My fiance and I did underwater naturalist for her birthday. Sadly we had to dive fully clothed. It was a pretty fun course though if you like learning about sea creatures (which you definitely can do without doing an expensive course). It did however come as part of a diving package which included accommodation for the weekend at a dive resort. I suppose we wouldn't have done it if it wasn't part of a special.
I was once buddied at a resort with a new diver who was doing 24 dives in 2 weeks to get their 50 dive total to get signed up as a Master Scuba Diver. Although they'd passed the PADI Rescue course only the previous week, in the water I found their situational awareness to be surprisingly absent, and this was accompanied by staggering over-confidence. What wasn't then surprising was their choice of specialities to complete the required 5. How about Fish ID, Project Aware and Underwater Videographer? They clearly considered development of their core diving skills and experience to be complete and that MSD cert to be the end of all learning. Never was the acronym MSD less true. At least there was the entertainment of listening to them sounding off about how good they were, without that essential first step of finding out who's in the audience, which included 2 instructors and a DM.
This type of stuff is why I left PADI and switched to ITDA. At ITDA the DM & Master Diver course are 100% the same, the only difference is the diver decides which one they want to be a professional or non-professional.
For me the most worthwhile Spec for every PADI diver is Rescue. It of course gives you the skills to be a better buddy, but it also teaches you a lot more about your own diving skills. It includes self rescue so I'd rate it above the solo diver course. There's also a great IANTD self-sufficient diver course which again teaches better ways to rig your gear and deal with issues.
Loved your practical take on these diving certs! Had to laugh about the Ice Diving. My dad is ice dive certified, and his only ice dive he's done was his certification dive. Because he hated it! Ha. Now he just "accidentally" hands his Ice Diver certification to Scuba shops in tropical locations just to show off. 😁
The lake I usually dive in has a LOT of areas, where you can't even see your hand fully extended. Usually I just stay calm, and keep moving until I hit a slightly clearer area.
Hello, just some feedback, I'm listening to your videos in the background so I miss the titles of the sections if you're not announcing them. Love the channel! bought an Apeks MTX-RC after watching your review
Can you do a video on drysuits, how to control buoyancy? How or when should you fill the air on your suit? How to figure out what size shoe is the suite going to have if you are a small with “size 7 shoe”?
There are a number of dive trips in Canada and other colder climates (i.e. Iceland) that indicate : "must have dry suit diving certification OR 10 logged dry suit dives within two years of the tour date, which must be confirmed with written proof from a diving instructor". I know a few instructors that have been teaching for years with hundreds of drysuit dives but had to get the card just to be allowed to dive dry on a certain dive trip.
I did my aow with the SSI advanced open water bundle, i choose navigation (was ok), deep diving (nitrogen narcosis it is funny), nitrox and wreck diving specialties but wreck diving wasn't about wreck penetration (was a li'l disappointed), it is more about knowing the history of the ship you will be diving, identify the parts of the wreck, know to lay a line with a reel and spool, look for permanent guide lines and possible hazards, and repeat you many times that you should not penetrate a wreck. At the end my instructor said that i had good buoyancy and my finning was ok so we did a light zone penetration but that's it
Not going in makes it useless. Good to know. I suppose it makes sense though. Even with a basic guideline, penetration has hazards and risks and requires equipment and gas considerations. Wrecks can be structurally unstable, have entanglement hazards, are overhead environments with difficult access to open surface, and are a prime location for disorientation and zero viz. Presumably the guideline you laid was to connect separated parts of a wreck? Many of the tourist-y wrecks are recent artificial reefs, so they have not degraded yet, they have been stripped clean of hazards, they are inspected often, and the guides know the layout for safe swim-throughs.
@@KimonFrousios Yes, the guideline practices we did it on the helicopter deck the wreck has, this boat was sunk to be an artificial reef and used to have permanent guidelines but some years ago a foreign guide thought it was a good idea to lead his group inside the ship and one of his client didn't make it out. So the lecture it is "you should not pentrate the wreck".
Not sure about PADI but NAUI master diver, at my local shop, gets into planning alot more than other courses. It also gets more in depth than previous courses and is a requisite for dive master. That being said there is never a better teacher than experience.
