AMA: So what's the deal with RAID, anyway?

[RainPilot]

Hi everyone. From all the many questions I have received via PM etc about RAID as an agency, I thought I'd create this thread for anyone who has any questions about RAID, it's philosophy and what RAID can offer to you as divers or operators.

Have at it!

Hopefully @paultoomer and @RAID will join in.

In the meanwhile, head to www.diveraid.com for a peek.

 

[olivergodfrey]

@RainPilot thanks for starting thread. new member of RAID Southern Africa

 

[decompression]

I'm pretty impressed by RAID so far...........they certainly have two excellent instructors in Steve Lewis and Jill Heinerth.....

 

[RainPilot]

Two big names for sure. I hear rumours that Steve will be taking over and revamping the whole sidemount area and I believe Jill is working on the Cave stuff to be rolled out soon.

Lots coming.

Jay, out of interest I've found that a UTD Rec 1 course will meet all the RAID OW course requirements with no fiddling. Makes dual certifying a pleasure.

 

[RainPilot]

@RainPilot thanks for starting thread. new member of RAID Southern Africa

I learned to dive on the West Coast in 1999 then did my OWSI internship in Strand. Never got to scuba Natal to my regret but did a looooooot of spearfishing and crayfish diving there.

 

[rjack321]

I'm pretty impressed by RAID so far...........they certainly have two excellent instructors in Steve Lewis and Jill Heinerth.....

Sorry disagree, some of their videos are FAR from good examples. One of the worst:

Losing contact with the line, pulling on the line, signally OOA with the hand, the list of either genuinely hideous or "not demonstration quality" skills in this series of videos is shocking.

 

[RainPilot]

Sorry disagree, some of their videos are FAR from good examples. One of the worst:

Losing contact with the line, pulling on the line, signally OOA with the hand, the list of either genuinely hideous or "not demonstration quality" skills in this series of videos is shocking.

Since I'm not an OH diver I can't comment but I will forward the vid and comments to HQ. RAID doesn't have a cave syllabus out yet so honestly I'm not sure what these videos are doing out in the wild.

 

[rjack321]

Since I'm not an OH diver I can't comment but I will forward the vid and comments to HQ. RAID doesn't have a cave syllabus out yet so honestly I'm not sure what these videos are doing out in the wild.

Thanks, maybe they'll get some traction. It's not a RAID agency video, just from a RAID instructor.

There are more

Dangly lights not even in use (apparently video lights follow these divers around), bottles banging on the cave, kneeling on the cave floor, turning around at the primary tie in (and kneeling again), blocking exiting divers. The list of bad habits and issues that a good instructor would point out and expect a student to fix is long and varied. These are in no way demonstration quality skills. In some cases the "skills" shown would be grounds to fail a student or tell them they need to come back once they have squared away to finalize their course/card/instruction.

I'm not the first person to point out the issues in this series of videos. IMHO they should be removed from the internet. If what's shown is considered acceptable performance, the instructor needs some remedial training to bring her up to a higher standard and expect higher performance from her students.

 

[decompression]

Two big names for sure. I hear rumours that Steve will be taking over and revamping the whole sidemount area and I believe Jill is working on the Cave stuff to be rolled out soon.

Lots coming.

Jay, out of interest I've found that a UTD Rec 1 course will meet all the RAID OW course requirements with no fiddling. Makes dual certifying a pleasure.

Mmmmmm......interesting.....