Swim gear, a towel, a mask and snorkel: what could be simpler? And there’s a lot to be seen from the surface, so that sometimes, breaking out the scuba gear isn’t necessary.

Did you know that RAID now has a swimmer-friendly snorkelling program? Perfect for hassle-free exploring for any diver, and a great alternative for anyone in the family who isn’t crazy about scuba.

This program has its official launch in late September 2023. To check out more about the program and to sign up with your local RAID dive centre.

Snorkeling is a great activity that can be done in almost any body of water. You can use rivers, lakes, estuaries and the ocean. Snorkeling is an easy activity that allows you to see many sea creatures, corals and aquatic mammals. Snorkeling is an activity that does not take too much energy to do. Almost anyone who is reasonably fit can do the activity. It is especially good for children and gets them in touch with the ocean. They can learn about animals, corals and plant life while seeing amazing things.

Objectives

• Gain knowledge of snorkeling equipment
• Understand the basics of buoyancy and water movements
• Understand the basics of finning & movement for snorkeling
• Gain knowledge of personal safety and care while in the water
• Gain knowledge and experience of snorkeling
• Plan for a snorkel experience

Why We Need This Course

Snorkeling is a simple, pleasant and convenient way to explore the shallow areas of our oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. It gives both the professional and casual user a way, with minimal equipment to see what is below the surface. With the introduction of the equipment for snorkeling, the experience becomes even better with vision, propulsion and comfort. However, as with all equipment proper use, selection and maintenance are important; this course will teach you these basics and introduce you to the underwater world.

Learn More at RAID

Dive RAID International (DRI) today released a joint statement with Paul Vincent Toomer announcing that PVT has stepped down from the agency’s management team.

In the joint statement released today, DRI and Paul Toomer disclosed that Paul has resigned his position as V-P Product Development for the agency. Citing personal reasons, Paul has also relinquished his general management duties with the company. He will, however, continue as a highly respected professional for RAID—as an ITT/Examiner—instructing at most levels of the RAID curriculum and promoting the RAID Way.

“Paul has served on the RAID board of directors since the DRI purchased the company in January 2022, and before that in various roles under previous ownership,” explained Sabatino Bianco, CEO of RAID’s management team. “During his time with us, especially in the past 18-months, he made many contributions to our success and growth, drawing on a wealth of experience gained over a long and successful career in the dive industry. On behalf of the board of directors, the management team, and our professional partners worldwide, I thank Paul sincerely for his dedication to the agency and wish him and his family all the best in the future.”

Dr. Sabatino Bianco, MD
CEO RAID International HQ

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

Well, they have been in the works for a while, and some of us had almost forgotten them, but RAID has released two new, important programs today: Cavern and Twinset.

These both fill in holes in our course line-up, and we’re excited to see how our Dive Centres and students react. Both have been written from the ground up and add the distinctive Dive RAID International touch to two classic diver courses.

Cavern Diver

Cavern has always been a transition program. Not necessarily a first step in a diver’s plan to move on to becoming a full cave diver (which it can be of course), but an indication that you’re serious about your diving skills and your curiosity is turned up to the max.

RAID’s Cavern Diver program is a completely new one for us and has been written specifically to work as a stand-alone “recreational” and mild overhead course to meet demand from users who do not want to commit to the equipment requirements of a full technical program. However, to program is detailed enough, and of course meets RAID’s basic skills-based philosophy, that it can be a valuable steppingstone to RAID’s popular Cave 1 introduction to cave diving program.

Twinset Foundations

RAID will be launching its Twinset Diver program on March 2. Please note that this launch includes standards and guidelines for instructor and Instructor-Trainer certifications for this program.

Once again, we are adding a totally new program is the RAID catalogue. Twinset Diver (Doubles Diver) is RAID’s answer to delivering formalized training for divers who want to learn the safe and responsible way to use this classic kit configuration for recreational or technical diving. It’s also required training for students who wish to complete Deco 40/50/60 or overhead programs.

Designed as a valuable standalone for anyone who wishes to understand and enjoy the benefits of extending their bottom time while having the protection of contingency gas and knowing how to plan their dives to take full advantage of these benefits. This course may be combined with other RAID courses and will become a prerequisite for students wishing to use twinsets on course much like formal training is required for sidemount.

Learn more about Cavern Diver and Twinset Foundations at: https://diveraid.com

Paul Toomer announced today that he has stepped aside as president of Dive RAID International to take up new duties as V-P Product Development and Member Relations. In this new role, Paul will assist PJ Prinsloo in the Training Department developing new courses, and updating the more than 120 programs the agency currently offers. 

