I recently read an article on AquaViews that posed the question, are scuba agencies sacrificing training quality for numbers?
I don’t think anyone would deny that most scuba agencies are after numbers. Anyone who has gone through a pro-level certification can tell you that. Is it such a bad thing? Having numbers drives the accessibility up (and price down) for scuba diving, but what if the price is too high?

To answer this question, we really have to look at the standards. Fortunately, most major agencies follow the same set of scuba standards for each level of certification. I think anyone who has competence in the required skills can not be called a bad diver. They’re not guaranteed to be good divers, either. I think the one thing we can glean from them is that they are the absolute minimum set of requirements for a diver with basic competence.

An extra dive or two over the required four dives would probably be quite advantageous—most divers don’t begin to get comfortable until dive number four anyway. The problem here, of course, is that each additional dive drives up the cost and time commitment, and thus limits the potential clients. Let me translate that for you: it’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

I think the problem, if there is one, is requirements for certifying instructors. As it stands, pretty much anyone can be an instructor. Is that scary? Rather than focus on certifying too many students, what if we take care of things at the instructor level, and let the results trickle down?

A diver can go from entry level certification to instructor-level very quickly. Often, this is done to “bring an instructor up” to work at a shop, usually in overseas locales. It is very clear this person’s job is to certify paying customers and take them out on dives. Denying certification doesn’t fit in that picture very well, does it?

Duane at Precision Diving had a recent post on the difficulty of saying, “no”. He is mostly referring to tec diving, but it applies to recreational as well. When does an instructor tell a student they can’t pass? I would hope that if an instructor even slightly thinks that a diver would be danger to himself or others in the water with him, she would withhold certification. I would like to think this, but it’s much harder to look an earnest young diver in the face and tell them they can’t go on that upcoming trip to Bonaire.

I don’t think most shops are being scoundrels and purposely filling the ocean with bad divers. In fact, to really assess the situation, we have to look at the numbers. And the numbers tell us one thing: undertrained divers are not causing accidents. They’re simply not. It could be luck, but compared to the number of dives, there are quite few accidents. And it’s not obvious they could be prevented by longer certification processes. I’m guessing some people would debate this.

Agencies like being self-regulated. Part of this process is monitoring accident statistics and responding appropriately—before outside intervention. If there were a serious problem here, I imagine there would have been intervention at some level. The standards are tight, but doable for an adequate level of instruction.

I think what it all really comes down to, though, is diver comfort in the water, and that comes with experience. You need more than a few certification dives to get that, though. Experience, and a sense of your own abilities, which a good instructor can give you.

This post is a bit stream-of-consciousness. Feel free to join in on the flow in the comments and keep the conversation going. I’d like to hear your opinion.

Those that keep up-to-date with such things are already aware, but PADI has recently revamped their Divemaster course.

Looking at the changes can be confusing, and a tad daunting, so I’ve broken down what these changes mean for you, based on where you are in your dive career. Simply jump to the header that describes you.

No intention of becoming a divemaster

Let’s get the easy one out of the way. If this describes you, then you don’t have to do anything. Keep diving like you always have been.

Want to become a divemaster

Want to start before 1 July, 2011. If you are starting your DM training prior to July 1, 2011, then you can use either the old curriculum, or the new one. The new program requires 40 dives to begin, whereas the old one only requires 20. If you have less than 40 dives, then, you must enroll in the old program.

You may be enrolled in the old program by a shop that still has the previous materials that they need to move. This is not a big deal. PADI is trying to improve the course, but that doesn’t mean the previous course was bad by any means. If you are given a choice, then go for the new one (why not?).

Want to start after 1 July, 2011. The new program doesn’t mean anything to you. You must use it, so don’t worry about the difference.

Certified by a non-PADI agency. PADI recognizes certification by other agencies as a pre-requisite for a DM course. If you want to do your DM training under PADI, but have a non-PADI rescue diver equivalent certification, then it’s no big deal. Look at the previous categories based on when you want to start to determine where you are.

Current divemaster

Want to stay a divemaster. If you have no intention of advancing beyond your DM certification, then there’s nothing you have to worry about. You’ll still be a PADI divemaster, even after 1 July 2011.

Want to continue on to instructor before 1 July, 2011. If you plan on continuing training to become an instructor soon, you’ll have to eventually get the new materials. Thus, if you haven’t bought your instructor pack yet, you should try to get the new one.

If you, like me, already have the old pack, then you will eventually have to upgrade to the new DM materials if you want to certify divemasters after July 1, 2011. You must also learn the curriculum changes so that you can teach the new curriculum, just like any instructor.

