SCUBAPRO’s latest regulators, Robert’s seminar seemed (and was) a wonderful way to augment the SCUBAPRO training.
Well before the date of the actual seminar, Robert starts by sending a wealth of information to prepare for the class. I had also already read “Regulator Savvy” by Peter Wolfinger which was also very useful preparation for the seminar. I believe one of the most important (and expensive) parts of the preparation is collecting the tools needed to work on your own set of regulators. Robert’s information is excellent for identifying what are essential versus “nice to have” tools and he provides many alternative tools instead of the manufacturer specific (and often expensive) tools. Again, I was fortunate since I had already collected most of the tools I needed since I had already decided to build my own toolset rather than relying on my dive shop’s workbench. Robert also sent a “swag bag” before the seminar that included much information and many useful items to add to my workbench and that he went through during the seminar.
When the weekend of the seminar finally arrived, it was time to put all the preparation into practice. The schedule of the seminar is a short session Friday evening, and then all-day sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Given Robert is located, like me, in the Pacific time zone, the timing was not bad for me, but he did try to accommodate other time zones as much as possible. I will say it was a very intense weekend with the amount of information covered and by Sunday afternoon we were all in various stages of burn out. The seminar is well laid out with the combination of a slide presentation of regulator theory interspersed with practical work at the workbench. Robert was able to go through the material very efficiently and cater the course to the types of regulators that the participants had brought to the workbench. It was interesting to hear the comparisons of the tradeoffs different manufacturers had made in their regulator design and how similar many of the different brand regulators were. For me, it was an opportunity to revive some classic SCUBAPRO regulators that I had sitting in a box (specifically a 108/HP and a Balanced Adjustable) along with a more recent Mk16 and Mk20.
OK, maybe this turned into longer than a "quick review", but Robert’s Seminar was definitely a great experience and the knowledge he imparts during the seminar would take years to accumulate from experience alone. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in servicing regulators, either for yourself or for a shop. If your goal is to get a manufacturers certification to work in a shop servicing regulators, the manufacturer’s training will be a breeze if you have already taken Robert’s seminar. Looking back, I still would have picked up some useful tips from the SCUBAPRO training, but a lot of it would have been review just to check the boxes so I can help my local shop out in the service department part time. If you are DIY person, Robert’s seminar will get you started on the right path.
I first want to say that the SCUBAPRO classes are quite good and René's reputation as a great educator is well deserved. He goes through servicing many of the current SCUBAPRO regulator models step by step and includes many useful tips for making your workbench and servicing techniques more efficient. But, as you might imagine, given that they are manufacturer provided classes meant to bring every service technician up to a basic level of competency (whether they are truly interested in the theory behind the regulators or not), the focus is more on formulaic following of the maintenance procedures rather than the general regulator technology (more emphasis on the “how” rather than the “why” of servicing regulators.) In reality, this is not a bad thing and it ensures SCUBAPRO shops have the ability to train their technicians to safely service most regulators. But given my background in engineering and my desire to expand my knowledge into more than just SCUBAPRO’s latest regulators, Robert’s seminar seemed (and was) a wonderful way to augment the SCUBAPRO training.
Well before the date of the actual seminar, Robert starts by sending a wealth of information to prepare for the class. I had also already read “Regulator Savvy” by Peter Wolfinger which was also very useful preparation for the seminar. I believe one of the most important (and expensive) parts of the preparation is collecting the tools needed to work on your own set of regulators. Robert’s information is excellent for identifying what are essential versus “nice to have” tools and he provides many alternative tools instead of the manufacturer specific (and often expensive) tools. Again, I was fortunate since I had already collected most of the tools I needed since I had already decided to build my own toolset rather than relying on my dive shop’s workbench. Robert also sent a “swag bag” before the seminar that included much information and many useful items to add to my workbench and that he went through during the seminar.
When the weekend of the seminar finally arrived, it was time to put all the preparation into practice. The schedule of the seminar is a short session Friday evening, and then all-day sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Given Robert is located, like me, in the Pacific time zone, the timing was not bad for me, but he did try to accommodate other time zones as much as possible. I will say it was a very intense weekend with the amount of information covered and by Sunday afternoon we were all in various stages of burn out. The seminar is well laid out with the combination of a slide presentation of regulator theory interspersed with practical work at the workbench. Robert was able to go through the material very efficiently and cater the course to the types of regulators that the participants had brought to the workbench. It was interesting to hear the comparisons of the tradeoffs different manufacturers had made in their regulator design and how similar many of the different brand regulators were. For me, it was an opportunity to revive some classic SCUBAPRO regulators that I had sitting in a box (specifically a 108/HP and a Balanced Adjustable) along with a more recent Mk16 and Mk20.
OK, maybe this turned into longer than a "quick review", but Robert’s Seminar was definitely a great experience and the knowledge he imparts during the seminar would take years to accumulate from experience alone. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in servicing regulators, either for yourself or for a shop. If your goal is to get a manufacturers certification to work in a shop servicing regulators, the manufacturer’s training will be a breeze if you have already taken Robert’s seminar. Looking back, I still would have picked up some useful tips from the SCUBAPRO training, but a lot of it would have been review just to check the boxes so I can help my local shop out in the service department part time. If you are DIY person, Robert’s seminar will get you started on the right path.
