Dive training agency RAID International is unveiling a brand new set of skill demo videos at DEMA Show 2017 that will be part of their entry-level, Open Water 20 certification course.
The course starts with online work, where the students take a series of quizzes and exams after reading through the manuals provided by the RAID website. With the addition of the new instructional videos, students now have the ability to see how the skills should be performed, before ever entering the water.
Paul Toomer, the director of RAID, sat down with DeeperBlue.com to tell us more about these videos:
“What makes them unique is they’re all done in neutral buoyancy, and they’re all in trim. There are no skills done on the knees of either the diver or the instructor, so throughout the whole course the student is perfecting their buoyancy.”
Toomer himself, as well as another RAID distributor and instructor from Spain, are in the videos as the divers demoing the skills. You can see each and every skill performed hovering a few feet above the bottom, without ever touching the ground. This method of instruction is unlike anything in the dive industry right now because through this constant practice of neutral buoyancy, the students become increasingly more comfortable in the water, and in turn become more environmentally conscious divers.
When a student downloads the Open Water 20 manual from the RAID website, there will be hyperlinks to the videos that can be clicked on and opened up on YouTube. Each instructional video will come with an explanation of why the students need to learn the skill, what they need to accomplish during the skill, as well as highlighted points of interest.
RAID’s Open Water 20 course takes about three to four days to complete depending on local conditions and how much time is needed for the student to feel comfortable in the water. It also consists of pool work and a minimum of four 30-minute open water dives. Upon completion, divers will be qualified to a depth of 20 meters, or 66 ft.
For more information about the Open Water 20 course and other training courses RAID has to offer, check out the video below or visit diveRAID.com.
