Huh.. if they submitted it to PADI for official PADI Sanction, I thought the whole point was so that others could teach the same thing. Maybe not, I'm no instructor and I'm not even a PADI diver.
What is the craziest "specialty" you have heard of that you know is actually real?
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Check this list out: PADI Distinctive Specialty Courses
I think Underwater Basket Weaving is a real contender here.
Sand pit diving... do you dive in sand instead of water? Is that possible?
I think Underwater Basket Weaving is a real contender here.
Sand pit diving... do you dive in sand instead of water? Is that possible?
maj2
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I've actually heard good things about SSI's Fish ID. It's not really a diving course, though, but kind of a general education kind of thing that can be applied while diving. I am terrible about IDing fish. I know the difference between a shark and a barracuda, but I can't tell you if those were juvenile angel fish or wrasse or jacks or whatever people are talking about on the boat.
SSI also offers a Coral ID and several different ecology classes that are probably in the same boat (haha) as Fish ID. Yeah, they won't make you a better diver, but they might make you a more knowledgeable diver, or make diving more enjoyable to you.
I think Night Diver and Boat Diver are silly, though. Diving at night is the same as diving during the day, it's just dark outside of your flashlight.
.Degenerate
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We got fish ID as part of our AOW certification.
Saw like 3 kinds of fish in a 35 minute dive (Swedish waters are very different to tropical reef diving) although we already knew them and almost all other fish in Swedish waters from years of fishing.
As a certification, the PADI version is pretty much a joke and gave us zero experience part from adding another dive to our log.
Can't speak for other agencies.
Saw like 3 kinds of fish in a 35 minute dive (Swedish waters are very different to tropical reef diving) although we already knew them and almost all other fish in Swedish waters from years of fishing.
As a certification, the PADI version is pretty much a joke and gave us zero experience part from adding another dive to our log.
Can't speak for other agencies.
PADI Maelstrom Diver... You can only get it in Saltstraumen in Norway
Scuba-74
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I don't think it's at Silfra, but when I google it I can only find some TripAdvisor references: PADI Volcano Diver Speciality Certification - Review of Extreme Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland - TripAdvisor
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My wife and I took a half day, non-certification course, in fish identification and behavior from Jerry Ligon in Bonaire in 2008 (may he RIP). It was one of the most valuable courses I have ever taken, I use information from the course all the time.
I will, once again, explain why you would want to have a course officially sanctioned.
Some years ago, a friend in another state and I both created a workshop to teach some specific skills. We did this completely independently at first, and then when we realized we had both done it, we exchanged notes. He was happily teaching it that way until a friend who was also an attorney told him he should get it officially sanctioned for liability reasons. If it is a course he created and taught on his own, then if something happened during a dive resulting in an injury or fatality, the burden would be on him to prove to a plaintiff that the course was safe and taught within accepted best practices. If, on the other hand, the world's largest dive agency had reviewed the course and determined that its contents were within accepted best practices, then that issue would be completely removed from the legal discussion.
An example of this is a course I teach called Understanding Overhead Environments. I had to work very hard with PADI to get that course approved. There is no actual diving in the course--it is an academic program describing different kinds of overhead environments, identifying hazards, and describing the kinds of training needed for those different environments. It says that some basic overhead environments are suitable for basic OW divers. You can bet your sweet bippy that I want to have PADI's official OK on that course in the event a former student were to have an accident in an overhead environment after taking the course, especially if the student went into one for which he or she was not properly trained. My course explains why, for example, no one should enter a cave without proper cave training. That is in the approved course curriculum. If a student were to enter a cave without that training and have a problem, the burden would be on the plaintiff to prove that I had taught something different from that approved curriculum. If I were not teaching an approved course, the burden would be on me to prove and justify what I taught.
Some years ago, a friend in another state and I both created a workshop to teach some specific skills. We did this completely independently at first, and then when we realized we had both done it, we exchanged notes. He was happily teaching it that way until a friend who was also an attorney told him he should get it officially sanctioned for liability reasons. If it is a course he created and taught on his own, then if something happened during a dive resulting in an injury or fatality, the burden would be on him to prove to a plaintiff that the course was safe and taught within accepted best practices. If, on the other hand, the world's largest dive agency had reviewed the course and determined that its contents were within accepted best practices, then that issue would be completely removed from the legal discussion.
An example of this is a course I teach called Understanding Overhead Environments. I had to work very hard with PADI to get that course approved. There is no actual diving in the course--it is an academic program describing different kinds of overhead environments, identifying hazards, and describing the kinds of training needed for those different environments. It says that some basic overhead environments are suitable for basic OW divers. You can bet your sweet bippy that I want to have PADI's official OK on that course in the event a former student were to have an accident in an overhead environment after taking the course, especially if the student went into one for which he or she was not properly trained. My course explains why, for example, no one should enter a cave without proper cave training. That is in the approved course curriculum. If a student were to enter a cave without that training and have a problem, the burden would be on the plaintiff to prove that I had taught something different from that approved curriculum. If I were not teaching an approved course, the burden would be on me to prove and justify what I taught.
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