What is the craziest "specialty" you have heard of that you know is actually real?

[GreggS]

We don't have our cards yet, but my wife and I "earned" our Underwater Pumpkin Carving cert this year. No joke.

 

[BlueTrin]

Is there really any crazier c-card than "Zombie Apocalypse Diver"?
PADI Zombie Apocalypse Diver Distinctive Specialty - Central Coast Dive Center

I doubt it, but I would be greatly entertained if I was wrong.

I wanted to do it this summer
Looks decent skills wise for a newbie like me

I've heard of the "PADI Volcano Diver Specialty", which is apparently awarded for diving a specific dive site in Iceland where there is a bit of volcanic activity underwater.

Is that the place where people take pictures with one hand on each side of the rift ?

 

[kelemvor]

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.

Does that mean that other PADI instructors can teach "Understanding Overhead Environments?"

 

[boulderjohn]

Does that mean that other PADI instructors can teach "Understanding Overhead Environments?"

They can if they submit the outline for it. They would have to ask me for it. I have done it for several instructors.

In the aforementioned case of the course another instructor and I created independently, he got it approved and then sent the approved outline to me so I could submit it.

I believe some instructors will keep their specialties to themselves for a competitive advantage, but I don't know anyone who does that myself.

 

[EdC]

I've heard of the "PADI Volcano Diver Specialty", which is apparently awarded for diving a specific dive site in Iceland where there is a bit of volcanic activity underwater.

I think that was with Scuba Iceland which looks to be gone last time I looked it up, they ought to have a Strytan specialty as the only place in the world to dive a geothermal vent.
https://www.dive.is/dive-courses/padi-specialty-dive-courses/silfra-tectonic-dive-course

 

[Scuba-74]

Is that the place where people take pictures with one hand on each side of the rift ?

That would be Silfra. Looks like geothermal diving is at Strytan as EdC mentioned above.

 

[TMHeimer]

I didn't read all posts as they popped up so quickly when I was away.... The Zombie thing. Some instructors on the Board have said there are some good skills that come out of this. Maybe a review of some stuff already in OW or other courses? Or learning stuff you should already know? I know nothing of the syllabus for Zombie A., it just sounds redundant from what I read here. What skills are new?

 

[dmaziuk]

What skills are new?

Zombie make-up application and removal.

HTH

 

[lowflyer]

While there may be a few specialties mentioned here with substance (see boulderjohn above), for the most part I get the impression that this is for PADI a way of selling more cert cards. Can anyone say that most of those specialties mentioned in this thread compare to a specialty with real learning, such as Navigation, for example?

 

[Beau M]

I heard of a store offering Eclipse Diver during the August 2017 solar eclipse in the US.