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 week.” All that comes later. The immediate response should be to ask, “WHY?” The best sales people — people selling scuba classes, clothing, cars, boats, homes, patio furniture, whatever — want to know why. The

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. That means digging around in other people’s’ misery to find what turned a great day into a nightmare, is a necessary and useful exercise. And that’s what this is; just a useful exercise, and nothing more. So, let’s

RECREATIONAL DIVERS ENJOY THE BENEFITS TOO Diving with two tanks on your back was once part of a sort of right-of-passage for anyone who thought of themself as a budding techdiver. Double tanks (joined by an isolation manifold) where once the exclusive kit configuration for cave and deep wreck divers. But times change and who doesn’t appreciate the extra safety, extra dive time, more stability, and convenience that a twimset can deliver? And with this specialty program, almost anyone can spice up their diving adventures and learn new, valuable skills from the experts. Diving with double tanks, also known as twinset diving was originally a convenient way to increase the breathing gas available to divers for longer dives in either a hard or soft overhead (inside a cave or wreck), or when doing staged decompression dives. It was the norm when divers began to push their adventures beyond the limi

YOU’RE BETTER OFF LEARNING FROM THE FOLKS WHO WROTE THE BOOK Trying new things is awesome. Learning new things that expand your horizons and add to your diving knowledge and fun, well that’s a bonus. And, what’s wonderful about diving is the adventure always has something new to offer! For example, have you tried diving sidemount? RAID offers comprehensive training in sidemount… and this simple recreational specialty could add a totally new perspective to your diving… check it out>>> You probably know that originally, moving scuba tanks from a diver’s back to their sides was a cave diver’s trick making it easier for them to wiggle their way through tight, low passages. And it stayed that way until recreational divers — people doing everyday dives in open water — discovered the advantages that sidemount diving offers. Today, some divers opt to learn sidemount diving almost as soon as they earn

YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS ABOUT US AT THE VERY LEAST If you’ve ever wondered if it’s it just Corporate EGO that makes RAID tell people we’re bringing positive change to the dive industry? Or if The RAID Way™ is just a catchy slogan and nothing more, RAID’s owners… divers just like you… would like you to understand what being a leader with impact and influence means to us. Then, you can decide if we’re a good fit for you. At RAID, certifications are earned, never bought. This is true from the greenest open-water student to an experienced pro working on her CCR Cave, 100 metre instructor-trainer trainer ticket. We don’t ‘pencil-stroke’ RAID certifications. No exceptions. RAID is a for-profit company whose primary business is publishing dive manuals and the standards supporting those manuals. That is our core responsibility, and it’s what we sell to our members, and through them, to students. We work

THE BENEFITS OF FREEDIVING WITH RAID RAID is putting a lot of effort and a focus on Freediving programs this year. Why is that? We asked our Freediving SME (subject matter expert) to explain why freediving is important to her and why it’s a benefit for anyone who dives as well as anyone specifically interested in moving into that branch of our sport. “As both a scuba and freedive instructor, I’ve taught a lot of people over the years, including teaching qualified scuba divers to freedive. There are some huge benefits to be gained by taking a freediving course. As a scuba diver, you will already have a pretty good handle on your buoyancy, and the feelings associated with being underwater. Learning to freedive can give you a better understanding of breath control, better equalisation skills, improved buoyancy, improved body awareness and more confidence in the water. This can make you into a mo