The PADI Equipment Specialist Course

Anybody tried this class? Was it worthwhile?
I've got some gift certs I need to use, good only for classes, not gear or trips.

IMHO, it depends entirely on what the instructor puts into it. On paper, the course is very thin on practical info - wash your kit, change a hose etc. In practice, it can be very rewarding and go into much more detail - but that depends on whether the instructor goes beyond the minimum standards or not.

Same here. My instructor was quite good and very knowledgeable, but very little practical info. Ei.: It's cool to look at a dissasembled reg and why this part does that, but it doesn't qualify you to work on them. Can you use the gift certs. for something else-like Nitrox or Deep course?

So TMHeimer u saying that if one does that course u technically are still not allowed to service ur own or anyones gears then ??

Yes. It's basically a course that gives you a certificate that says you know some stuff and have seen some stuff. Most of the valuable stuff presented you should know already--ei. proper treatment of tanks, wetsuits, drysuits, etc. Take off dive light o rings and lubricate. Steel tanks are negatively buoyant. What each type of fins are better for what kind of swimming--you can find that on SB. To work on regulators or do tank hydros you must take other courses to qualify. I suppose to do that sort of stuff on only your own equipment you could also do a lot of research and studying, but I wouldn't recommend that.

chrisgp007:

So TMHeimer u saying that if one does that course u technically are still not allowed to service ur own or anyones gears then ??

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Definitely not regs.

You know this is precisely why when I looked to train I spent a lot of time looking at different associations and decided I would go nowhere near PADI.

What on earth is the point of a course called equipment specialist if you finish the course not even competent to do basic maintainance?

In the end I had the options of PADI or CMAS and I decided to train with CMAS (Russia). All the things like cleaning kit, reg's, inspecting and changing 'o' rings and so on together with a lot of technical detail about how they actually worked was included in the 1* course. At 2* even more detail was given about types of first and second stage, tanks and so on and how they worked and differed from each other.

I looked at this course at the UK DIve Show two weeks ago and I am afraid from what I have seen and heard this course covers basics every diver should know anyway and in no way does anything to earn the title specialist.

From the Oxford English Dictionary :-

noun

a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity; a person highly skilled in a specific and restricted field:

I had thought about looking at a couple of PADI courses now I'm back in the UK but the more I hear the less likely I am to do so.

I think if this course doesn't make you competent to service kit, then it should not be called 'specialist' and should be renamed as something like equipment appreciation, or an introduction to equipment or such like. Giving someone a certifcate which says they are an equipment specialist is likely to lead to someone trying to do something beyond their competence or knowledge.

I certainly thought this was something more than it was until I started to look into it. Regards Phil

Thanks for the info! I know now I'm not interested.
I was hoping for something similar to the gear portion of IANDT's gas blending courses.

Phil_C:

You know this is precisely why when I looked to train I spent a lot of time looking at different associations and decided I would go nowhere near PADI.

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This same course is offered with SSI, too. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of divers who don't understand, or forget, how to care for their gear. I highly doubt that the '5 dives/year' diver will remember how to service their own regs if taught properly.

Doesn't look like it is what the OP is looking for.

Depending on the price, it might be something of interest to some. I checked the price for the course at my LDS. I have wasted more than that to discover I still don't like lamb. The point is if you learn something it might just be worth the price of admission.