Want to continue instructor training after 1 July, 2011. The instructor materials you buy will probably be the new ones, so there’s nothing different you will have to do.

Current instructor

If you are an instructor who wants to certify divemasters after 1 July 2011, then you will need to get the new instruction materials, some of which are available on the PADI Pro website. As with any changes, you need to familiarize yourself with them so that you are teaching the current standard.

If you will certify divemasters before 1 July 2011, then be prepared to teach either the new course or the old one, depending on which materials your student has. This is nothing new that you didn’t learn during your instructor training.

I believe that should cover everyone. Head on over to PADI Instructor Info for a rundown of the divemaster program revisions and for additional information about the new divemaster program.

The most popular post here on The Diving Blog is easily on writing an Emergency Assistance Plan. To date, this article, with the free templates, have helped hundreds of divers in one of the most unnecessarily confusing parts of the PADI Rescue Diver course.

In the process, I’ve received valuable feedback from many readers. First of all, to those of you who have commented or emailed constructive feedback on the EAP templates, thank you! Our post shows up as a top result when searching for emergency assistance plans, and your input helps to make it better, in turn helping many scuba divers in training.

There’s one thing I’ve consistently noticed: there is no standard set of requirements for an EAP to be considered complete. This isn’t necessarily a short-coming on PADI’s part, it simply reflects the vastly different requirements for different countries, cultures, and environments. Responding to an emergency in San Diego, California would be an entirely different experience than responding to one in the Maldives.

Nevertheless, I am working to coalesce all this information into a form usable by everyone. This is where you, the reader, come into play.

First, if you haven’t yet, please read the original EAP post, and take a look at the template.

Second, send me your feedback. As an instructor, would you consider the template complete and acceptable? What is missing? If you dive in a particular location, what information is necessary that the template does not provide? If you are a certified rescue diver, did your instructor note anything that the template does not give? Feel free to leave a comment here, or use the contact form linked to above.

I will incorporate your feedback and ideas into an update of the post and template. Thank you for taking the time and paying it forward, helping future generations of scuba divers! You guys rock!

I hate dry suits.

There, I said it. Now with that out of the way, let me tell you a story.

Back in May, I participated in a drysuit diving day at my local quarry. As many of you know, quarries are amazing places to dive¹, but we were there with a mission, to get our drysuit certification.

Why dry suits?

Let me answer your question with a question: why do you get cold on dives? Now let me answer my question which was an answer to your question: heat flow.

You get cold when heat flows. Specifically, it flows away from your body. This happens all the time, but it just so happens that water is particularly talented at moving heat around. (This is one of a bagillion reasons why the oceans are so important.)

When you don your spiffy wetsuit (your wetsuit is spiffy, isn’t it?), even though it fits good and snug (or should, anyway), it still allows some water in. During the dive, there is a steady, albeit slow, flow of water in and out. The cool water comes in, steals your body’s warmth, and takes it out, leaving you cold. The nerve.

Dry suits² put an end to this vicious cycle. They seal of your neck, ankles, and wrists, trapping air around your body, which helps insulate you from that sneaky cold water.

Sounds fantastic, right? Let me get back to my story.

The downside

Putting on a drysuit is a process. For one, the whole concept relies on seals to keep air in, and more importantly, keep water out. Leaks are a big deal. Seals have to be perfect³. Too loose, and water rushes in like Isengard, too tight, and you pass at before you get in the water. Even if you own a suit and have it set up, you have to check over these things.

With all that air around your body, you become much more buoyant. Thus, drysuits require a ton of weight. I think I dove with 10 more pounds than I’ve ever used in my life.

Having air move around your body makes diving trickier. Part of the reason drysuits require a separate certification is this trickiness. You have to know how to control your buoyancy using the suit’s air valves. More importantly, you need to know how to handle emergencies should they arise—from all the air going to your legs, making you hang upside-down (not so serious), to a runaway inflation valve (serious).

In short, diving in a drysuit can be a real chore. I don’t claim to be an expert after a few dives, all I know is I have no desire to become one.

A necessary evil

Which brings us to the crux of the problem. I hate drysuits, yet they are practically a necessity for cold water diving.

The thing is, I wasn’t even that impressed with the suit’s ability to keep me warm. Dry, yes. Warm, no.

I expected to be super-cozy, but in mid-50s water I was still very cold. Maybe not as cold as I would’ve been in a thick wetsuit, but far from comfortable, even with my thick insulation beneath the suit.

The one word that comes to mind after my experience? Disappointing. I expected a lot of things out of dry suits, which they failed to deliver. They did, however, live up to their name. It was a dry, suit.