Paul will also head up the new Training Advisory Group (TAG) at RAID. This group has been setup to give professional advice to RAID’s executive while helping to keep standards current, and new courses relevant in the recreational scuba, freediving, technical scuba, and rebreather markets.

The popular and well-known diving personality, one of the original founders of RAID and a current partner in Dive RAID International (DRI), said: “Prior to taking on the president’s job, under the previous company ownership, I thrived as Director Diver Training. It was a job I loved, and I am very happy to think that I’ll be involved once more in Training Department business. As the agency has expanded its reach during the past 12 months, keeping up with the daily demands of our membership worldwide has more than doubled because our network of dive centres and professionals has grown. And so, I’m excited that this new position means I’ll be able to share some of that workload, and keep the level of customer service among the highest in the industry.”

Paul, a well-respected technical diver, and explorer explained that in his new role he will have time once again to participate in more diving expeditions, and to focus on market pressure he has felt to run various training programs including instructor and instructor-trainer level courses.

He added: “Under the new management team, RAID is more stable now than it’s ever been. And on a personal note, as the company moves forward in 2023, I will be able to spend more time with my family, and on personal projects without negatively affecting its continued growth. This. is a perfect balance for me and for RAID.”

In his new role for the company, Toomer will also work closely with the sales and marketing departments to increase RAID’s market share in recreational scuba and freediving as well as to solidify its leadership position in the technical and rebreather market segments.

Toomer begins his new job effective immediately. 

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

Looking for something different? Tired of the everyday grind and feeling like a change of scenery? RAID may have the answer.

There are several opportunities for RAID certified instructors to teach in several of our dive centres in Thailand and South Africa.

RAID is expanding fast and our Regional Offices are anxious to keep up with the demand. Can you help?

RAID is looking for certified instructors at all levels from open water up through technical. However, the primary need is for active professionals interested in teaching our CORE PROGRAMS. If you are currently certified with another recognized agency and have no outstanding QA issues, XOver training to teach The RAID Way is available.

For full details, please contact: Keryn in Southern Africa | Chris in Thailand today!

For other inquiries visit: https://www.diveraid.com

RAID Inline With Industry Standards for Rebreathers

The instructional and certifying pathway for Closed-Circuit Rebreathers has been radically updated at RAID.

The changes include unit-specific courses, replacing the old level 1-4 recreational courses, and updating course materials and standards to reflect these changes. This major upgrade was necessary to have DRI’s standards and course structure follow new industry trends and standards developed by industry organizations.

In brief, the major changes are the launch of a 30-metre air-diluent entry-level sport program aimed primarily at units from Poseidon; a 40-metre non-deco program; decompression rebreather and limited trimix rebreather diver programs to 40 and 45-metres respectively; and normoxic trimix 60-metre full-deco rebreather program. All these new levels are unit specific and have accompanying instructor-level courses developed.

In addition to these new programs, RAID has also developed Rebreather Reboot.

Rebreather Reboot is the CCR equivalent of RAID’s popular Scuba Reboot launched earlier this year. Like its OC cousin, CCR Reboot is a “catch-up” refresher for divers who have been out of the water for a while and feel they need to revisit critical skills and knowledge in a controlled environment with a qualified instructor. CCR Reboot includes a brief academic and dryland component, confined water skills, and an optional open water dive. The CCR Reboot can be taught by any active RAID Rebreather Instructor.

And the good news for current instructors is that FREE upgrades are available to ALL RAID instructors who qualify!

For full details, contact your local RAID Dive centre, your region’s RAID office, or simply email us at info@diveraid.com.

Learn more at: https://www.diveraid.com

Trim is a commonly missed or forgotten part of being a good diver.  Trim refers to your horizontal position in the water, why is this important?  

Being in trim, means you have the smallest profile when moving forward in the water; making finning easier and reducing energy used.  Also, it helps to keep your fins away from the sea bottom, so you don’t kick up a sand storm or damage the coral.

Think of yourself like a see-saw, with the pivot point at your waist.  Moving weight up towards your head will cause your head to tilt down.  The closer to your head the more effect a weight will have; while moving it down below your waist will make your head tilt up.

GEAR

Knowing your dive gear is important to getting good trim, and again this is an advantage of owning your own equipment.  For example, some BCDs have built-in trim weight pockets; to allow you to place weights at alternative locations.

Are your fins positive or negatively buoyant?  They can affect your trim, for example, ‘Jet Fins’ are very negatively buoyant and can cause you to be in a head-up trim.

