NAUI & PADI: more differences



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Posted by TDI_2 on July 08, 2002 at 09:13:39:

In the PADI IDC, you are given slates with dive procedure teaching protocols on them, and although you are allowed some flexibility, not much.

In the NAUI ITC, you are given slates, and they are blank. And you draw from the NAUI standards and policies to design a training program tailored to the group of people whom you are teaching to dive. There is a list of specific requirements in the standards and policies manual, items which you have to cover. But how and when you do so is pretty much up to you. So you must draw up your own slates on dry land before you go into the water.

The blank slates stunned me at first, until I got used to giving instructions to simulated students (other ITC candidates) in simulated OW1 training (no longer called OW1), and thinking about what the underlying objective is: to go from the very simple and familiar to the more complex and unfamiliar steps in scuba.

Thinking.

Now lets put our gear together, now lets take a breath on our regulators, now lets go in the pool and put on our gear, now lets take a breath on our regulators again, now lets breathe on our regulators and duck under the water, thats what its like to breathe underwater.

Now lets remove and replace our regulators, and now we need to clear them, just like a snorkel. Oh yah, remember all those freediving tips we taught you? Clearing a regulator is a lot like blasting a snorkel. And we just did that. And there is a purge button alternative too.

Now lets recover our regulators. Now lets do it again, underwater.

Now lets learn to clear our masks when on scuba. 3 easy steps to learn it. Breaking it down.

In PADI, we learned to fin pivot in order to be introduced to underwater buoyancy.

In NAUI, we learn to fin pivot, and then to stretch out our arms while we fin pivot, and fly like Superman.

In PADI, we learned to hover underwater.

In NAUI, we learn to hover underwater, and then stretch out our hand up towards the surface of the pool, and with our breathing alone, and not with our B/C power inflator or dump valve at all, hover closer, ever closer, to the surface of the water, and without breaking the surface, reach out and touch the surface of the water from underwater, and watch as the ripples emanate out from it. At one, with the Universe.

Almost everyone in our ITC has now done all the skills successfully, even the skin diving D&R, which was the hardest part for most. For me, the hardest part was rescue drills with my assigned buddy who is twice my size and strength.

Almost everyone in our ITC has now learned NAUI's presentation protocols, and gotten 3s and 4s on their oral presentations in class.

Moreover we have each helped each other. The youngest member of our class, a 20 year old, showed me how to get out of the pool and up onto my fins, in one easy hop. She is a NAUI divemaster. The next oldest member of our class, a 44 year old, helped me understand how two-stage regulators work, balanced and unbalanced. He is also a NAUI divemaster. My assigned buddy made me get rid of the last remaining suicide clips on my B/C.

Throughout our ITC, the others have asked a lot of questions about how does PADI do things? PADI is a force to be reckoned with. I have told them what I know. Guess that makes me a spy.

For the next year, as a new NAUI instructor, if I pass this ITC, I plan to assist other NAUI instructors with their classes. Its a lot like being a divemaster still, except you can now share the load of the other instructor, and you can teach. It seems funny to me how the other instructors also hope that we ITC candidates will do well and will graduate, because they can use the additional help in teaching their scuba classes.

I have one particular person in mind to carefully, step by step lead into diving. With her I intend to be very thorough from the outset. And like I said, I think I will still wait about a year.

Zeagle trilaminate drysuit for her from day one. She is very thin as well as tall, and so a wetsuit wouldnt work too well. [I know I know, DUI gives huge instructor discounts if you buy their stuff from them.]

I hope I can find her a nice brightly coloured B/C. [I have not heard anyone say BCD in a long, long time.]

And somehow I need to colour match her outfit so that she looks good in it when she looks at herself in the mirror. That way she will enjoy diving in it if she knows she looks good.

Some kind of modern split fins, although I myself would never be caught wearing anything other than my own solid ScubaPro jetfins. She doesnt have the same leg strength, even though she can hold her own against me in a sprint on dry land for about the first 25 yards.

High pressure PST steel 50 cu ft DIN tanks. ScubaPro balanced regulators and free parts for life.

NAUI Basic Scuba. [Its not called OW1 anymore.] Then NAUI basic nitrox. No amount of effort or expense spared for her. Only the best.

Would you trust yourself to teach your own loved ones scuba? You can ask yourself that, when you choose an ITC.


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