The specialties I took were deep, nitrox, uw nav, drysuit, equip specialty and wreck. The nitrox was worth it and so was drysuit and equip but that was because the instructor went way beyond what was in the PADI outlines. Deep was ok I thought until I went tech and found out just what a joke the course, as laid out in the PADI student manual, was. No gas management, no redundant systems, or deco was explained or covered. I discuss or teach all of these in my OW classes. I had enough to go for the PADI Master Scuba Diver and was going to until I found out that you could take BS courses like fish ID, Boat Diver, Manatee Wrangler, UW Naturalist and some of the other fluff courses and have them count towards it. THat's when I said not worth 40 bucks for a piece of worthless plastic. If you are going to teach specialties teach ones useful to people in the areas you will be teaching in. If in the UK I see drysuit as a biggie. If you can't afford one why are you going for instructor instead of buying a drysuit with the money? What happens when someone who can afford one wants to take a course from you? Turn them down? And if you teach deep go beyond the book. Forget the marketing crap and spend the time teaching gas management, redundant sytems, and emergency deco. If Uw nav have them do some real navigation and make it more than 2 or 3 dives with a compass. Buoyancy should be taught in OW and refined in every class after. A specialty by itself is not needed. Boat should be covered in OW as well.