A heavy 1st & 2nd stage can cause you to go into a head-down trim, as well as the weight of the cylinder valve.

You will find good trim is easier to achieve when using Sidemount as the cylinder is lower down your body, so having less effect on your trim.

WEIGHT

The locations of your weights are important if you want to achieve good trim, it may not be suitable for them all to be fitted onto a weight belt or in weight pockets of your BCD.

An easy place to fit a weight if needed (to tilt your head down) is the cylinder cam-band.  You can also add pouches onto the strap or even make a mini weight belt for the cylinder.

If you find that you are always head down, fitness ankle weights may be an option to ‘balance’ yourself.

Always remember, however you arrange your weights you still need to achieve neutral buoyancy!

BUDDY ASSIST

It can often be hard to know if you have good trim or not, if you don’t have the ‘feel’ for it simply ask your buddy for assistance on a dive.

They will be able to easily see your trim position, and can even help move/adjust weights if needed.  It is always best to discuss this with your buddy prior to the dive, to avoid misunderstandings or unnecessary stress/problems. 

Most RAID training centers & instructors will be able to offer a Buoyancy Workshop.  This can help you to understand how your own buoyancy and trim, and improve and fine-tune it. If you can’t find a dive center in your area that offers a RAID Buoyancy/Trim Workshop, let us know.

Learn more at: https://diveraid.asia/

Help us develop our co-branding strategy

This question has been the driver of an active debate for years…generations. Should a dive agency develop brand-specific programs, and if they do, does it actually endorse or promote a specific manufacturer’s product. Let us know what you think but completing the survey linked below. It’ll take around three minutes to complete.

As always, your feedback is appreciated. Questions or comments: slewis@diveraid.com.

Complete the Survey Here

Dive RAID International has always been known for quality instruction and its focus on enhancing safety for students and professional members. At some point, it was obvious and inevitable that RAID would find a way for its members and students to benefit from the pioneering work of Gareth Lock and his Human Diver, Counter-Errorism in Diving initiative.

RAID, in collaboration with The Human Diver, is making the Essentials of Human Factors in Diving course available to our global community. This baseline course from The Human Diver is designed to improve general communications and improve teamwork among divers in many ways. The course objectives include helping divers make better decisions when planning and executing dives of all kinds and at all levels, from beginner to experienced technical divers and instructors. It also has solid tips on how to make a better and more informed analysis of your decisions and those of others.

The course shows how good teamwork, combined with good leadership and followership within the team leads to good communications and improved situational awareness, and how all of these factors contribute to far better decision making. The course also examines how stress and fatigue can influence all of these factors as well as providing useful insights into the benefits of structured briefings and debriefings to help learning and improvement of diver performance.

This HF Essentials program is strongly recommended as a risk management foundation for all RAID divers and professionals.

Start being a better diver today at: https://www.thehumandiver.com/

Action Cameras have helped change underwater videos forever and for everyone. Technology has revolutionized the whole concept of taking a camera on a dive. Smaller, sharper, easier to operate, and certainly carrying a smaller price tag, action cameras are bringing home images from spots that it would have been nearly impossible to film with traditional equipment a generation ago. However, all that begs the question: has the “democratization” of underwater video, diluted the quality of what’s being recorded?

Award-winning cameraman and author, Jeff Goodman is sure that doesn’t have to be the case.

Goodman created RAID’s new Action Camera program and he says, regardless of whether you are completely new to underwater cameras or an aspiring pro with your own YouTube following, RAID ACTION CAMERA will give you the help, information, and coaching to move your results up to the next level… and more.

Having worked on films above and below the world’s oceans for international clients, and as the author of two books on the art and craft of underwater videography, Goodman goes well beyond the scope of the usual author with this course.

It gives clear and concise guidance on how to get the very best results from your action camera. The rapid advances in technology for diving as well as underwater camera equipment and lighting mean that traditional photography courses don’t hit the mark. Goodman’s content is lively, up-to-date, detailed, thorough, and easy to follow. Moreover, his creativity and understanding of the challenges a diver faces to capture the perfect image—still or moving—make this program unique and relevant for today’s diver using today’s equipment.

“Jeff has managed to condense the experience of more than 10,000 dives and countless hours of underwater filmmaking and photography in a really tight package for us,” says RAID’s P.J. Prinsloo.

Prinsloo, RAID’s VP of Training, adds, “Jeff shows how versatile action cameras can actually be, and that as a product class, they have traveled lightyears away from the earlier versions with regard to capabilities, function, and quality.”

Goodman, who is based in the UK, runs bespoke underwater video and editing workshops aimed at rank beginners up to budding professionals says he is very happy with the course.

