17 replies to this topic

[CowboyDiver]

I agree that the book work need to be done before the confined/open water part of the class. I have been in touch with the three agencies that I teach for and they all agree that this form of learning works for the best of the student and Instructor. I also would like to point out that with the www learning can be done anytime!

[CowboyDiver]

I am putting some classes together that range from AOW to Instructor levels that will be tought in WARM WATER!

[Quero]

I'd like to see a trip devoted to marine life. Courses like Underwater Naturalist and Fish Id would be perfect in a warm water destination. I've seen programs at places like the Utila Dive College that combine the more biology type courses into a single week, including a whale shark specialty down there.

They also just offered a shark specialty class here, but you still need to get signed off on two shark dives in order to complete it.

Courses that take advantage of being in a tropical enviroment. The other classes like Nitrox and Rescue I can do here. These others are a challenge.

There is the possibility of doing Fish ID or U/W Naturalist on the Bonaire trip. I've got some specialized materials that I use with these courses, and I personally think of these kinds of courses as "dive buddies" with the U/W Digital Photo course since with photos you can really work on the fish ID and capture marine ecology more efficiently than you can if you are limited to sketching and note-taking. When photo is used as a tool for fish ID and naturalist activities, you don't need to be so fussed with magazine-quality composition, which makes the objectives of doing photography more achievable in the short-run.