We Know the Way… Just Ask
RAID NAVIGATION SPECIALTY IS “ON SPECIAL” You need to know where it’s at… and where you’re at too. So, your best bet is to signup for a RAID navigation specialty because it’s an essential for any new diver… or older divers who have trouble finding their way home! Underwater navigation involves using various techniques and tools to effectively orient yourself and navigate while diving. Here are some of the key methods and tips for underwater navigation you will learn in RAID’s navigation class: 1. Natural Navigation: 2. Compass Navigation: 3. Dive Planning: 4. Dive Safety: 5. Buoyancy Control: 6. Using Dive Computers: 7. Practice: By mastering these navigation techniques, SCUBA divers can explore underwater environments more safely and effectively while minimizing the risk of getting lost. This
DEEP 40 Part of a Solid Foundation
SEPTEMBER SPECIALS SCUBA diving to 40 meters (approximately 130 feet) deep is no simple matter… well, getting down is easy, but fixing things so that the way back up is uneventful, takes some care. RAID’s Deep 40 program will introduce students to the careful planning and additional skills that make diving to the limit of the recreational dive tables, fun, enjoyable, and as safe as possible. Here are some important guidelines for diving at this depth which the DEEP 40 program follows: 1. Academics and Skills Coaching: This makes sure students execute the open water dives with the mindset, equipment, techniques, and background understanding to keep them at their peak. All this help to ensure that the whole Deep 40 experience
Lost at sea…
THEY SURFACED AND THE DIVE BOAT WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN The public broadcaster in the UK (the BBC) recently aired an interview with a couple of divers who spent 36 hours drifting off the Texas coast before being rescued by the US coast guard. Nathan and Kim Maker became separated from the charter boat in what was reported as bad weather and heavy seas. According to a fellow diver, the pair disappeared when “a huge swell comes in and engulfs Kim and Nathan totally. When the swell rolls out, they’re nowhere to be found.” And although the folks on the boat began to search for the pair immediately, they were gone. Few of us can imagine what it took
“Is that climb a grade 3 or 4?”
DOES DIVING HAVE A COMPARABLE SCALE TO WHAT ROCK CLIMBERS USE TO GAUGE THE DIFFICULTY OF A CLIMB… The short answer is: ‘Nope!” Followed by a pause and: “Well, not really.” Then there is another pause, pursed lips and a finger pointing skyward: “Hummm, actually, to tell the truth, it’s a long story…” Okay. So, when one thinks about it, there is no short answer. The situation is way more complex and the only answer is a hybrid one. Any climber, or downhill skier, can tell a lot about a rock or ice climb, or a ski run, from the grade it’s given. These grades are published and shared within each respective community freely. For example, a double black diamond
There’s more to this than a cert card
CUSTOMERS WANT MORE THAN THEY ASK FOR… Perhaps not every new customer that walks into a dive store, but most, in fact have a sketchy idea about the certification process. All the nonsense about people wanting “Their ****…” (and accepting it as fact) is poor market research. Actually, it’s not even close to market research, poor or otherwise. Worse, it leads to a missed opportunity. Every sale starts slightly differently, but when someone walks into a dive centre for the first time and asks about learning to dive (or getting their ****) the typical and incorrect response is to say; “yes, we can do that”, followed by something along the lines of “we have an open water class starting next
Accident Analysis: a story of poor judgement and broken promises
A HYPOTHETICAL NEAR MISS THAT HAS A LOT TO TEACH US The difference between going home after a day of diving or being strapped onto a hospital gurney while being prepped for several hours in a recompression chamber, can be the result of an margin of error as thin as a human hair, or a lapse of judgement as wide as the Channel Tunnel. Perhaps related to that, a strange habit of divers, especially technical divers, is to engage in what’s called ‘accident analysis.’ This exercise may appear to be ghoulish to outsiders. An act of morbid voyeurism. But technical diving is a high-risk endeavour, and it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others rather than educating oneself firsthand.