“We based the RAID course on a recent book, which while a perfect companion piece for the new RAID course is not part of the official program. I set out wanting to help students to get the very best video and stills from their equipment because it is possible to get wonderful results with just a little extra attention and a few secrets.”

Sign up for RAID’s Action Camera Program at: https://www.diveraid.com/

Order you copy of Jeff’s Books at: https://www.divedup.com/

It gives us great pleasure to welcome our team in the Maldives to the growing family at Dive RAID International.

Dive RAID, Maldives is our newest RRO (RAID Regional Office) and introduce instructing and diving The RAID Way to a beautiful new region.

This is the first time that Dive RAID International has had dedicated RAID ITs and Examiners “on-site” able to service Maldivian businesses quickly and with experience in the local market.

RRO MALDIVES owners, Mohamed Rifshan Shaheem and Peter Black, will be offering local dive operators, resorts, instructors, and dive centers all the benefits of RAID membership including Zero FEe-Membership, online education and academics, and a fresh approach to recreational, technical, and freediving business.

Dive RAID, Maldives will also be offering visiting divers (RAID certified and others) full service and support at their existing RAID dive centres at Scuba Divine Maldives, Huraa, Diffushi, and Dhangethi.

The Maldives has been known as one of the very best diving destinations in the world and welcomes thousands of tourist divers annually. The islands offer pristine beaches, clear water, and great visibility. Its extensive, unspoiled coral reefs are packed with diverse marine life meaning conditions are perfect for underwater photography and unforgettable underwater adventures. Topside support and facilities are world-class.

Rifshan has worked in the dive industry for over 15. He is a RAID Master Instructor and Crossover Instructor Trainer. Rifshan is Maldivian and currently based on Diffushi, North Male Atoll.

Peter, who many UK divers will know, founded Deep Blue Pirates Dive Club in 2010. He is a RAID Instructor Trainer, Examiner, Deco 40 Instructor trainer, Hollis Prism 2 Instructor, and has been an active RAID member for more than eight years.

Both Rifshan and Peter look forward to seeing you in the Maldives.

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

It’s not how many words a picture tells, it’s what they say… 

Choosing the right image to promote your business is an art; a critical one that’s worth putting some special effort into, because not every image tells the right story.

It’s challenging enough picking the best photos to stick on a big piece of cardboard for that ubiquitous birthday collage you made one time for a friend’s surprise party.

You know the deal. The faded baby pictures filched from an old family album, the embarrassing graduation photos with big hair and strange-looking pants or jeans, the slightly out of focus snap posing with a first car, the singularly awkward image of your friend, mike in hand, fronting their first (and last) garage band. So much harder when what’s at stake is something more important than a few quick laughs and a red face. So much more of a challenge when it’s to promote your business.

I live in a rural area, but one that is a hotbed of real-estate activity. This is Cottage Country for the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). This is vacationland. This is where city folk drive to at weekends and where they visit for a week or two in the summer. This region is a fix for life in the fast lane.

And because of that, property values here are always climbing, and sometimes it seems as though my farmer friends across the road and I, are the only permanent residents without a real-estate license.

The favoured marketing method popular with local brokers is a large (48 OR 64-sheet) billboard featuring a studio portrait with some text telling passing motorists “I sell stuff.” They are a bloody eyesore; seemingly all the same, as creative as a peanut butter sandwich, and surely ineffective. One might argue that ANY huge promotional picture plopped among the rocks and trees on the margins of local highways and side roads is a little disturbing, but really. What’s the thinking behind paying whatever it costs to slap a heavily filtered picture of you, your teeth, and your two-thousand-dollar business suit beside Highway 141 en route to Bracebridge?

In some cases (the tight leather jeans and open-neck blouse variety), it’s not clear exactly what’s on sale. Better not to go there, but one is left thinking the secret to being successful in the property market centers on the cult of personality, and sex appeal?

However, putting my super judgmental attitude aside, there is a good marketing lesson in all of this for the rest of us: Be careful what you say about your business and about yourself when you use a picture.

Perhaps, studio portraits sell second homes and lakefront. I’d guess a better alternative would be a nice twilight landscape with a post and beam, several hundred square-meter luxury home with lights burning, native perennials in bloom along the pathways, and a loving couple enjoying a cocktail on the veranda.

Wouldn’t that be more effective? I haven’t done the market research. But, I’m old-school. I want to relate. So, who can tell; I am probably totally wrong?

