Diving is Risky Business
RAID’s UNIQUE QA SYSTEM HELPS… Playing in water can be dangerous. There are risks associated with diving of every description. This is something we have to accept and learn to deal with if we want to go diving. The goal of any RAID instructor is to deliver this message, but, more importantly, it’s to dive students the knowledge, skills, and techniques to manage those risks. Making them disappear is impossible. The best any of us can do is to identify, mitigate, and avoid, but risk is always a factor to consider. RAID professionals are chosen to represent the agency and to deliver the RAID brand of training for many reasons: skill, empathy, knowledge, spirit, desire. These traits are probably shared
What does RAID stand for…
A REMINDER FROM WHEN DRI WAS FORMED Regardless of whether you are a student taking your first breathe underwater, or a professional instructor teaching every specialty RAID offers, it is really important to understand what your training agency stands for. In other words, what are its core beliefs and how do they influence how you will progress as a diver, a dive professional, or a dive shop owner and operator? First off, RAID is a diving agency for divers, by divers. Like you, our love of the water knows no bounds. The people who work at RAID are not office clerks and bean counters… they are divers. This means that no matter what role that person plays at the agency,
January RAID Special
NITROX IS THE ANSWER Signing up for a nitrox class seems to be a no-brainer to some divers; they understand the benefits right away and have no hesitation taking the plunge and enjoying the benefits. But perhaps a fair percentage of these are the lucky ones whose instructors offered nitrox training as part of their open water training. And certainly, that’s a great place to start. However, others may take a little more convincing. Whichever camp one is in, the simple fact is that the introduction of nitrox — essentially refined compressed air with a carefully measured ‘squirt’ of extra oxygen taking the place of some nitrogen — is one of the greatest, most innovative advances in recreational diving of
How To Be A Better Diver
THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO SECRET… IT’S LIKE PLAYING PIANO! When it comes to scuba diving, there’s no such thing as being a natural. Same thing goes for rebreather diving and freediving. There are folks who seem to have zero problem being relaxed in the water. And these are the ones who manage to look like they know what they are doing: always. These are the people who look natural, and make it all seem so amazingly easy. But look closely and you’ll find out that to get that way, they had to work at it just like the rest of us. Probably the question most frequently asked of experienced divers — the people who look like naturals — is, ‘HOW?’ How
So, What Now?
HERE’S WHAT TO DO AFTER EARNING YOUR RAID OW20 The most important thing and the best advice is ‘Go Diving!’ Graduates from a RAID open water course have the basic skills to enjoy basic scuba diving and have fun doing it. Although we’d love to have you sign up for a specialty course right way, it’s far better for you to get a little experience logged with a dive buddy. In essence, to go our and have some fun. Just remember to “Keep it real, stay within your comfort zone, and stay safe.” When the time comes to broaden your understanding and knowledge, speak to your RAID instructor about next steps. A lot will depend on where you dive and
Decompression Diver
WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO LEAVE THE PARTY EARLY RAID’s new advanced diving course has been engineered to be a soft introduction to staged decompression diving: it’s a simple but open-ended entry point into all the excitement and challenge of technical diving. This is Sidemount or Twinset diver course. This course allows for dives up to 40 meters /130 feet using three cylinders. This includes two filled with bottom gas (twinset or sidemount see below), and one with.decompression gas. The decompression gas for this course can contain a maximum of 100 percent oxygen when conditions are suitable with minimum of 50 percent recommended. Prerequisites to join this course are for students to be 18 or older, and to be an