One thing about the Drysuit speciality is that if renting one you may find that without the drysuit speciality. My son is 12, and 5'10" and growing steadily, so essential
One of the more dubious offers I recieved when fun diving abroad not long after qualifying (after 25-30 dives) was if I did my side mount, deep, and nitrox specialties they would allow me on the trip to dive the wreck at 45m. I decided against it, although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted. After some of my newly made friends at the dive centre came back from that dive saying it was one of the best they've ever done I was gutted but looking back I'm glad I didn't go down that route.
clarkeysam Yeah, that's just a weird offer. First because Nitrox isn't a useful skill at that depth (while it's very useful at dives that are a bit shallower), second because sidemount is a skill that you don't simply check off. It requires building up experience before task loading yourself with a more complex dive. It's silly to put inexperienced divers on a wreck at a depth where they'll be pretty narced, will have very limited NDL time, and then task loading them by sidemounting. If the sidemounting was meant for bringing a stage cylinder so they could extend their bottom time and do a decompression dive, then that's an even worse idea. That requires good buoyancy control and training in Decompression Procedures. Advanced Nitrox (use of higher than 40% O2) is also recommended. You build up to 45m, not do it as your first deep dive, In short, I don't know what they were thinking and good on you for not exceeding your comfort level. All those courses are well worth it, but spread them out a little. And take the sidemount course with an renowned sidemount instructor. The PADI course material for it is pretty bad. So many details that are missing or wrong. The TDI course it better but it's really worth investing in a quality instructor. Check out sidemounting.com for a start.
@@Yggdrasil42 yeah it was a weird offer, while I respect the guy who said that to me (experienced OC and CC instructor, and conducts cave exploration) I can only conclude that he was putting money before safety that day. It was a planned deco dive, I cant recall if both cylinders would contain the same mix or if one was richer for deco, if I was to guess I would come down on the side of both cylinders containing the same mix, to reduce the chance of breathing the incorrect gas at depth. I don't doubt that I could have concluded the dive safely (it was in the tropics so much easier diving than the UK), I wouldn't have been insured should something have gone wrong, and should something have gone wrong it would likely be more severe due to increased depth and lack of experience. Although I refused to go on that trip there was a number of divers who went despite not being qualified. Mostly DMs (either at that shop or on holiday having worked elsehwere) but in any case not qualified for deco or beyond 40m.
Nitrox is, indeed, useful for that dive but only if it is advanced nitrox. Then you can use e.g. EAN 50 as your deco gas. However I'll rather use tmx, e.g. 22/35 and then at least 50/0 as deco gas, maybe also 100/0 especially if done using ccr.
For me the PADI Master was more about showing that I’d completed Rescue and had worked on diving as much as I could. As it was just a tick box it was a no brainer through PADI. Above that Dry Suit - UK diving must have and Nitrox - hell yes when on a liveaboard with multi dive days, night for me when I started seemed like a good thing - but looking back it’s all about experience and not being funny - ask fellow divers because most will help you become a better diver because they probably don’t want to be around the numpty with zero buoyancy kicking up everything!
I do agree on you're opinion on must of the curses. Master certification in my case was something i got for free when i completed 5 specialty courses that are on the qualifying for master diver cert. And on dpv. First the curse is a lot of fun. Second dvp's are very expansive. and buying one is kind of too much. Plus no dive club that have them will allow you to rent one without that certification. Good on you mate for taking you're on road. Keep up the god work. Wish you the best of luck
Safe Diving The reason I’m doing it is for the 1% chance a dive center asks for it, wouldn’t want a dive to be ruined cause of that. Also pretty good preparation for danish fall and winter that it’s already dark at 4pm
Actually, for safety purposes, I think that night diving should just be done in the AOW course, don't have to go full out on a speciality. Reason being, I won't want to bring someone down if they had never done night. They won't know the communication at night. It's not just about turning the torch but also the light discipline.
I done mine with aow communication in pitch black is what you need to learn but most important is to shine light right in your buddys mask to make sure he is ok
What would be an important information for this kind of video is that if guides will ask for that card for a specific trip. I know about nitrox, cavern, wreck, deep....what else? Will someone ask for a night cert card for a night trip?