Could the secret be instead a tritone photo of a little <fixer-upper> cabin in the woods, moose munching waterlilies in the background, someone carrying an armful of firewood in through the front door? On the face of it, that would be more my speed. Perhaps that’s a happier, more appropriate alternative.

So, here’s a question: Forget real estate, what’s the best image for our industry? Is there one? Is there a sort of boilerplate we can fall back on?

I’m sure you agree, as a community, as an industry, diving — scuba and freediving — has a built-in, no-holds-barred, visual appeal second to none. Colourful, dynamic, complex, fascinating, intriguing, sometimes a little scary, and often a little edgy and offbeat, pictures of just about every underwater environment have the potential to leave a lasting visual impression.

It’s just a case of finding the right image; one that conveys all that AND that promotes your dive store. Easy, right?

If I remember correctly from a photography evening class a few winters ago, there are four variables to consider when creating (or choosing) a good photograph. They are: exposure, lighting, composition, subject; but not necessarily in that order.

When it comes to marketing, there’s one other <variable>: what message does it send?

Anyhow, let’s look briefly at each element and see where we end up.

Exposure: This is the technical, camera nerd, variable; the one telling us that the camera settings (ASA rating, lens aperture, shutter speed, and co) are balanced to deliver a final image in which the highlights are not burned out, the shadows are not blacker than a pirate’s eyepatch, and the midtones are full of detail. Of course, this does assume one has either a “proper” camera and the wherewithal to use it, and/or can import digital image files into editing software such as Photoshop and fix any issues not perfect in the original. (I am not a particular fanboy of Adobe products, but Photoshop is my favourite software for working on camera-generated images and has been since before the Creative Suite branding. That’s to say circa 1990 and version 1.0. It might be worth checking out if you’re not already aware of it and what it can do.)

Okay, let’s stay clear of rabbit holes and say for our purposes right now, any image we choose should start out with a full range of tonal values… not too dark, not too light, and plenty in-between.

Lighting: Easily confused with exposure, but very different. An interesting photo has a range of light and dark. And perhaps some shadows and strong contrast between foreground and background. (Same goes for a painting or pencil drawing or any piece of art.)

Interesting pictures are rarely lit as flat as a pancake. The light may come from one side or the other, from the back, from the top. Light should model the subject, wrapping around it, making it stand out, and making the principle subject look three-dimensional rather than two. If you’re not sure what I mean, take the time to check out photos by masters of the art. Okay, so it’s doubtful you have an Annie Leibovitz portrait session or an underwater date with Tom St. George planned, but study those folks and ones like them and learn… see what they do and copy. (Sorry guys.)

As an aside, one of my favourite underwater photos, one that’s perfectly lit, is almost totally black with just the creature’s eye perfectly lit. It’s also monochrome but has all the impact of a Technicolor rainbow.

Composition: There isn’t time, and this isn’t the place to start teaching a fine arts class to discuss balance and movement, rhythm and focus, the Golden Ratio in classical architecture, the presence of Fibonacci’s sequence in the work of Michelangelo or any of that other “artsy stuff.” Let’s simply say that good composition is something many of us recognize as soon as we look at a picture. It leads the eye around the frame like a dog on a leash. The proportions and position of each element seem right. Good composition is somehow deeply pleasing and something that we recognize when we see it.

The perfect layout of a photo — its composition — and its importance is not that tough to learn (Google perhaps), and it’s certainly not a mystery. But I’m the first to admit, not everyone gets it. I had an aunt who was death behind a camera. It did not matter how much you suggested and what tips you gave her, every family holiday photo she ever took had a face exactly in the middle of the frame, the person’s leg’s cut off at the knees and the sky filling 50 percent of the picture. It made no difference if she had a Nikon or a Polaroid point-n-shoot in hand. The results were predictably poor. Best advice is, don’t be my aunt Doll.

Subject: And this my friends is where things get funky. This is where diving has drawn the strong suit. When we prepare to dive, when we are underwater, when we surface from our dive, there is interest. It might be water droplets on a mask and cheek, a close-up of a CCR handset, a youngster’s smile, a shark’s nose, a school of baitfish or the deadeye on an old sailing ship. There is little about the world of diving that isn’t a great photo waiting to happen. Scuba diving and Freediving are subject rich, that’s all there is to it.

Worth mentioning too that while there’s a lot that can be done with digital tools to fix marginal exposure, boring lighting, and poor composition, without an interesting subject, no photo is worth all that effort.

So, this begs one last question, and thoughts about that last variable: What’s the message you want to get across to customers? What’s the message you want to <project> about your business in that one picture that opens your website, or that greets punters arriving at your front door?

