PADI Equipment specialty course

[Saboteur]

I'm interested in this course and would like to hear from those who has taken it as to what is taught and did you find it worthwhile. I'd like to learn about diagnosing minor regulator problems and doing minor adjustments.

 

[tursiops]

I'm interested in this course and would like to hear from those who has taken it as to what is taught and did you find it worthwhile. I'd like to learn about diagnosing minor regulator problems and doing minor adjustments.

Whether this is covered depends on the instructor. It is not part of the basic PADI class

 

[michael-fisch]

The basic PADI, or any other agency's course, will help you learn to tell the difference between a shorty and a 7mm 2 piece wetsuit and not much else. If you really want to learn how to fix and adjust almost everything, talk to the tech at friendly local dive store about a short internship and be prepared to swear on a stack of bibles that you never learned how to handle a tool in the diveshop. The fear of liability does a very good job preventing dissemination of knowledge.

Michael

 

[seeker242]

I'm interested in this course and would like to hear from those who has taken it as to what is taught and did you find it worthwhile. I'd like to learn about diagnosing minor regulator problems and doing minor adjustments.

I took it, it didn't teach ANY of that. As for regulators, it was more like "This is a a yoke regulator and this is a din regulator" and that was the extent of it...Waste of time.

 

[Saboteur]

Thanks for the comments. Doesn't sound like there is much value there.

 

[almostDIR]

I asked from the local shop about this course and they are happy to show the regulator insides and how it is serviced but for liability reasons it is not guaranteed one can do any service to a regulator after that (and the shop owner's opinion was that a normal diver does not usually need to touch the 1st stage insides and adjustments at all which is pretty much true. "why to dive with a half working regulator when proper service does not cost much here" was his point and he does not charge much for it for regular customers so I totally understand the point)

By my opinion a regular diver needs to know how to open a 2nd stage and clean it and check if it seems to be in correct working order (this basically just involves opening the front face, taking the diagram out and checking the lever and valve action as well as the exhaust valve and cleaning the insides if necessary, then putting it back together. I do this very often to my regs when there is sand or clay inside from murky water or I need to dry the insides to get the reg to longer storage quicker) . And needs to be able to check the hoses and o-rings and change them if necessary. The 1st stage and fine tuning can be leaved for the proper technicians to do I think though most of the tech divers seem to service their 1st stages by themselves here if they own many of them (may be cost effective at that point if you own multiple sets and they all use same parts).

 

[Hoyden]

Thanks for the comments. Doesn't sound like there is much value there.

As was mentioned above, it really depends on the instructor. I teach this course and I hope that after completing my class a student will be able to diagnose and repair basic equipment problems in the field as well as understand how the basic equipment functions. It does not teach how to service regulators, but I do hope that it helps my students to better understand what reg techs say and do...

Find a good instructor and it can be a really helpful class. Never hesitate to ask a potential instructor what you can expect to cover in any class.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Sorry folks, "not relevant to the topic."

Deleted to make @ams511 (who doesn't log dives) happy and content …
Quote
"Sam, you seem to be getting grouchier in your old age. Your posts talk about the "old days" even if it is not relevant to the topic. Then you make a snarky comment.

The equipment specialty course is NOT the same as a regulator technician course. The tech showed him how to handle regulator / drysuit problems in the field not how to rebuild regulators."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The short history of recreational SCUBA diving will soon be lost...

SDM

 

[Erich S]

A great story Sam about the good old days.

 

[Landau]

My PADI equipment course was definitely worthwhile. The instructor was the shop tech. There were only two of us. We opened up, cleaned and adjusted our own second stages and learned how to remove, open up and clean out our Drysuit valves and did some wetsuit repair.

Ask what it will cover before you sign up.