In my opinion there are vast differences in quality between different agencies and don't get me wrong but i don't dislike divers from a certain agency i only dislike agencies that teach not the required minimum. Iam a wreck Diver with heart and soul and made my first wreck penetration license with CMAS and a year later a new Course with ISE i really learned a lot about wreck diving like line management and correct fining. When i was at my holiday destination (it was some ware warm with a nice artificial reef) at the dive shop there was a group of people who did their wreck specially, i was a bit shocked they locked like a Christmas tree one of them had 3 gro pro Cameras on one retractor, to this day i can't think of a reason why you would keep 3 on one retractor but it's their gear configuration. In the water they plowed evry last bit of silt up especially with their dangling octos and spc. A couple of days later i asked the instructor how many had passed, because i was certain that with their skills maybe one or 2 would pass, but no they all passed. This shows once again that the different standards in training agencies are becoming more and more a problem, especially in this time with corona and struggling dive centers, it's far cheaper for them to sign off not perfectly qualified students than train them to be good divers. Iam not saying evry dive center will do so and it is rare, but to put it in perspective a college of mine went to the southern hemisphere and came back with a AOWD and a Nitrox I that he made in one day without any written exam. It's my understanding that no agenency should tolerate under qualified divers for any reason they are a risk to themselves and others and maybe set the speciality prices higher to get better training for my wreck dive speciality i really liked ISE they use cave techniques for wrecks and by this improve the safty
As far as I'm aware there's 2 levels of wreck courses, something along the lines of wreck, and advanced wreck. Your course with ISE is advanced wreck, the wreck speciality isn't, so obviously there will be significant differences (e.g. 1 involves penetration, the other doesn't)
Ben Agreed, not only are the requirements different between agencies, shops/instructors (especially PADI IMHO) are devalueing their training by passing people who are clearly not ready.
Gain some experience first, about 100 dives, till you're really confident with drysuit, buoyancy, finning techniques, donating and switching regs. Then move on towards TEC diving. Otherwise, you're too overwhelmed and it's a waste of time. I have 220 logged dives and only now moving on with SSI Extended Range.
@@emmylee8862 what are you talking about mate?! You need to pass the GUE Fundamentals course before advancing into GUE Tech Diver. Don't miss inform People! The GUE Fundamentals course is like PADI OWD, AOWD, Navigation, Perfect Boyancy AND a bit of Rescue Diver, all in ONE course!!
I think some of the skills, like buoyancy, DSMB, basic navigation, should be required to be an "advanced" diver. On the other hand, encyclopedic skills like Fish ID and non-core skills like photo/video etc should not count towards a qualification, except maybe for that vanity "master" level. I feel certain organizations rely too so much on guides to be the sole emergency safety factor. Separation happens, as do health issues. The guide shouldn't be the only diver trained to mark their position and lift a diver to the surface. Can people learn some of these skills by themselves? Yes. But night, DSMB, drift, even boat, do have special considerations and one should have an experienced buddy with them for their first time. Silly as they seem, many of the specialties basically provide a way for people to hire such a buddy, when they don't have one. Of course, with guides being ubiquitous outside the UK, some of these specialties are completely redundant.
What’s the suggestions for 4 certs to get AOWD with SSI. Was thinking deep diver as want to go 30m and also dry suit as a UK diver. PB just seems like experience, but I learnt in a vest and had to swap to wing as vests are not for me, but what else would be useful. Was thinking wreck diver? Really hard to choose when the main aim is to be able to dive 30m but need specialities to do so
I’m feeling a little confused now. My goal for years has been to reach Master Diver because personally, I want to be the best diver I can be. I realize that certification doesn’t actually hold any additional training beyond Rescue, and that the best way to improve my skills is to dive as often as I can, but I did have to complete a certain amount of dives, as well as have the 5 specialty trainings, in order to earn it. I also tried to choose specialties that actually helped me to improve my skills as a diver. I don’t want to give anyone a negative impression of me as a diver because I chose to get my Master C-Card. Is this truly going to give dive operators the wrong idea about me? Have I really been wasting my time by aiming for this goal?
Don't worry about being a Master Diver, just don't get high and mighty about it. I think he's referring to Master Divers who act more qualified than they are or stop working on being a better diver when they reach it. Always work on being a better diver, go over your course materials every so often, and don't act like you know all there is to scuba.
I find the music very distracting while somebody explains stuff... Please just talk, I could not finish the video, though I find it very interesting...
People always seem to not discuss the obvious with this subject - most recreational divers are going to (eventually) want to go deeper than 18mts (even if it’s diving a reef in Bali on holiday) so ‘technically’ they should have an Advanced Diver certification (if only to be insured when diving past 18mts). To receive an Advanced Diver Cert you have to complete 4-5 specialties (& with SSI also complete 25 dives) - so you really can’t avoid doing the two required specialties (Padi) - one being deep (to 39mts). Simon (Australia)
But the dives for Advanced isn't the full specialty, just the first dive of that specialty. If you only complete your Open Water and Advanced you haven't completed any specialties yet.
Made me laugh with "limited visibility, here in the uk we just call it diving" anyone who's been in stoney during summer months, without a dm or instructor to just follow round should be handed this cert. 😂
Boat Diver - I believe DAN will not pay out insurance claim if you hurt yourself on a boat and don't have a Boat Diver Speciality...(correct me if I'm wrong)