Is it a portrait of a fish? Is it a shipwreck? Perhaps it’s someone zooming through a cave behind a DPV? Could it be an octopus? Lighting, composition, exposure, cropping, colour, subject, size, all that’s important. But more important is that it’s the right picture?

I don’t know and cannot help you choose because I don’t know what you’re selling or to whom. Every one of us is in a slightly different situation, and each of us is selling something subtly different to a unique group of people, and your place is not the same as another place… or that should be the case!

The only constant, the only thing that works for all of us is this: First impressions count: choose wisely

And please no studio portraits with fake grins and expensive suits… unless of course, it’s a drysuit.

Thanks for your attention. Next month, we’ll be talking about the missing link… but not Neanderthals, something entirely different.

Article kindly submitted by Steve Lewis, VP of Marketing at RAID.

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

Emma Farrell, one of the world’s leading freediving instructors and the author of the best-selling book One Breath: A Reflection on Freediving, has been appointed Director of Freediver Training for Dive RAID International.

Farrell has been teaching since 2002 and has been a well-respected Instructor Trainer with RAID for several years. Her new position with the agency reflects its renewed focus on Freediving and its importance to RAID’s vision for the industry and the diving community going forward.

Farrell’s initial focus will be to update the agency’s materials and freediving curriculum bringing it in line with modern practices and freediving’s safest standards.

Speaking immediately following her appointment, Farrell said: “Being at the forefront of global freediving education for the last two decades, my desire has always been to encourage more people to discover the incredible sport of freediving and enable them to do it safely and responsibly. RAID shares my ethos of combining high standards with accessibility and relevancy and I’m thrilled to be leading the team that will take RAID freediving to the next level.”
 
Farrell is a founding member of the AIDA Education Commission and has written courses that are taught internationally, as well she has created several popular and unique specialty courses such as her program for surfers, spearfishing safety skills course, and a Gas Guzzler course.
 
In her new position, Farrell will be working with RAID’s V-P Training, PJ Prinsloo, on the project, which will see the agency’s freediving product completely streamlined and updated.
 
Prinsloo explained that he is excited to have Emma joining RAID HQ.
“She brings to the team not only a wealth of knowledge, and talent but also real enthusiasm and creative energy to tackle what will be a huge project in the coming months,” he said.

“Freediving is a major priority for my department, so having an author and experienced instructor trainer like Emma working with us, makes my role much easier and promises to ensure we develop the best freediving product possible for RAID students, divers, and professionals.”

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

RAID will shake the dive industry to its roots today by announcing Zero FEe-Membership* to all its professional members and dive centers. The industry norm is to charge instructors and dive centres an annual fee to do business with them. RAID has torn up the status quo and once again offered something new and unique in the diving marketplace. At a time when the diving world is still reeling from the ravages of COVID and its impact on the adventure travel industry, the benefit of not charging a fee to teach for the agency, is obvious and far-reaching. 

The power of zero membership is a paradigm shift and shows you are appreciated for being a diving professional and supporting this agency. 

Some will say that this is a race to the bottom, but nothing could be further from the truth. Membership has become a major hurdle to new instructors entering the market and existing instructors remaining in active status and solvent. By having no membership fee at RAID, we have future-proofed the agency as this initiative does not only work for the pandemic, but also for many other global economic issues.

The scuba industry looks to Dive RAID International for innovative leadership, and this radical move is a definite game changer and unprecedented.

Many agencies talk about business support, but we feel that some form of financial support is what is needed to help our members to succeed.

As we move into a new year, with new norms, and a new outlook, RAID will continue to deliver the best business support for our members, while helping them provide safe, inclusive, and technologically innovative Dive Training in a Class of its Own.

RAID Zero FEe-Membership is the latest initiative from the industry’s lead innovator and follows its FREe-Learning program and other business-support programs released in 2020. FREe-Learning opened all RAID academics to divers, dive pros and dive centres free of charge, and issued a wake-up and follow us call to the industry. 

CONTACT info@diveraid.com or your local RAID Regional Office for full details and for instructions on how to remain in status for 2022 or cross your instructor membership or business over to Dive RAID International.

Learn more about RAID at: https://www.diveraid.com

*To maintain active status in 2023, RAID instructors will be required to certify five (5) divers during 2022. Should this not be achieved, instructors will be required to do an online update which will detail all the changes at RAID during the past year.

Put Some Dash In Your Dives

The thrill of speeding through the water behind a diver propulsion vehicle (DPV) is an experience that really gets the blood racing. Using a DPV provides divers both immense fun and the means to achieve goals that would be impossible without their use.

