Following the DSAT Technical Diving Division events held in Australia, UK, USA and elsewhere, DSAT has announced that instructors are now able to write their own DSAT distinctive specialty courses. The distinctive courses will need to be submitted to a Technical Diving Division Consultant for approval. The intention is to enable DSAT Instructors to offer specialised training in areas of technical diving not currently addressed through the existing programmes.
The process for applying for one of these ratings is as follows.
1) Contact your DSAT Technical Diving Division consultant to confirm whether your concept would be suitable for a distinctive outline.
2) Using an existing PADI Specialty outline as a template complete your distinctive outline. Be sure to include full details of the standards relating to your course, the knowledge development and the dive data.
3) Submit your distinctive outline to your Technical Diving Division Consultant for review. Please also include your instructor application at the same time. You can use the standardised PADI Specialty Instructor application for this; please be sure to include the wording ‘DSAT’ at the start of your title to clearly indicate the nature of your outline. Please also be sure to include proof of your personal experience in the area you have chosen.
4) The outline will be reviewed and, if necessary, returned to you with comments or suggestions. Once the outline has been reviewed and amended to a point at which it is acceptable to both the instructor and DSAT, it will be forwarded for processing.
In order to assist you with writing these outlines, DSAT has begun to design templates that can be used to provide guidance in certain areas. These templates represent the minimum content required for the course – you should use and develop them to encompass all the necessary information. This gives you a chance to ensure the course content suits your local environment and tec diving techniques. The first of these templates are available for download from the PADI Pro Site under the heading ‘DSAT’.
If you have any questions regarding a possible DSAT distinctive specialty, or the process involved in writing one, please contact your Technical Diving Division Consultant.
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