You'll find the course materials are different between PADI and SDI, and that many of the PADI specialties actually have more dives required than do the SDI equivalents.
This accounts for a large part of the cost differences.
Probably more to do with the fact that SDI charges instructors about 1/2-1/3 of what PADI charges them for written materials/eLearning.
My wife just finished SDI advanced and Nitrox. The instructors at Adirondack Scuba are excellent and plentiful. They did night dives, deep dives, navigation dives and each dive there were several instructors in the water. They worked on all aspects of diving for the students not just the minimum required. Several dives it was basically one on one or close to it. They run a tight ship there. They teach SDI and TDI there and that was the main reason we chose them over PADI. It seems to me that the instructors make or break the training.
If you are really interested in a Rescue Class, find an SEI or PDIC instructor. SEI requires OW and 10 dives to take the Rescue Class. NAUI only requires you to have Open Water.
It never made any sense to me to make divers wait to take Rescue training because a good rescue class is as much or more about preventing accidents than responding to them. The in-water responses are good for most minor incidents.
Major ones like a missing diver would be handled not by the guy with a brand new Rescue Card. Professionals like instructors or experienced DMs would do this if Professional Search and Recovery Teams were not available.
Because most likely a missing diver not found on the surface is going to be a body recovery.
Bringing a non-responsive diver up from depth? Not a big deal for a properly trained OW diver. SEI,PDIC, and NAUI (along with BSAC and some CMAS Federations) teach this as part of the OW class.
Navigation is another item that really is not likely to be used by the new rescue diver because you won't be doing UW searches. You swim on the surface, look for bubbles, if you see them maybe you'll drop down. But a missing diver who has run out of air will probably not be putting bubbles up. If you can't see them, get to shore and wait for EMS and the recovery teams, who should have already been notified and on the way, to show up.
More important is being able to look at someone before they get in the water and see that something is not right. Gear, behavior, physical/mental/emotional appearance and know how to intervene while not being an ass about it. That is what a recreational rescue diver does.
And there are thousands of people walking around with rescue diver cards that haven't practiced one skill from the class in years. They are not rescue divers. They have a piece of plastic with the words on it.
And don't even get me started on in-water rescue breathing for the average rescue diver who simulated it once or twice in the class. That's just a good way to delay proper care and increase the risk of death/brain damage of the victim.
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Ok there is a lot of info here 0_0
The reason I wanted to go the specialty route and not the "40 dives" route was because I wanted to build a strong foundation. Buoyancy, deep diving, and night/wreck felt like good foundations to stand on.
As for Rescue, I don't like "not knowing what to do." I hate, and I mean HATE not being in a position where I can help. My local shop only certified me on how to deal with my own emergencies and buddy breathing, they roll on the mentality of "get your ducks in a row before you start worrying about other people's ducks". This is why they don't let people learn Rescue until they are comfortable, 25 dives or Advanced diver.
I fully agree with the premise in your reply, someday I want to be the diver people are asking to dive with, not just tagging along. I want to be managing multiple rows of ducks semiconsciously, the way I drive managing all the cars around me. I'm easily 6 months away from being Rescue, but I want to make sure I can run my show first. I don't know if I ever will be doing any form of search and rescue, but again I want to know everything I can about being a safe diver. I have watched some YouTubers like Dallmyd and Adventures with Purpose, and I strongly support what they do to help local law enforcement. Idk if that's a route I want to go, I work a fulltime 9 to 5 in the field of IT. I have considered aiming towards Dive Instructor and training people on the side someday, but I'm still young.
I used to do Boy Scouts, and I've been CPR certified before. I was meaning to recertify someday, so this is a great reason to push me back to it
Also the police asked all people at a cleanup dive at the BHB to leave their contact info and experience on a paper for them. Why did they want that, just curious... they had their dive team and some detectives there doing drills in the low vis waters. The one was in a thin drysuit skin and the other was in a Neptune FFM, we crossed them underwater a
once and waved as we passed.
Also they must have paid close attention to me and the other handful of divers doing the cleanup, as they loaded me with food once I was done rinsing and packing up my gear XD
My open water was maybe a 7 outta 10. The instructor they have for SDI specialties seems incredibly knowledgeable and apparently participates in search and rescue operations. I was with him for Nitrox and he seems very very good.
I fully agree with the premise in your reply, someday I want to be the diver people are asking to dive with, not just tagging along. I want to be managing multiple rows of ducks semiconsciously, the way I drive managing all the cars around me. I'm easily 6 months away from being Rescue, but I want to make sure I can run my show first. I don't know if I ever will be doing any form of search and rescue, but again I want to know everything I can about being a safe diver.
Also the police asked all people at a cleanup dive at the BHB to leave their contact info and experience on a paper for them. Why did they want that, just curious... they had their dive team and some detectives there doing drills in the low vis waters.
No idea why they would want that info. Unless someone came up missing.
When I stopped teaching for SEI and went strictly to SDI, that 40 dive requirement stuck, and still sticks in my craw. So I developed a Rescue Skills and Knowledge workshop. Non-cert that focuses primarily on prevention and has some elements based on real world experience with assisting divers in the water. It still takes a full weekend, but we work on all the elements I noted about observation and intervention. The in-water skills are the ones most likely to be used such as a tows and removal of gear. We still do a diver up from depth but the students do it as buddy teams not as individuals even though individual ones are practiced in the pool.
If a diver is not comfortable in open water after their OW class, they should be asking themselves why that is. RSTC standards state that they should be. My last OW class was a mom and her 10 yr old daughter who was just over 4ft tall and maybe 65 lbs. The daughter was better than mom at bringing me up from the bottom and getting me on my back with my rig inflated than mom was.
I still teach the same rescue skills in OW that I did as a YMCA then SEI instructor. SDI allows that.
You taught scuba for a YMCA? That's really cool
When I say comfortable, I mean "happy running their own equipment show." I immediately went wrist computer and swapped up my training equipment, so ofc I needed another dive or two to practice with the changes and perfect equalizing. I believe I'm close to the point where I want to start mastering my own skills, such as buoyancy.
I cannot speak to the other people you are grouping into the "plastic card carrying non-Rescue divers," but I don't plan to be like that. I'm only a 10 dive diver, and I have a lot to learn still ofc. Part of who I am hides behind the reasoning to go Rescue, I don't want to just be another plastic card carrier. I know the Deep diver course mentions having one of the students fake a DCI emergency at 130 and the class is expected to safely complete a safety stop and ascend while keeping the diver breathing.
I know the Deep diver course mentions having one of the students fake a DCI emergency at 130 and the class is expected to safely complete a safety stop and ascend while keeping the diver breathing.
Not neccesarily. The SDI Standards say: "Execute a simulated emergency that is to be assigned underwater by the instructor." Nothing about DCI, nothing about at 130 ft.
What other specific emergency would they make us manage at 130? OOA and safe ascension seems like the only option?
Otherwise my mistake, thought I read someone else online saying their instructor made them simulate safe ascension with a diver showing DCI symptoms.