RAID is proud to announce the new two-tier DPV training program with certifications for DPV and Advanced DPV.

WHY DPV AND WHY NOW?

Recreational and technical divers are using DPVs to access sites that would be difficult to reach and explore using traditional propulsion methods; to help propel large amounts of heavy equipment; to increase the safety of dives in areas of strong current; or just for the pure exhilaration of shooting through the water at speed and performing underwater acrobatics. 

By extending your capabilities and extending your range, using a DPV opens new vistas for exploration and fun. 

DPV

This certification option is aimed at the recreational diver who wishes to learn how to use a DPV to enhance their diving by using mainly natural navigation. 

Advanced DPV

This certification option is available to anyone who is familiar with longhose configuration, has logged a minimum of 20 dives and is certified as Navigation specialty divers.

This certification option is aimed at the slightly more experienced diver with preexisting navigational training and diving on a single, twin or sidemount setup with a longhose. Although this level is slightly more challenging, the more advanced navigation exercises provide an important base for more complex types of DPV diving within a team. 

PREREQUISITES

You must:

• Be a minimum of 12 years old.
• Be certified as RAID Open Water 20, Junior Open Water or equivalent.

Just visit www.diveRAID.com to put some extra dash into your dives.

Although 2020 has been extremely challenging, we wanted to leave this year on a high note and with that, we are proud to announce the release of Issue #2 of the Edge Magazine, Powered by RAID.

Read the latest RAID industry news, inspirational travel reports, equipment reviews, and RAID Training Updates. 

Issue #2 highlights include:

• Question and Answers. We chat with RAID Director of Diver Training, Steve Lewis about wreck and cave diving and what the future holds for RAID.

• RAID medical advisor, Doug Ebersole MD discusses the most common cardiac issues in diving and why it is important to be dive fit.

• Professor Timmy Gambin introduces us to the Virtual Museum Underwater Malta.

• Freediving guru, Emma Farrel offers her ten top tips for equalization and how they can be applied to scuba.

• Travel the world with feature articles on the Egyptian Red Sea’s infamous ‘wreck graveyard’.

• This issue we have focussed heavily on our Regional offices and we take time to introduce our global team members and they in turn showcase some of the amazing diving opportunities available in these territories.

• RAID Instructor trainer, Jeffrey Glenn discusses stage cylinder management and protocols.

• Since we are releasing our new DPV and Advanced DPV courses, we take you on a DPV tour of Malta.

• Jill Heinerth takes us on an exciting tour of Canada and since she knows a thing or two about rebreathers, she offers her personal advice on what you should know before buying a closed-circuit rebreather.

• Receive hints and tips on how to improve your dive skills with our senior RAID instructional “Dive like a Pro” team consisting of PJ Prinsloo, Dan Weeks, and Oli van Overbeek. In this issue, they look at finning techniques.

• Our panel of underwater photographers provides insight into entering and exiting the water with a camera system.

To access your free copy of the magazine, please follow this link https://diveraid.com/content.asp?L9rQxJvnMQOi

Totally new RAID instructor materials launched

Becoming an instructor, regardless of agency, takes a huge amount of time and dedication. One of RAID’s primary goals as an agency is to keep our teaching methodology in line with technical and teaching advancements across all educational industries.

RAID released its last update to the Instructor and Instructor Trainer programs in 2014, and today, we announce the release of our new instructor-level core programs: Instructor Development Program (IDP), Instructor Trainer Program (ITP) and Instructor Playbook.

Since RAID is an entirely digital agency, we are, by default, prescriptive teaching experts, and this can present a host of problems when designing an education system. Many educational models are based on an instructor delivering an entire presentation to their audience. With prescriptive teaching, this is not the case, since the instructor is only asked to deliver small bites of information based on what the student has missed while working through the online academics.

New academic teaching methodology

Meeting the prerequisites to become a RAID instructor is not an easy task, which is made more difficult with the typical need to shoehorn certain topics into academic presentations that are totally unrelated to those topics. For example, how does one introduce continuing education into a discussion on physics or physiology?

We analyzed our entire program and identified areas that we felt needed modernizing. Instructor candidates often complain that they find it outdated, cumbersome and stressful when the topics of dive travel, dive equipment and continuing education are forced together in an unrelated presentation—an industry standard practice—during their IDP. We have listened and have made the classroom presentations less complicated, more appropriate and more fun.

How did we achieve this? 

By adding mandatory workshops—Equipment, Continuing Education and Local Diving and Travel—as integral parts of every RAID course, we have removed the need to insert these topics into any unrelated presentations or academic discussions.