Options

My solution? No cold water diving. There are a few things I’d like to see in my life that are in cold water but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. In the meantime, I’ll stick with the tropics.

Am I a baby? Perhaps, but scuba diving for me is a leisure activity. It’s not a job. I don’t have to do things I don’t wanna do. And you can’t make me.

Not all is hopeless, though. There is one decent alternative to drysuits for many (not all) environments. We’ll save that one for another day.

Do you hate drysuits, too, or do you just think I’m an idiot? The world awaits your input.

1. No they’re not.
2. Is it dry suits (two words), or drysuits (one word)? I can’t find a consistent answer.
3. Speaking of seal sizes, apparently I have a pencil neck. The guy had to go down to women’s sizes to find one that fit me.

Photo by TauchSport_Steininger

Photo by Beige Alert

I think for anything important in your life it’s crucial to have goals. Goals make sure you have thought things through and know exactly what you want to get out of life.

Sometime last year, scuba became more than a hobby to me. As such, I’ve been defining goals that describe what I want to get out of this experience. This blog is one such goal, a way for me to share what I learn with others on the internet, and as the sub-title says, a place for divers to spend their time above the water.

One other goal of mine is to become a certified scuba instructor. If you’ve followed the blog for long, you’d know that after finishing my Divemaster certification earlier this year, I am well on my way.

I’m currently on track to become a full-fledged PADI instructor sometime in spring of next year. Why the delay? Time and money, mostly. I have begun my Assistant Instructor certification, although that will allow me to do little more than what I can do with a Divemaster certification.

Why would one want to become an instructor?

• Career. Certainly a possibility to teach scuba for a living. The pay isn’t great, but you get to dive regularly and share your passion with others. This one does not describe me, though.
• Friends & family. As an instructor, you are free to certify your friends and family. Want to go on a scuba trip but don’t have any certified buddy’s to go with? Make your own buddy. As I mentioned, instructor certification is expensive and time-consuming, so this reason alone probably isn’t sufficient, but is more of a perk.
• Knowledge. Going the pro path teaches you more about diving than you thought you’d ever know. You still don’t know everything, but as an instructor you will have fairly in-depth knowledge of most things scuba. I definitely enjoy this part of things, especially learning teaching theory and how people learn.
• That type of person. Some people are just that way. When you get into something, you want to go all the way. Whether you call them Type A or something else, being like this is a strong motivator.
• Comfort. The level of experience you quickly achieve moving through the professional ranks comes along with a level of comfort in the water. This level comes much quicker than just through regular diving. The dissemination of dive skills lets you master each one, increasing your overall comfort in the water. As with certifying your buddies, this one probably isn’t a prime reason to become an instructor, but rather is a side bonus.

These are just a few reasons to become an instructor. I’ll keep you up-to-date on my progress and anything of interest that happens all the way. In the future, I’ll also write about some other scuba goals that I have or am in the process of making.

What do you think about instructor certification? Is it for you? If you already are an instructor, what made you want to do it?

To leave a comment, go to the bottom of the post page. If you are on the homepage, click on the title of this post to go to the post page.

Photo by Martin Burns

It’s a simple question: how many certified scuba divers are actually out there? Unfortunately the answer is not so simple, for several reasons.

• Organizations don’t share data. Certification agencies tend to not release data about how many divers they certify. One exception is PADI, although they have been accused of inflating their numbers in the past. Without reliable numbers, it’s much harder to get a good estimate.
• Lack of trends. For the few years that data is available, we can’t extract any meaningful trends. For instance, we can’t say anything as strong as “for 20 years diver certification has grown by 10% each year.” The numbers seem too erratic to extrapolate.
• Error. The error also can be high, due to things like divers getting certifications from multiple agencies.

Despite these drawbacks, there have been several attempts at nailing down a number.

The best numbers we have are from DEMA, the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association. It is in their interests to know how many divers, and thus potential customers, are out there.

DEMA has data from three agencies (PADI, SDI, and SSI) for new diver certifications between the year 2000 and 2008, seen below.

Using some fancy mathematics, we can see that in those 9 years, from those three agencies, 1,449,751 were certified. Unfortunately, as said before, these numbers are too erratic to usefully extrapolate. Also, we’re missing numbers from NAUI, the second largest certification agency.

From here, it’s time to start guessing. PADI provides some certification statistics that may help us guess intelligently.

The first thing you’ll notice is that PADI’s numbers are much larger than the total numbers from DEMA. That’s because PADI is counting total certifications, not entry-level certifications. I assume this includes things like specialties, which inflate the numbers for the past few years up to almost a million certifications per year.

