2010 PADI Instructor Renewal

Last week PADI sent out an email with our 2010 Instructor Renewal information. We have some really exciting announcements for individual members - one that you guys have been asking about for a looooooong time.

Here are the price breaks:

For Instructors:
$192.50 - Regular price
$177.50 - Online renewal (before 15 Dec 2009)
$174.50 - automatic renewal online

Interested in auto-renewal?
Sign up on the PADI Pros site (left-hand column of the home page). Your card will be charged in early November.

For questions, please call: 800 729 7234 ext. 2495

I almost forgot.... one last thing:

After renewing online, PADI will send you an email to pre-order a paper copy of the new, streamlined and simplified PADI Instructor manual. All renewed PADI Instructors will receive access to download the new PADI Instructor manual in 2010 (we're not sending out discs). The special offer is to get a paper copy at a discount and we'll ship it to you before the end of the year.

Video from Drew Richardson
About the Year Behind Us and the Year Ahead

The video above is a message from Drew to the PADI Members worldwide. It runs about 9 minutes and features some familiar PADI faces.

Drew talks about PADI's promotional efforts over the last year, gives an overview of our new programs and talks about some new options for individual members.

PADI Discover Scuba Diving Program Changes

Revised DSD Flip Chart and DSD Cue Card Now Shipping

PADI has just revised our DSD training materials including the flip chart and cue card. The new materials are part of an overall update to the DSD program. Please review the 4th quarter 2009 training bulletin for all the details.

NOW SHIPPING

Product no. 60130 - DSD cue card (version 2.0, revised 2009)
Member price: $6.25

Product no. 60109 - DSD Flip Chart (revised 2009)
Member price: $114.70

COMING LATER THIS YEAR...

Product no. 70254 - DSD form
Price: 60 cents/ each

A new version of the DSD brochure will start shipping in late 2009 (see photo at left).

(email subscribers may need to click through to the site to view images)

UPDATE 8 Dec 2009

The revised DSD forms have arrived in our warehouse and are shipping now. The brochure is available in: English, French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese and Korean.  



If you have the DSD brochure with the three smiling people on it (pictured at left), it's okay to use it through the end of 2009. Please utilize the DSD Knowledge and Safety Review in addition to this brochure.

Starting 1 Jan 2010, you must discontinue using this brochure - unless the new version is not available in the student's language.

The new, "late 2009" revision of the DSD brochure will be posted to the PADI Pros site shortly, but I don't know the exact date yet.

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Employment Opportunity at PADI Office in Bristol, England

Work for PADI's Training and Quality Management Department

The Training & Quality Management Department at PADI International Ltd currently has an opening for an Educational Consultant.

The position is based in Bristol, England and entails acting as a direct link with PADI members to assist with the understanding of PADI training programmes, standards and philosophy, while helping to maintain the integrity of PADI programmes through the administration of the PADI Quality Management process. Applicants need to hold, at a minimum, a PADI Master Instructor rating and should have experience in staffing a number of PADI Instructor Development Courses.

With the current development focus on our technical programmes, it would be very advantageous for an applicant to also hold a technical diving instructor rating.

Applicants should be fluent in English – bilingual skills in other European languages, Arabic or Russian would also be desirable. Finally, all applicants will need to have the legal right to live and work in the UK, and be willing and able to relocate to Bristol.

New Red Logbook

Newly Revised PADI Diver's Logbook

After filling up the logbook received during their open water class, a diver can move on to the red logbook.

This newly-revised product:

• Is printed on non-smear, recycled paper
  
• Includes an area to record enriched air information
• Has enough pages to log sixty dives

Product Number: 70048
Suggested Retail: $15

Help Wanted: Now Hiring PADI Instructor in the Seattle area

Bubbles Below, a PADI Five Star IDC in the Seattle area is currently hiring a full-time dive center employee.

Instructor preferred, cold water diving experience a must.

Interested parties: contact owner Bud Gray at 425 487 2822. Please be prepared to submit a resume, salary history and requirements.

Bubbles Below is a Five Star PADI IDC facility and winner of DEMA's C.O.R.E. award for excellence in training.

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Not in the Seattle area? We have a few dive centers in California that are still looking for PADI Instructors. Please click on the jobs tab at the top of the page or click here.

What Wine Tasting Taught me about the Dive Industry

Yelp.com Brings Business to an Out-of-the-way Winery

There are more than 67 wineries in the Sonoma Valley (and several dozen more in Napa). Driving down the main drag there are mini-castles, villas, Rhine mansions, and buildings of every imaginable shape and size.

It's impossible to see them all in one weekend so how to narrow it down? I'm a beginner when it comes to wine appreciation, so I turned to Yelp for guidance.

As I mentioned in last week's post, Yelp.com is a website where customers post reviews of local businesses. I typed in "sonoma wine" and the number one result was a business called Tin Barn Vineyards.

