The NAUI System and becoming a NAUI Instructor
NAUI is the acronym for the National Association of Underwater Instructors. It was founded in 1960 and is one of the oldest diver certifying agencies in the world. It is unique in that it is a worldwide, democratic, membership association, whose Board of Directors are elected instructor members who represent the membership and establish policies for the association.¹ NAUI courses are very thorough and routinely exceed minimum industry standards. The basic course is Scuba Diver, which takes the non-diver to open water certification. This is followed by Advanced Scuba Diver which improves your overall knowledge and skill in the water. It is designed for newly certified divers and introduces them to many different types of activities available to certified divers. The Master Scuba Diver course helps you acquire leadership-level academic knowledge and enables you to participate in advanced diving activities .² Other NAUI courses include Rescue Diving and Nitrox Diver. [...]
Categories: NAUI Tags: Diving Naui, NAUI, NAUI Dive Instructor, NAUI Diver
SCUBA: It’s not just a recreational sport…
I recently had the opportunity to meet an expert in underwater camouflage during part a month long educational seminar on Saba (see www.seaandlearn.org for more information). I had lunch with one of them and just chatted about his research on camouflage techniques. Somehow frogfish came up and I asked him if he knew why it took them so long to change their colors to camouflage themselves, versus groupers and octopus and so many other species of fish that can switch in a flash. He looked at me dumbfounded and said he never realized they could change color, to which I replied “We have one here on Saba that’s changing from yellow to green as we speak…!” He shook his head and started praising us – the recreational divers. We are the ones that see so much more than the scientists do. We gather more information, we see the changes, we [...]
Categories: Marine Biology Tags: Marine Biology, scuba diving, underwater camouflage
What’s the difference between SSI and PADI? Part 1
Since PADI is “The way the world learns to dive” and a ‘PADI course’ has become synonymous with what is actually an entry-level Scuba certification, being an SSI instructor, I have necessarily developed a concise stock answer to this article’s title-question. In this short series of articles I will be exploring in detail what the differences are; to dive operators and dive leaders as well as (potential) students and divers in general. In this first article we will take a look at the beginnings of the agency. Knowledge of the early days is essential in understanding SSI’s current policies and will even shed some light on the birth of the dive training industry as a whole. When Scuba Schools International came into fruition in 1970, its founding members had all previously belonged to the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS), a retailers’ association. PADI at this point did not [...]
Categories: SSI Tags: SSI, SSI courses, SSI divers, SSI education
The Official Shark Diving Jedi
As the official Shark Diving Jedi I want to welcome everyone to the most exciting section of Scuba Jedi! Whether you actively seek out encounters with the ocean’s top predators or if you just bump into the occasional reef shark you are a Shark Diver and in my opinion that makes you a very lucky person. If you have yet to see your first shark then stay tuned. Over the coming months I will be writing about some of the sharkiest places on the planet. Places that you will want to visit. Places where you’re guaranteed to see more than your fair share of sharks. But, before I launch into stories about adrenalin drenching encounters with sharks there are a couple of things that I want to make crystal clear… Firstly, sharks are not monsters. If you’re hoping to read about ferocious, man-eating, blood thirsty beasties you should head over [...]
Categories: Shark Diving, Types of Diving Tags: shark dive, shark divers, shark diving, sharks
Hola, hola, scuba diving in Spain
I want to share with you a dilemma which I had about ten years ago just before I moved to Spain, that for itself is an interesting story, but we’ll skip it for now. Ok, I’m moving to Spain, but where exactly am I going to start the new part of my life in that big country? That was relatively easy with the help of the great universe forces and what is called meditation. I sat on the floor with a map of Spain, my eyes were closed and while meditating I pointed with my finger … Valencia. OK, never been there or anywhere in Spain, but I liked the answer since it’s located on the coast line and I’ve always loved to sit next to the sea, hear the waves and relax. Now there was the next decision; what am I going to do? I had a few options [...]
