FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE GETTING ‘NARCED’ Every beginner’s dive class introduces its students to the topic of nitrogen narcosis: the anesthetic effect of certain gases particularly nitrogen, when breathing compressed air or other gas mixtures under high pressure. It’s an important piece of info. In many ways, critical knowledge for any level of diving. However, for the most part, initial discussion, even in some advanced recreational courses, is pretty basic stuff. It’s just enough to scratch the surface of what is a complex and nuanced topic. And the proof of just how basic is right there in the name. What tends to be overlooked, is that although nitrogen partial pressure is the trigger, there are a bunch of factors other than it playing an important role in magnifying the effects of being ‘narced.’ The confusion begins when we try to define where it starts: that is, what depth represents the

FEB/MARCH 2025 — VERSATILE SIDEMOUNT Learn to fly sidemount with the experts. RAID’s sidemount specialty is one of the most popular and something the agency is famous for… RAID has early bragging rights! If you’re ready to add this to your scuba adventure, you’ve come to the place: the place where it all started. The foundation of any new skill is to start the journey learning from comprehensive manuals and challenging quizzes. Students tell us our online course is excellent on both counts. That’s no surprise really, our sidemount specialty materials and standards were created by SMEs* who have been diving and teaching open-circuit sidemount for a couple of generations in conditions as diverse as under the ice in eastern Canada to caves under the Mexican jungle, the wrecks of Truk Lagoon and coral canyons off the Philippines. They know their stuff, and after a RAID sidemount specialty course,

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 by the majority of instructors across the diving industry, but we try to go further. In part, student safety is a function of standards and sticking to them. RAID’s standards exceed by far the mini

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, they are focused on making the experience fun, safe, technologically advanced and as inclusive as possible for our members and their students. Our vision is to be the benchmark brand for quality dive training globally through imp

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 the modern era. It’s right up there with late-generation personal dive computers and online learning. There are all the well documented benefits: Extended Bottom Time: Reduced Decompression Stre

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 do you make it look so easy and why does it look like your dive gear is painted on? Well, the answer is simple and universal. One of our RAID cave instructor-trainers summed it up perfectly. When asked how long it took her to learn to do the reverse frog ki