Question Advanced Specialties Discussion

[Ulfhedinn]

“Mental Diver”… it’s a secretive course you are not qualified to even hear about until you find yourself qualified by an “instructor” in a white labcoat giving you weird hand signals …
Or perhaps the P in PADI stands for “Psychological” and we’ve been mislead all these years…

Disclaimer: Beer Joke…

Oh but there is...

There is no PADI specialty called Psychological Diver. What are you talking about?

Dr Laura Walton teaches it in the UK.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dr-laura-walton-9119a1b2

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Oh but there is...



Dr Laura Walton teaches it in the UK.

Dr. Walton is not your average instructor. I'd love to take that course myself one day from her.

 

[tursiops]

Oh but there is...



Dr Laura Walton teaches it in the UK.

Ahhh, you mean an instructor-written distinctive specialty, typically not taught by anyone anywhere else. Not a PADI specialty available to the masses.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

Ahhh, you mean an instructor-written distinctive specialty, typically not taught by anyone anywhere else. Not a PADI specialty available to the masses.

Correct I sort of lump them in together but yes.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Great video and I was glad to see that most of what I'm considering was in the "must have" category - cavern, wreck, nitrox. He left rescue out completely, but I'd say that's probably in that category as well. I'd like to get some more dives under my belt and then do rescue and nitrox, then move on to cavern and finally wreck.

You can do nitrox any time. I did it pretty much right after my OW. My next course is Drysuit, deep, and rescue this year. Next year sidemount and cavern and maybe wreck so I can do advanced wreck.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I've taught Fish ID some (as a intro to REEF.org surveying) and my wife has taught it a lot (she is the fish geek in the family).
Many (most?) of the graduates report back that now they see the reef differently, that now they see a rare individual and get excited, that they see a school and are intrigued that not all the fish are the same species, that they can now somehow "see through" a cloud of fish -- because they know what they are -- and see the individuals on the far side of the school, that now they are fascinated by the varying habitats and behaviors, that they know why the damselfish are nipping at them, that their photographs are better because they are composed for what they see instead of just being a snapshot.
I would call a good Fish ID class as a beneficial skill to the enjoyment of a dive.
Enjoyment is not all about perfecting back kicks...

I've taken photos of critters and then looked in the fish books at the places I dive with. One of my regular dive buddies was a critter expert. What I really found was that later on I could spot marine critters and non critters and show them to other divers. Sometimes they did not even see what I was pointing at until I showed them a photo after the dive. I remember on one dive a woman was struggling against a current and went to grab onto the "wall" What she did not see as we were in a shadows from the wall we were diving on were two mottled scorpion fish perfectly camouflaged. She did not know how to look out for their eyes or mouth or fins.

I grabbed here arm and wagged my finger as a NO signal and pointed to the scorpions. She still could not identity what I was pointing at. So then I turned on my video lights so she could see them. After the dive I showed here the video from the dive. She was aghast when she realized she would have put her hand on one. I find many vacation divers do not know what marine life they are looking at is. They just take photos or video and find out later. I guess I was like that lol

 

[Edward3c]

I don't consider myself one of the GUE folks as it is the only GUE course I have taken and I don't adopt significant parts of their philosophy (diving with air, solo, sidemount in open water, Prism 2 CCR). I hope one day to observe (or take) a BSAC buoyancy course (maybe when I open a dive center in Greece I exchange room and board on the beach for some 1:1 training?).

When this pandemic thing, and Ukraine settles down, I would be up for a bit of Greek diving.

 

[Blackcrusader]

When this pandemic thing, and Ukraine settles down, I would be up for a bit of Greek diving.

Maybe PADI can introduce a pandemic specialty card.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

When this pandemic thing, and Ukraine settles down, I would be up for a bit of Greek diving.

you dive a rebreather? If so, let's go look for wrecks an old sponge diver told me about.

 

[MichaelMc]

It is not a specialty in most agencies, but I'd like light back gas deco. 10 minutes of back gas deco adds 50 to 100+% ish more time past NDL in the 80' to 130' range.

(Padi tec 40, RAID Deco 40, IANTD Deep Deco 40, SSI ??)

Prior to that I vote for buoyancy, propulsion and trim work making diving much nicer; pool time is really good for that.