Let me try and address as many of your points as I can. We are not saying diving is not safe but we need to strive to make it safer and as an industry we can do more. I suggest you read an article by John Lipman of DAN entitled the “Up and downs of bouyancy control”
John Lipman states “ despite the importance of bouyancy control to diver safety there is very often inadequate time devoted to realistically practicing and refining bouyancy control skills during a basic diving course”
There are numerous studies that support the fact that divers are often over weighted and it is a significant risk.
First we don’t have “dogmas” at RAID. We try not to enforce strict beliefs on anyone but we do let the facts speak for themselves.
You don’t have to wear black or dive with a wing or a long hose or wear not wear a snorkel on the side of your head. There are some good reasons to consider this. However you can wear a snorkel on the side of your head, use a standard length hose and wear a jacket style BC if you want.
You can even teach hovering in the Buddha position. We would just ask you to think about the logic of why you would want to teach bouyancy this way.
RAID is not an “extremist” agency or a “ tech agency” or “rebreather agency” or a “ freediving agency” We train in all these areas. We are divers just like you and we just want you to think is there a better way to teach divers?
Bouyancy control doesn’t fix diver drop out and it’s not the sole measurement of a diver’s competence but it is an extremely important skill and indicator of a diver’s ability to dive with confidence.
There are lots of reasons divers drop out and definitely modern lifestyles are part of the reason. However diver drop out averages about 80% but some stores/ instructors do much better and some do far worse. So clearly as instructors you can have a big impact on outcomes.
Doesn’t it stand to reason though if divers are more comfortable in the water they are much more likely to stay diving?
As regards Kalkomey’s involvement yes they are in a financial partnership with RAID.
They bring a huge amount to the table. They are experts in outdoor education and marketing and have big plans to enhance our presentation and marketing. They intend to drive customers to dive stores using their expertise in on line marketing and initial testing is outstanding
So our strategy is simple drive more customers into the sport and retain those customers through a series of strategies with quality education at the forefront
So the final question how do we address the time constraints of a high volume resort with the requirements of cold water diving?
Our academic training is totally restructured. Our first chapter of the Openwater Course is like a try dive program on steroids. This fastracks students into pool training while having a comprehensive contextualisation of all aspects of diving.
The confined water training flows much better because the academics does a far superior job of preparing divers for practical training
The practical training then serves to relate practical experience with academic training.
This system works far better for resort training because they can get divers diving quickly with a solid academic foundation
It’s not a case of one standard of training for cold water and another for resort diving. It’s a case of delivering better outcomes without excessive time commitment
Our standards dictate 50 % more time in Open Water and our confined water training is more comprehensive our academics are more comprehensive. Nothing however is over the top it’s just when you put it all together you get a better result.
Then we have the on line record keeping that saves you lots of time and ensures your much protected as it ensures good record keeping
The best way though to find out about RAID is to try it. So for anyone reading this thread if you would like to do a RAID crossover for free e mail me at
jim@diveraid.com and I will do my best to get you hooked up with someone near you.
Would also love to hear any suggestions you might have - we don’t pretend to have all the answers but we figure if we ask enough people how to make things better we will keep getting better.
Thanks for your questions