Categories: Scuba diving destinations, Scuba Diving in Spain Tags: buceo, dive in Spain, Diving in Spain, Scuba Diving in Spain
Night Diving Sucks – Am I for real?
Oh my god, did I just write that? I mean… how do I dare? Did I forget that diving is fun. That diving takes me places, that diving helps me meet people, do things? (sound “PADI” familiar?) Well, do I seriously think that Night diving sucks? Oh yeah! I think it sucks…I mean, I really don’t like night diving. I think it is overrated, I think you get colder than normal.. and I simply find that each night dive I do, I end loosing gear, and complaining about how cold it is… and how rough the conditions are at my local dive site. So overall… I don’t like it and I stand up today saying: I’m a Scuba diving instructor and Night diving sucks. But that’s the point of this article – it is OK not to like some sorts of diving. Ladies and Gentleman, diving girls and diving boys [...]
Categories: Night Diving, Types of Diving Tags: Night Diver, Night Diving, Types of Diving
Used Scuba Gear “To Buy or Not To Buy”
As a scuba instructor, I always have students wanting to know “What’s wrong with buying used scuba gear?” I try to approach this delicately. When buying from a dive shop you have to be certified to purchase all primary equipment (bcd, regulators, tanks, etc.) but now a days with eBay and all the local classified ad venues, it’s just to easy to pick up a full set of gear pretty cheap with no diving certification. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you can find a good deal on good used equipment, but you have to be careful. First of all, you should wait until after you have some knowledge about what you are looking at when buying scuba gear. That’s part of the basics in the open water class. I occasionally have a student or two who will bring in their “Great” find and ask me what I think of the [...]
Categories: Scuba Diving products Tags: buying used scuba gear, not to buy scuba gear, scuba gear, used scuba gear
Where Have All The Sharks Gone?
“Fins to the left . . . Fins to the right, and you’re the only bait in town.” If we don’t change our behavior toward sharks, someday they might only exist in the lyrics of a popular Jimmy Buffett tune. When divers encounter sharks they usually have good stories to tell. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty rare occurrence these days. The need for shark conservation is critical, for reasons we’ll discuss here. A contributing factor to the severe decline in shark populations is that many people have a negative perception about sharks. Barbara Bridges, President & CEO of Stealth Pilot Productions, and a member of the LinkedIn Group Ocean Champions, explains why sharks suffer from a serious public relations problem: “In the past twenty years television specials have contributed much toward saving wilderness and wild species–including establishing the need for marine protected areas. The lamentable exception to these preservation efforts are [...]
Categories: Conservation Tags: Conservation, shark conservation, shark diving, sharks
An intro to Costa Rica and Diving
Costa Rica, known as one of the most bio diverse countries on the planet and eco tourism capital of the world, but diving?! Even to date, in the whole grand scheme of things Costa Rica is not the first place that you would think of for Scuba diving, but why not? Costa Rica has so much to offer both underwater and above water that it should definitely be on your list of places to go and blow some bubbles. I am hoping that as I write about my many experiences throughout Costa Rica diving I can show you what an incredible place it is and why you have to come and experience it for yourself. The country has 3 main diving areas along the coasts of Costa Rica as well as the world famous Coco Island, each one holding its own draw. The pacific coast as many of you know [...]
Scuba Diving in a Wheelchair – Breaking the Barriers Underwater
Out of the wheelchair and into the blue. I can go backwards, forwards, up, down, and side to side. It’s just like being an astronaut in space. What freedom. Try scuba diving. Scuba diving in recent years has become the focus as a good sport for disabled people to have a go at. In the United States it has been taken on as a project for wounded United States Forces veterans as rehab through the Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba scheme. This is a recreational activity being banded as a genuine source of rehabilitation for those considered ‘disabled’. What would be the bonuses of this? Despite its ‘extreme James Bond’ image, scuba diving does provide a number of bonuses for those who want to give it a try. To get under the water and into a weightless environment can offer un-paralleled freedoms for all. This is before we even consider what [...]
Categories: Handicapped diving Tags: Handicapped diving, scuba diving in wheelchair, wheelchair diving