When we arrived, the tasting room was packed. The woman taking care of everyone could barely keep up. As more people arrived she would ask, "how did you hear about us?"

Yelp. Yelp. Yelp.

Here's the other thing you need to know - Tin Barn is waaaaay off the main drag (and not located in a barn). It's in an industrial complex in the back of a building. There is no street presence and hardly any signage. Tin Barn isn't listed on any of the promotional maps and it was the busiest tasting room I visited that weekend.

The lady pouring wine at Tin Barn said a year ago their tasting room had very little business. Now, thanks in part to Yelp, business is booming - even with a "bad" location and extremely crowded marketplace. The best part? It costs nothing.

Ask customers to take a few moments to post a review of your business on Yelp's website. The customer will rate their experience from one to five. Additional comments are optional. The higher your average score, the more prominently your business will appear om Yelp's website.

Read more about utilizing Yelp.com as part of our 15 minute marketing idea series.

FAQ for New Dive Computer Option in Open Water

Can I buy the new computer book by itself or do I have to buy the whole crewpak?
We sell the manual by itself under certain circumstances, please call or email me to order this item.

Can I teach both the RDP table and the computer?

Yes.
If you'd like to teach both options, I recommend ordering the computer crewpak and adding on a table ala carte (ordering the reverse - a table crewpak + computer book - is more expensive).

Open Water Computer option with manual: part no. 60335
- OR -
Open Water Computer option with Multimedia Disc: 60347

Table with instructions ala carte: part no. 60099

Will the Dive Computer Option Be Added to eLearning?
We do not plan to add the computer option to eLearning in 2009. Stay tuned to this website for updates.

As of 8 June 2010, the dive computer option is available online, however, the student must still complete a dive planning module using the table or eRDPML. Read more about the dive computer option in the online open water course.

Is there going to be a revised Open Water exam?
We will print a new exam in late 2009 or early 2010. For now there is an errata (free download from the homepage of padimembers.com). The answer key has not changed.

Update: we are now shipping a revised version of the OW exam for use with the dive computer option. The part number is the same: 71023.
 
Complete list of exam revision date info from an earlier PADI Instructor News post.

Will there be new Open Water Prescriptive Lesson Guides?
Yes! This product has undergone dramatic changes and will be released toward the end of 2009 and is available now. Read more about the new Open Water Prescriptive Lesson Guides.


Is there a new Open Water Instructor Guide?
No. We will, however, release a completely new (streamlined) instructor manual in 2010. Instructors who renew before the end of 2009 will receive a CD version of the new instructor manual for free with their first quarter 2010 Undersea Journal.

Where can I find more information on teaching the computer option?
Please reference the third quarter 2009 training bulletin.

Have the Open Water manual or Open Water DVD changed?
No changes to either of those products.

Do computer students need the Open Water manual?
Yes, PADI Standards require all Open Water students to own a copy of the Open Water Manual. Computer students must read the entire manual and complete knowledge reviews 1-3. Computer students are not required to complete knowledge reviews 4 and 5.

In lieu of knowledge reviews 4-5 from the Open Water manual, the computer student completes two knowledge reviews from the How to Use and Choose Dive Computers manual. Answers to these knowledge reviews can be downloaded from the PADI Pros site.

What is the Dive Simulator?
The Dive Simulator is a generic dive computer used to illustrate some of the topics discussed in the How to Use and Choose Dive Computers manual. The simulator is a free download (access information can be found in the Computers manual). Students are not required to use the Dive Simulator.

How does PADI address variety of dive computers on the market (and differences in dive planning calculations)?
The How to Use and Choose Dive Computers manual discusses general computer use and refers students to their users manual for specific details. Please see our earlier article which includes sample pages. Quiz and exam questions are worded to address general computer usage rather than specific scenarios.

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Who's Yelping About You? Claim Your Online Reputation

15 Minute Marketing Idea #7
Claim Your Online Reputation

Consumer directory websites such as Yelp and Yahoo Local receive millions of hits per day. As a result, reviews of your business may be listed before your "real" website in search results.

For example:

I typed "Mission Viejo bookstore" into Google. The results are shown at left.

(email subscribers may need to click through to view images)

Yelp and Yahoo Local are the #1 and #2 search results after the map listings. The "real" websites for each individual bookstore appear much farther down the page.

Both Yahoo and Yelp allow business owners to claim their online listing. Add a description of your business and a photo or two - for free. You can also receive notifications when a new review is posted about your business.

Here are the options for each website:

Yelp

Last month, more than 24 million people used Yelp.com to find local business recommendations and post reviews. The website has experienced explosive growth (80% per year) and supports mobile search applications for iPhone and Blackberry.

To edit your business information, visit Yelp.com and, at the top of the screen, type in your business name in the "Search for" box and your city (or island) in the "Near" box.

