Comfort Reimagined
Diving with an OCEAN REEF Integrated Diving Mask is a totally new experience and brings a different vision to your underwater adventures. Full face masks offer greater safety and comfort, especially in cold or dirty water. For ice-diving, they are the closest thing to a ‘must-have.’ And they are often part of a public safety diver’s basic kit. But they have plenty of benefits for day-to-day sport diving as well. A IDM gives divers a clearer and broader field of view, and breathing with a full face mask is extremely comfortable because the diver can breathe more naturally than with a traditional scuba second stage—through their nose! Another benefit for instructors (and other divers too) is the option of fitting the OCEAN REEF IDM with communications. Being able to communicate with students, one-way or duplex brings a whole new dimension to confined-water training. Ask your local RAID dive centre about the RAID IDM program and the features and benefits of OCEAN REEF’s flexible, feature-packed, and revolutionary IDM. While you’re talking, ask about how easy it is to make your IDM fully customized with useful and functional accessories. #TheRAIDWay™
What does “global acceptance” mean exactly?
The RAID Way™ in action Compared to some of the original diver certification agencies (the dive industry’s granny and grandpa companies), RAID is a relative newcomer with a little more than a seven-year history. However, in that time we’ve earned a reputation for delivering quality instruction, respecting student safety above the almighty dollar, and delivering excellent customer service. All this while providing an innovative and inclusive learning environment, and providing our members with rock-solid support. We call this ‘bringing positive change to the dive industry’ because investing more time in instructor/student interactions, and paying attention to a student’s in-water comfort and skills, translates into happy divers who keep diving. Our organisation (Dive RAID International) is diver owned and operated. We’re not a faceless corporation: RAID is about our customers and teaching them to enjoy scuba and freediving while respecting the marine environment… and them As part of our business ethos, RAID is an active member of several organizations which serve as “industry watchdogs.” These act in a sort of supervisory role when it comes to training standards. Being a member of WRSTC, a regional RSTCs, ISO, EUF, et al. means our courses meet and exceed certain minimum standards. And our training practices, certification levels, and course content is well above average. Working to a higher benchmark helps to protect our students, as well as the excellent professionals who teach for us. There are more than 100 training agencies in the world but the vast majority of diving certs (scuba and freediving) are issued by “the Big Seven:” BSAC, CMAS, NAUI, PADI, RAID, SDI/TDI, and SSI. And for the most part, this group are the backbone of the scuba diving industry, and make up the core membership of those watchdog organisations. One thing that the Big Seven agree upon is that we recognize each other’s certifications. That’s one of the benefits of membership and a sort of quid pro quo for the fees we all pay to be members. This means that a diver who’s earned a e-Card from XYZ agency, can dive with a dive operator or shop that’s affiliated with ABC agency. At the agency headquarters level, there is a true understanding of this respectful agreement and in day-to-day operations, the training department at one agency might speak to the folks in the training department of a “rival” agency several times a month. We get along because there’s strength and stability behind this level of cooperation. However, there are dive operators, dive shops, resorts, freelance instructors, even live-abords who determine to NOT follow the rules and break that arrangement. They insist that whatever agency logo they have on their door is the only one that’s any good and they refuse to recognize any other. RAID sees this as a false dichotomy: false logic. We respect choice, and we respect attention to safety and compliance regardless of agency affiliation. Of course, we understand that dive shops and instructors may have personal reasons for showing a bias, and they are free to conduct business however they wish. But we will continue to suggest to our growing network of RAID dive centres, outstanding professionals, and business partners that, respecting our sister agencies certifications is good business, and boosts the reputation of the whole industry in the consumer’s eyes. Stay safe and dive often!
Lungfish Rebreather Training with RAID + Paul Toomer
Although our focus at RAID has drifted more towards the recreational/sport diving end of the dive agency spectrum in the past few years, we do have a pretty solid grounding in breathers and offering CCR training. Right now we are excited that one of our senior staff Tech Examiners and one-time president, Paul Toomer, has been appointed a factory-sanctioned instructor for the Lungfish CCR. “It has been so enjoyable working with the Lungfish team and Dave Gration putting the course materials together. “I am so excited about the release of this course and we are super excited to train the first wave of RAID Lungfish divers.” Paul Toomer. The Lungfish CCR is a late-generation unit with a “travel weight” of around 10 kgs (less bulky than a traditional twinset), and which can be configured for lightweight or expedition diving. For more information about this innovative , compact unit, visit the WEBSITE>>> To speak with Paul about training on the unit for RAID, email him: paul@diveraid.com.
This isn’t the Vatican… off your knees, please!
WHY WE MAKE SUCH A BIG DEAL ABOUT BUOYANCY (AND TRIM) You may have heard that students in RAID Open Water 20 programs (and beyond) are expected to demonstrate skills while neutrally buoyant. What skills? All of ’em: mask removal, second-stage recovery, gas sharing, all of ’em. And it’s easier than you think. So, what exactly do we mean by: “while neutrally buoyant”? We mean, floating in the water column and not touching the bottom, the sides, a piece of rope; nothing. Simply put, no kneeling on the bottom of the pool, in the sand, or anywhere else. Just floating and looking like a correctly-trained diver. We’re told that some instructors teaching for other agencies are not so picky. Ours are mindful of the environment—kneeling on some little critter or disturbing its home is not nice—and want to make the diving experience as enjoyable as possible. And controlling buoyancy and being in trim (which usually means being able to hold a more or less horizontal body position in the water) makes swimming easier for the diver, and results in them using less gas, which results in longer dives. So, that’s why RAID makes a big deal about buoyancy and trim. Those two skills go hand-in-hand to make diving more fun, divers more relaxed, and mean any impact divers have on the environment is kept to a minimum. Interested to learn more? Contact your local RAID dive center. They can start you right or, if you are already a certified diver who was taught to kneel, they can help you kick the habit. SEARCH HERE>>>
Twinsets are not just for technical diving!
Diving with two cylinders used to be the sign of a hard-core technical diver but that’s old-school when nitrox was considered “technical.” RAID‘s new program encourages any diver to enjoy the comforting feeling of having “tonnes of gas.” Twinset Foundations (diving with doubles) is a totally new program is the RAID catalogue. It is RAID‘s answer to delivering formalized training for divers who want to learn the safe and responsible way to use this classic kit configuration for any type of diving. In effect, twinset foundations opens up diving with redundant gas to the whole diving community. Designed as a valuable standalone for anyone who wishes to understand and enjoy the benefits of extending their bottom time, having a second first stage ready to deliver gas, and learning how to plan their dives to take full advantage of these benefits. This course may also be combined with other RAID courses and will become a prerequisite for students wishing to use twinsets on advanced decompression courses and overhead programs (much like our existing sidemount course). RAID‘s focus in 2023 will be on launching more programs aimed at the broader recreational market, and we view this brand-new program as a perfect fit for that promise to you and your dive centres. The full standards follow this introduction to the new course but its key points are: combination of confined water training to work on and show mastery of required skills, with at least two open water dives logging three hours or more in-water time. This course is available to any open water 20 certified diver who is 15 years old. Take a look at the current standards for this RAID course here>>>
