Fun weekend, all together, spread out over a couple of weekends. The viz was REALLY bad at Millbrook the first weekend. After discussing options with Instructor Steve we decided to go Rawlings to complete the NAV course. It was the best choice. Clear and warm down to about 35 ft.
Congrats to our first What's Next Divers!!!
We started out in mid June with our first What's Next Program. The program is base on the question I always seem to be asked by new Open Water Certified Divers as we exit the water from their last training dive, " this was cool/fun/exciting, what's next?" The answer is suppose to be Advanced Open Water (AOW), were you point them to list of 20+ specialties that PADI offers and say pick five.
You tell them each of these 20+ specialties have anywhere from 2 to 4 dives associated with them but for AOW you will be doing the first dive from the five you choose. Then if you like it or want to know more you can come back an complete the rest of the course(s). The problem I have found is the diver is overwhelmed with choices, even after discussing choices. Then there is part I have been quizzed on more than once; when they return to finish the course for the full certification they are in a class with other divers that have not take AOW, or have not picked that specialty as part of there AOW selections, so we have to do Dive one again. Most agree the extra diving is always good but what did I pay for if I have to do the dive again? Crickets..
I was discussing this with Tige back in March on what could we do differently. For me it was "what does every diver need/want and how can we fit it into a weekend package."
From there the program unfolded almost on its own. Every diver needs great buoyancy and needs to learn how to achieve it. Nothing worse then seeing a diver crashing into a reef, popping to the surface or all over the place in the water column watching them burning air and energy because they don't have their buoyancy figured out. The easiest way to do that is with Peak Performance Buoyancy. Every diver needs to know how to get to a dive site and back to the boat or shore, Underwater Navigation. Every diver wants to stay longer. Why dive 20 minutes when you can dive 45 minutes to an hour? Enriched Air Nitrox. Every diver wants to go deep, Deep Diver, that is were most all of the cool stuff is.
After that it becames subjective what is a need or a want. With this group of courses we built a two part plan that could be done over two weekends or one weekend and trip to some place warm and tropical.
We now offer What's Next and What's Next Deep We offered the What's Next program twice in June. We actually had a diver fly in from ALASKA for this. How cool is that! For the rest of the dive season we will be offering the What's Next program once a month. What's Next Deep (WND)will be offered on any trip we take. WND will be Deep Diver and one customer's choice specialty. Once the diver completes both parts of the program they will have completed five full specialties and we throw in the Advanced Open Water Certification, at that point they are and they have earn their Advanced Open Water Cert.
Sound like fun? Ready to expand your dive knowledge?
Come join us!