When the listing appears, click "Is This Your Business?" If your business is not listed, you can start a new listing by creating an account.


To improve your ranking on Yelp.com, ask customers to write reviews of your business. The higher average score your business has, the higher it will appear in Yelp's list.

Yahoo Local

Yahoo has one free and two paid options.

The free business listing on Yahoo! allows you to enter your address, phone number and website. You can also put your business in up to 5 categories and list the products and services you offer.

For $9.95/ month you get everything in the free listing plus add your logo, a business description, photos, and offer coupons. For $25/ month you get all the options described so far plus, "guaranteed premium placement" in their search results.

This is the seventh article in a series. Read more 15 minute marketing ideas.

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Who Are You?

Greetings from PADI...

"Know Your Audience" is the mantra of a good writer. With that in mind, I'd appreciate knowing a little bit about who you are.

Whether you're a new subscriber or you've been with us since the beginning, please take a moment to participate in our reader survey. Email subscribers may need to click through to the website to vote.

Thanks!

Are you a PADI Member?

New Dive Computer Option for PADI Open Water Course

Teaching Open Water Without Tables

Technology has brought about dramatic improvements in the tools we use in everyday life.

Mapquest and GPS are widely used instead of maps.
More people write emails than letters.
Cell phones are replacing the need for a traditional phone,
and DVDs and DVRs have made VCRs obsolete.

When reliable, convenient alternatives appear, consumers make the change to better tools. We've seen a similar evolution in the dive industry.

PADI has just launched a dive computer option for the Open Water course. Students who choose this computer option may use a dive computer instead of a table or eRDP during their Open Water course.

(from the 3rd Quarter 2009 Undersea Journal)

A new training option for the PADI Open Water Diver course allows you to teach dive computer use instead of RDP use ...you've probably been teaching your entry-level divers to use their RDP's to plan dives and act as backup to the dive computers the actually use on their dives. You can continue to do this - teach both RDP and computer use - or you can teach computer use only.

Whichever option you choose, student divers will continue to learn the basics of decompression theory, the importance of dive planning to keep nitrogen levels within acceptable limits, and how to monitor depth, bottom time and surface intervals as they always have by using the PADI Open Water Diver Manual, Multimedia, or PADI eLearning.

New and Updated Products for Open Water
Dive Computer option

New Products: available now

60335 - Open Water Computer Diving crewpak
Includes: How to Use and Choose Dive Computers book, Open Water manual, student record file and blue logbook.

This crewpak is similar to 60300 and 60067 but with no table/eRDP and the computer book instead.
MSRP: $67.90



60347 Open Water Computer Diving crewpak
with multimedia DVD-ROM
Includes same items as 60335 above but with Multimedia DVD-ROM in lieu of Open Water Manual. Also includes How to Use and Choose Dive Computers book (included in crewpak).

This crewpak is the same as 60316 and 60328 but without the table or eRDP and a computer book instead.
MSRP: $91.40

Dive Simulator
The Dive Simulator is an electronic product the student (and instructor) can download from PADI. It's essentially a generic dive computer for training purposes only. Access information is included with the How to Use and Choose... book (page 17).

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Updated Products: Release Dates TBA

71023 - Open Water Quiz and Exam Booklet
The OW Quizzes and Exams will be revised in our next printing to incorporate a computer option. Stay tuned to padiinstructorinfo.com to find out when this product becomes available.

In the meantime….
An errata for the OW exams is on the PADI Pros’ Site home page.

The OW exam has been revised to include a section for students completing the dive computer option. View a list of current PADI exam revision dates.

Knowledge Reviews: included in new crewpak
Computer students complete knowledge reviews 1-3 from the regular OW manual.

For knowledge reviews 4 & 5, computer students use a special version found in their How to Use and Choose Dive Computers book. Knowledge review answers are on the PADI Pros site homepage.

Open Water Prescriptive Lesson Guides
We are currently revising the Open Water PLGs. A new version will be released in early 2010.

The new OW prescriptive lesson guides are now available.

To receive an alert when new products become available. Sign-up for email updates (a confirmation email will be sent) or RSS feed (use with MyYahoo, iGoogle, etc).

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Not Updated:

The PADI Open Water Manual, Multimedia DVD-ROM and Open Water DVD remain the same.

Computer students will use these products in the same way as traditional learners. The only exception is: computer users have a special version of knowledge reviews 4 & 5 in their How to Use and Choose Dive Computers booklet.

Please read the 3rd Quarter 2009 Training Bulletin for more information on teaching this new option. We will not release a revised version of the Open Water Instructor Guide in 2009.

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PADI will continue to support an RDP table for both Open Water and Enriched Air. For instructors who prefer teaching with the eRDPML, all of our current eRDPML products will also remain available.

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