Let’s adjust our 2000-2008 numbers to account for NAUI (and other organizations). I think it’s safe to assume that doing so will inflate the number up to around 2,000,000 certifications.

Fortunately, we only need to consider as far back as around 1980—anything before that and the numbers are small enough to be within the margin of error.

If we use PADI’s data to find a trend, we see that between the 90’s and this decade, number of certifications increased around 35%. As there are more certified divers, there will be more advanced certifications and specialties, so let’s say growth was 25%. That gives us 1,500,000 new divers for the 90’s, and a total of 3,500,000 divers from 1990 to around present.

Doing the same thing for the 80’s, we see growth was much larger as total certifications almost tripled. Let’s say new certifications doubled, then. This results in about 750,000 new divers during the 80’s. I’ll round up to 1,000,000 to account for all previous certifications.

Using this very poor estimation strategy, we’re looking at around 4,000,000 total certified scuba divers. What does this mean? Not much, really. There are lot of divers out there, most of which haven’t been diving in years. I have no sense of how accurate / inaccurate this number might be, although I suspect it is low, due to the long tail provided by many smaller certification agencies. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was closer to 5 million, or even 10 million, for that matter.

Next time we’ll look at how many active scuba divers are out there—a more meaningful figure. In the meantime, I’m curious to know in the comments what you think of this number, and if you have suggestions for improving our (poor) guesstimate.

Grouper photo by ansik

Probably the biggest source of confusion during a rescue diver course is the creation of an emergency assistance plan. Students aren’t sure how much or how little to include. They aren’t sure they did it right when it doesn’t take a long time. This article is meant to clear up these problems.

First of all, I’m going to say that creating an assistance action plan should not be a terribly difficult exercise, especially in the internet age. There are a few key components that should be included along with a few optional items. Finding this information these days should be a breeze. Before we get into what exactly to include, let’s discuss the purpose of an emergency assistance plan. This should illuminate exactly what is required to construct a complete plan.

Purpose

The purpose of an assistance plan is simple: in the case of an emergency, an emergency assistance plan should assist an uninformed bystander in contacting emergency services and getting them to the location of the accident. Right away this should clue you in on what’s required. In fact, putting too much information will only slow things down during an emergency situation.

In general, there doesn’t have to be too much detail in an emergency plan. However, courses usually require plans for a specific dive site. This is probably an additional source of uncertainty. If in doubt, just ask your instructor how specific everything should be. Additionally, consult your textbook for any insights it may offer.¹ Though it never hurts to put in too much information, at least for the sake of fulfilling a course requirement.

What’s in it?

Now we know what the overall purpose of the plan is, but what exactly do we put in it? This is what everyone wants to know. After considering the purpose, we can ask some questions to discover what should be in this elusive little document.

If a diving emergency was taking place around you, what information would you need to be of some assistance? Clearly, we need some sort of contact information for the local emergency services. In particular, we want scuba-related contacts. If your diving locale has an emergency hotline dedicated to scuba emergencies, include that as well as general emergency numbers.² Look up the local Divers Alert Network (DAN) for their contact information.

This information (local EMS plus any scuba-related EMS) is the core of your emergency assistance plan. You can’t get away with less. There is, however, plenty more you could include for absolute completeness. What other information could be useful during an emergency?

Sometimes it may be faster to transport the injured yourself. For this reason, I like to include the location of the nearest hospital, possibly with a map or directions. A contact number for the emergency room is also good, to alert staff that you are on your way with an injured diver.

The location of nearby emergency equipment is also pertinent. This includes things like emergency oxygen and first aid kits. Often, EMS may take a while to arrive, costing your victim precious minutes. Being able to help in the meantime by administering oxygen or basic life support could be the difference between life and death. You may know where the oxygen tank is, but if you’re busy giving rescue breaths, you want someone else to be able to retrieve it.

Depending on where you are diving, the location of the nearest telephone may be useful. Imagine if a foreigner was responsible for contacting emergency services after an accident. They have your emergency assistance plan, but no local mobile phone. It could be when you handed them your plan you told them to use your phone, but if diving remotely this may not always be a possibility. It’s location-specific, and definitely something to think about, but not required.

My rescue instructor was fairly stringent and required that I include a script for someone to read when calling emergency services. The key parts of this script are your location (not just the dive site name, but where it actually is), and that this is a scuba diving related emergency. This bit of information could change the reaction of emergency services on the other end. For instance, they may realize that a decompression chamber is needed and avoid hospitals that aren’t equipped to handle decompression sickness, saving valuable time.

Another optional item is a map of your diving location that identifies all the important landmarks nearby, such as the emergency equipment, telephones, and even the hospital. This diagram of the dive site could be useful in an emergency, but is usually not required. If your instructor doesn’t request it, you can still include it for brownie points.

