Moon Diver Distinctive Specialty Course
With the announcement that NASA has found water in the form of ice on the Moon, I am patiently awaiting someone to write the first Moon Diver Distinctive Specialty Course.
There are enough random specialty courses out there, why couldn’t a course that combines Dry Suit (to simulate a space suit), Night (even though I know the moon gets light too, it’s space after all) and Ice Diving (since the water is still in ice form) make for a great Moon Diver course?
You’ve Lost It
Many of you are probably thinking, “Nick, you’ve lost it”. Yes, maybe a little. But there is a lesson we can learn from this.
For those of you who might not have the most exciting diving conditions (read: not tropical), pick the best aspect of diving in your local area and promote it!
Take Keller Laros for example. He is the Vice President and Co-Founder of Manta Pacific Research Foundation. He is crew at Jack’s Diving Locker in Kona, Hawaii. I’ve gone diving with him before, he’s a very entertaining guy.
Kona has some great diving already, but Keller took this to an extreme by authoring a Manta Ray Specialty Certification. Sure, anyone can go on a manta dive, but in Keller’s class you learn all about the manta’s. Even as an instructor, I took this class several years ago and Keller’s knowledge and passion make this class worth whatever he asks for it.
Do I Need a Specialty?
You don’t need to go through all of the effort of writing and submitting a specialty course to your training agency, but it does add a nice little air of credibility to it that might help you get more students. Even without the specialty card though, proper enthusiasm and marketing can help introduce local divers to an aspect of your local dive area they may have never considered.