SSI Navigation Specialty

[Matt Frankel]

I am currently an open water diver with PADI and I'm lookin to gt the Naviation Specialty with SSI, but I'm a little confused over the process of getttin the specialty certification card. In some spots on their website it says that you review the material yourself and award yourself with your own certification. In other spots it says that you have to have a dive with an instructor which is more like I would expect it to be. What is the truth?

 

[JMcD]

You dive under the supervision of an Instructor. ... Certainly you do if I'm your instructor anyway... From the 2012 Standards:

Each Specialty program, in order to qualify towards Specialty, Advanced Open Water or Master Diver Ratings, is to include at least two open water specialty training Dives.​

 

[Matt Frankel]

Oh okay thank you so much. I was hearing so many different things and I was confused. I appreciate it.

 

[bbarnett51]

IF you a have a good instructor then this is a good course you will benefit from. Enjoy!

 

[iguana751]

I did the SSI Navigation Specialty last October with myLDS. I had to study the manual then attend an evening class. Part of the classwas in the parking lot with a mask covering my face so I could only see mycompass. Theremainder of the class was theory review. After that was the written test. Eventually the instructor will find time to do the twodives with me. Or I canproduce my log book showing two dives where I did navigation and get signed offfor the course dives that way.

 

[BUGBAGGER]

I did the SSI Navigation Specialty last October with myLDS. I had to study the manual then attend an evening class. Part of the classwas in the parking lot with a mask covering my face so I could only see mycompass. Theremainder of the class was theory review. After that was the written test. Eventually the instructor will find time to do the twodives with me. Or I can produce my log book showing two dives where I did navigation and get signed off for the course dives that way.

Perhaps the standards have changed significantly from when I was actively teaching SSI but that is not how it was for years. When you complete the dives you have specific navigation exercises to complete. So, each dive is preceded by a briefing by the instructor, usually accompanied by an Instructor or Divecon. If not, at a minimum, an SSI Instructor is on site to observe and debrief the specific skills performed.

There is an experience component to advancement in the SSI system but it does not replace instructional dives.

Active SSI Specialty or above instructor's- can you weigh in on this?

 

[iguana751]

Perhaps the standards have changed significantly from when I was actively teaching SSI but that is not how it was for years. When you complete the dives you have specific navigation exercises to complete. So, each dive is preceded by a briefing by the instructor, usually accompanied by an Instructor or Divecon. If not, at a minimum, an SSI Instructor is on site to observe and debrief the specific skills performed.

There is an experience component to advancement in the SSI system but it does not replace instructional dives.

Active SSI Specialty or above instructor's- can you weigh in on this?

From talking to other students, what I have experienced is SOP with SSI.

 

[eponym]

Perhaps the standards have changed significantly from when I was actively teaching SSI but that is not how it was for years. When you complete the dives you have specific navigation exercises to complete. So, each dive is preceded by a briefing by the instructor, usually accompanied by an Instructor or Divecon. If not, at a minimum, an SSI Instructor is on site to observe and debrief the specific skills performed.
There is an experience component to advancement in the SSI system but it does not replace instructional dives.
Active SSI Specialty or above instructors - can you weigh in on this?

I teach SSI ratings up to and including Assistant Instructor. The specialty standards are still as you describe them. Completing a specialty course requires (usually) two dives with an instructor, and specific exercises are required or suggested. As Iguana noted, showing proof of and discussing previous experience can serve instead of practical dives, but the standards require seeing actual divelog records which have been signed by a dive pro from a "recognized training agency."

The SSI website's description of specialty training, which started this thread, is misleading in my opinion. It does make it sound as though the student could get the experience without supervision and then get the cert.

 

[Matt Frankel]

I teach SSI ratings up to and including Assistant Instructor. The specialty standards are still as you describe them. Completing a specialty course requires (usually) two dives with an instructor, and specific exercises are required or suggested. As Iguana noted, showing proof of and discussing previous experience can serve instead of practical dives, but the standards require seeing actual divelog records which have been signed by a dive pro from a "recognized training agency."

The SSI website's description of specialty training, which started this thread, is misleading in my opinion. It does make it sound as though the student could get the experience without supervision and then get the cert.

Yeah it was really misleading and I would do this specialty to learn something and not just say to all my dive buddies "Oh look I have my navigation specialty"

 

[iguana751]

At my LDS the dives do not have to be with an instructor. Usually one of two dives is with an instructor and the other with a buddy who is not an instructor. However, I did the two dives for one SSI specialty with a buddy (not an instructor) before I did the course. The instructor checked my log and signed me off as completing the course. Most of the divers at my LDS do not care about doing the dives with an instructor. They just want the card! I no longer take courses from my LDS because I want the course to be about TRAINING.