This means that, even if a student gets 100% on all quizzes and exams, they will receive vital instructor input regarding these specific areas.

New Playbook

A critical improvement to our instructional package is the addition of the Instructor Playbook. This single manual replaces our old confined water and open water instructor guides. 

The new Playbook has been reworked from scratch and is designed to be an invaluable teaching resource for new and experienced instructors alike. There is an expansive introduction, a full listing of the skills specific to each dive and each program—including skill objectives, values and student actions—and, of course, vital teaching tips for each and every core level skill.

We feel the new Instructor Playbook is an innovative and fresh approach to scuba instruction.  

Crossover

From the business perspective, there has never been a better time to crossover to RAID, and we are inundated with requests from professionals who feel their current agencies are not giving them enough value. Because the pandemic is causing so many issues with travel and traditional scuba-training methods, we took the time to design a REMOTe-Training instructor crossover. By taking advantage of our new IDP designs and utilizing advances in technology, we are able to confidently, safely and conveniently bring approved instructors to RAID while maintaining our high standards. 

Our instructor crossover process involves the use of our online manuals, quizzes and exams.

Audio-visual platforms are used to deliver presentations and evaluate academic teaching ability. Skill evaluation is via a seamless, one-take video recording of crossover candidates performing the RAID crossover skill circuit. The RAID crossover is still focused and structured and is not a “magic wand” solution where instructor certifications are awarded without effort.

The process is fair and simple, and it helps meet the increased demand from serious professional diving educators who want to join RAID so they can give their students the best possible training at every level.

Learn more about RAID at: http://www.diveraid.com

The British Diving Safety Group COVID-19 team met virtually this week to discuss the new Government restrictions for England.

BDSG Guidance for diving in England

These guidelines are subject to change, so please refer to the Government website for the latest guidance.

• Stay at home, except for specific purposes
• Avoid meeting people you do not live with, except for specific purposes
• Close certain businesses and venues

These new measures will reduce the growth rate of the virus, which will:

• Prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed
• Ensure schools, colleges and universities can stay open
• Ensure that as many people as possible can continue to work

A spokesman for the BDSG confirmed:
“The Government Guidelines state ‘you may spend time or exercise outdoors – this should be done locally where possible, but you can travel to do so if necessary.’ ”

This could include travelling to a public beach, where it may be possible to shore dive with one other person. It will be very difficult to carry out training under the current guidelines, but it is not explicitly banned. Anyone carrying out commercial training will need to ensure they comply with the COVID-19 guidance and the HSE Diving at Work regulations. If you are going to dive, be cautious, be safe – make responsible decisions and consider the implications of your actions.”

Gareth Morrison, RNLI Head of Water Safety stated:
“No one heads to the coast or out on the water with the mindset of needing to be rescued, yet we undertake thousands of rescues each year. Our volunteer lifeboat crews have continued to operate throughout the pandemic and remain on call 24/7 to respond to emergencies. But anyone going on or in the water must understand the risks and take the necessary steps to keep themselves as safe as possible.

During the pandemic, we must all take reasonable precautions to reduce the demands on RNLI and independent lifeboat crews, HM Coastguard, and other emergency services. In an emergency though, please call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.”

The BDSG is unable to provide tailored advice that covers everyone’s
individual diving plans. 

Links to Government Guidelines:

England: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1200/pdfs/uksi_20201200_en.pdf

Scotland: https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/

Wales: https://gov.wales/coronavirus-firebreak-frequently-asked-questions

Northern Ireland: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-regulations-guidance-whatrestrictions-mean-you

Republic of Ireland: https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus/?referrer=/healthcovid-19

Learn more about The British Diving Safety Group at: https://bdsg.org.uk

RAID again provides massive support to all members.

To aid our loyal dive centres and professional members, we have extended membership benefits immediately prolonging their current membership, ending 30^th September 2020, to the 31^st December 2020 at no additional cost.

This initiative is much needed and will be welcomed by all our stores and professionals. The renewal extension also gives us time to continue appraising how the pandemic affects our industry.

This continues RAID’s theme of releasing highly innovative initiatives which help RAID businesses around the world every day. These include FREe-Learning, REMOTe-Training, The Virtual Nitrox Analyzer App and The Edge dive magazine and newsletter.

RAID’s Membership fees haven’t changed in six years and now you will receive an extra 3 months of membership on us – not just words but real support. If you are a RAID member, you will see that your membership has already been extended.

If you are not a RAID member already and are interested in crossing over, please follow this link https://mailchi.mp/diveraiduk/moreinformationplease

Learn more about RAID at https://www.diveraid.com