Hola, former fed from DHS here! You can reach out to the local CG station Commander and set up a collaboration for training to test the EPRIB. They do training on a quite regular basis. I have done some scenario based training with them and FEMA before. They also do work with companies to help test equipment and training as well.
I think the biggest issue is that the products work in two completely separate ways. The Nautilus trigger the man over board alarm on compatible marine radios. While the Garmin communicates with satellites which allows their communications center to contact local rescue services.
I was certified through SSI 20 years ago and back then the only difference was the order in which cert courses were recommended. The material covered was pretty much all the same. The biggest drawback over the years has been trying to find SSI affiliated dive shops to continue training. I’ve just had to make do with courses being tracked in two different systems between SSI and PADI.
Any tips for reducing SAC rate? I stay pretty fit, but always seem to burn through my gas faster than my buddies. I’m about 6’4” and primarily use my breath to control buoyancy, but was thinking maybe I should try using my BC more since I have large lungs. Thanks, love the videos!
I've been out of the loop since I sold my 2 shops. One of the reasons I sold it, mainly because I was sick of watching the padi factory, churning out OW students like they were smarties. Since them I'm getting back to teaching. Bsac, ssi and padi. I'm interested in all agencies. But I've been shocked at the recent deaths of padi students. The one that rocked me was the poor 18 year old girl who died from baratrauma related complications. The instructor and school should be in prison. I would like to see a secret shopper person, neutral person come in and audit all dive centres.
Hello! I sent an email before but not sure it was sent as my message is so long.Hello!! I I would like to get some advice or better say opinion from you. I had DCS just like you few months back as per your video. Now I'm scared and don't know if technical diving is the right thing for me. You did so many tec dives before and got dcs once. That's kinda good statically as you know usually you don't get it. But for me it happened on my very first technical dive ever. during the padi tec40 course. The dive was easy at 40m for 19 minutes. We did all stops as planned and even my air computer has cleared! As per my instructor everything was perfect and nothing wrong was made. (The very only thing maybe is that u walked about 300 stairs after the dive and got a little exhausted and I didn't drink much water before). So I do have 3oo dives many of them even to 38 meters. I was often close to me deco limit as well. I never had something. The docs cleared me back to diving now and all symptoms are gone. Also I got no left to right shunt as my heart was checked too. But now I'm a bit scared. I loved the feeling of tec diving and really wanted to go much much further. My dream is even 100m at some point. But now I'm not sure I can if I got dCs on my first easy 40m tec dive. What is your opinion? I know you're not a doc or anything but if you were me what would you do? Also how are you since your dcs? Did you do deep tec dives and everything is fine?? Your help would mean a lot for me as you're my role model in diving and I'm a big fan. Hope you got the time to even read this. Thanks If you do! Habe a nice day and safe dives :)
James, I love your videos. I am not currently certified to dive, but my wife and son are. I have always wanted to but have had considerable hesitation due to being a person who doesn't like not being in control. That being said, your videos have given me so much relief and excitement about my upcoming certification (sometime next spring hopefully). I do have one question I haven't found the answer to yet (actually I have lots of questions but just one today): Can you off gas Nitro more effectively with different types of breathing on the surface (i.e. Deep breathing, tachypnea, longer exhales, etc.) I know there are no "stupid questions" but I'm sure this one is, would just love if you could help me understand it better! Thanks, and please don't stop these videos are amazing!
My 4 children and my son-in-law passed the ADV. open water + nitrox certifications of SSI agency - only because of your unequivocal recommendation James! - You said to go study with the instructor you think is the most suitable. In this case, she works with SSI......lol
Subject: reverse block Hi James, thank you for your channel. I wanted to ask you to make a video about reverse block. I had 2 fellow instructors had it in the past 2 months and it was a pretty bad story. Thank you!