Templates

To save you some time, I created a free emergency assistance plan template. Fill out as much or as little as you (and your instructor) think is necessary, replacing the text inside the <brackets>. Delete the rest. Click the following links for the format of your choice:

iWork Pages
Word 2007 & 2008 (.docx extension)
Word 97 – 2004 (.doc extension)
Adobe PDF
Rich Text Format

My hope is that this article (and the templates) take some of the mystique out of creating an emergency assistance plan. This is something you’ll probably only have to do twice during all your training (for rescue diver and for divemaster), but it is good to know the thinking behind it’s construction and the overall purpose it serves.

Time to help me out. Is there anything critical I left out that should be in an emergency assistance plan? Let me know in the comments.

1. I can’t say for other agencies, but the PADI rescue diver manual is nearly useless for information about creating an emergency assistance plan.
2. Funny story. I did my rescue diver course in New Zealand. For my assistance plan, I wanted to include the telephone number for a local hospital. I found the hospital, looked the number up online, and put it in my plan. During the course, everyone except me noticed something wrong with the hospital’s number, +44 xxx-xxxx. Turns out the hospital was part of a UK conglomerate, and the number I found was for their main London hospital. Being a dumb American, I put the phone number with the UK country code for my New Zealand dive plan. Go me.

Telling people you’re a rescue diver is fun. It evokes mental images of you jumping from helicopters into frigid waters like Kevin Costner in The Guardian. While becoming a rescue diver won’t make you Ashton Kutcher, it can be a challenging and rewarding experience.

I’m coming from a PADI approach, but as we’ll see, the information here applies to most of the larger organizations.

What is it?

Like most diving certifications, rescue diver has a knowledge portion combined with an applied, in-the-water component. The knowledge portion includes

• Common causes of diver stress and dive emergencies
• Identifying a diver in need
• Dive rescue procedures and injury treatment
• First aid supplies and dive rescue equipment
• Managing a dive emergency
• Rescuer health and safety
• In-water rescue skills

In addition, you’ll have to prepare an emergency assistance plan, which includes steps of emergency management for a specific dive site.

The applied part of the course is usually split into closed water (pool) exercises and open water exercises. Rescue diver is probably the most physically demanding certification, as it includes recovering unconscious divers from the water—a challenging task.

As a prerequisite, you must be CPR / First Aid certified. These are combined through a PADI certification called Emergency First Responder (EFR) that covers the same material, but you can go to any Red Cross to get the required certification. As you’ll find out when you take this course, many people like having this certification alone to increase their confidence for handling things like ordinary household emergencies.

After learning about skills in a classroom, you’ll have to perform them in the water. There are a lot of skills to do, ranging from simple things like cramp release all the way up to a complete rescue of an unconscious diver (including removal from the water). In between are things like towing a tired diver, helping panicked divers, and carrying divers out of the water.

The Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC), which includes organizations like PADI, SDI, SSI, and YMCA, has a complete list of minimum requirements for a rescue diver course. NAUI is one of the few large organizations no in the RSTC, but I imagine the required skillset is very similar.

How long does it take?

The length of the course varies; some shops like to really take their time when teaching rescue courses. The CPR / First AID (EFR) course can be completed in a day. Expect at least one night for covering the knowledge portion, possibly including watching videos. There is also the pool work, followed by open water exercises. Including EFR, that’s a minimum of 4 days (some of which might be evenings).

Who should take it?

Now we’re getting to the real crux of this article. Most regular divers will complete their advanced certification, if for no other reason just to be allowed to do deep dives. However, most people stop here, so why should you continue?

PADI has a corny, but accurate way of describing the progression through certifications. As a beginner diver, the focus is on taking care of yourself in the water. As you progress, your focus moves from within to becoming aware of other divers. The training follows this approach, as you begin with what is basically a review of self-rescue skills, and then learn how to recognize potential problems in other divers.

Honestly, I feel the training provided by rescue certification is not so much about actually rescuing people. Most divers are probably still not comfortable with that idea even after completing a rescue course. I think the advantages are more about increasing your own comfort level in the water. It’s not until you reach the leadership levels do you really begin to feel the possibility of using your rescue skills.

In any learning situation, there is an old adage that to teach something is to really understand it. This thinking applies here as well. To feel comfortable helping others is to really feel comfortable with yourself in the water. It is for this reason that I recommend that all those who dive regularly take a rescue diver course. You could achieve this comfort level over time with hundreds of dives, but taking a good rescue diver course will get you there much sooner.

Do you agree? Is finishing a rescue diver certification worth it for most divers?