When you get to the comparison video, consider including a dryfob xl and an Acr ResQlink PLB. I am a volunteer aviation search an rescue member… in Canada, but my research and knowledge in the field made that combo my personal choice. Cheers.
and now let's move to something completely different: ccr. first: congrats. second: you had content on ccr, but may I suggest you consider explaining in the future the different methods ccr works, more specifically why you chose divesoft liberty [rather then hollis or jj or whatever] like you made content on dive computers differences (and recommendations of your choice) and so on
Tell Garmin to hurry up, I want to see the review... The part where you get arrested by the coast guard will make excellent TV. lol, kidding, I've always wondered which one is better or how they are different.
Thank you for great content! I am constantly learning and improving my diving after watching your videos. I am SSI certified and 7 dives away from Master Diver status. The Dive shop in Pennsylvania (Scubaventure) that is my training center is top notch. (you have said choose the instructor not the organization) Each instructor will go above and beyond to make sure that the student are confident in their new skills and knowledge.
SSI are definitely kicking goals in terms of student throughput and marketing. I've heard some nasty stuff about what they did to their previous franchisees. However - good news is that the SSI students (and DMs, at least for the most part) I have seen have been on the better side of what you can expect from mainstream dive training. I believe there is a test mode on the nautilus (could be wrong!) But I think all you can do on the In-reach is send a test text message to test connectivity. I'm a bit of a fan of the In-reach as a product overall - and I know people have used the Garmin rescue service when their liveaboard had an accident so that gives me peace of mind. If you go hiking/hunting the In-reach is well suited to that too!
After the Vandenberg incident I’m really thinking about getting the Inreach mini or the Nautilus. By what I read the Inreach mini goes to a call center then they call the coast guard, and the Nautilus goes over channel 16 gps location, and goes straight to coast guard. Hope they send u one soon kinda excited about your review which one would be better.
"The purpose of a Venturi lever in a scuba diving second stage is to assist the flexing of the diaphragm inside the scuba regulator and ease breathing when you inhale." - no, its purpose is definetly not to stop the reg from free-flowing. Never heard or read that in any literature anywhere, ever. If anythings its the opposite effect - with Venturi on it will easier to breath, with the increased risk of freeflows.
I want to start by saying I love the channel and have a true respect for your opinion, wish I had the resources to be a student of yours. What are your thoughts on using the gas in your BCD as breathing gas in an emergency out of air scenario? Heard this talked about briefly on a different channel
Oh man! I am based in Zurich and I just started diving 2 years ago (just got my Deep Diving certification last week and did a live-aboard with 20 dives last year), but it's a bit of a struggle to keep the sport going because I have no one to do it with in a frequent basis (a bit due to language barrier) 😢 I'll definitely try to reach out to your buddy here in Zurich, see if I can get a bit more of integrated into the scuba circles in Switzerland. Thanks a lot for all the brilliant content!
James, First & foremost congratulations on your CCR Instructor cert! Secondly, I’m looking at doing my PADI IDC + I.E in the near future, but would also like to do a SDI Crossover, ( then move into tech courses and eventually become a TDI instructor ) Could you do a video on your experience on the crossover if possible? Also as a PADI DM, can I crossover to an SDI / TDI DM or equivalent?
SSI courses so far have been like this - SCUBA is amazing, especially this part (whatever course your doing) This can be dangerous Here's how to do (insert skill/course scope) without hurting yourself SCUBA is amazing Now, I've only done open water and nitrox so far so your mileage may vary
Ive done NAUI OW PADI OW and SSI NITROX and the "Specialty" courses deep, search and recovery, perfect buoyancy to get AOW cert. I don't think the agency really matters but the quality of your instruction and the ability of the instructor to teach really makes a difference. As James has said the "training agencies" are just publishing companies trying to sell their material. I dislike the online video format as a replacement for classroom training but that is the way the industry is going. I believe student engagement and leaning the right questions to ask will help further your education and it doesn't matter which Certifying agency you use. You need a cert card to acces services from a dive shop or a charter company but after that you are on your own to ensure you return safely from any diving activities. Additionally SCUBA is amazing!!🤣
Congrats on the CCR instructor certification. As an instructor on the LIberty are you able to train on all the configurations or just the classic back mount? Although very new to diving I am definitely considering CCR in the future for tech and cave diving. The Liberty was fairly intriguing to me as it can be configured in back mount or sidemount.
