Specialty
activities introduce certified divers to a whole new world of diving
opportunities. Learning is easy and most of our
Specialy courses only
require Open
Water Diver Course
or equivalent. All you need to do is first purchase your specialty
manuals and videos from United Divers, then enroll in one of our
specialty courses. Once enrolled, you can learn your specialized scuba
skills from a certified United Divers Advanced Instructor that would
take you years of diving to learn on your own.
Under our guidance, you will learn the correct skills and
techniques
associated with the specialties of your choice to make you a more
comfortable and confident diver. You will also learn how to use an
expanded range of equipment to help you make your dives more enjoyable
and worthwhile.
At United Divers, We ARE Diving. Are you?
Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
SCUBA Diving from a boat
is a fact of life. If your dive experience has always been doing shore
dives, you will find boat diving a very different experience. In fact
when you take your first warm water trip, you will most certainly be
doing boat dives. Boat diving can be some of the most spectacular
diving you do for lot's of reasons. Boats get you to locations you can
not typically get to from the shore. The dives tend to be deeper and in
areas that are not traveled as frequently as are shore dives ,
therefore you are likely to see things that you do not on you normal
shore diving experience. Unless you are terrified of boats, sooner or
later you will most likely be introduced to boat diving particularly if
you will be diving in a warm ocean like the Caribbean.
Training Program: This specialty
course teaches you how to get the most out of your boat diving. It
covers skills such as entries and exits, maneuvering in surface
currents, ascents and descents with and without anchor lines, hang
lines, planning dives, different kinds of boats, and boat etiquette.
Prerequisites:
None
Overview: The
more you extend your
diving experiences, the chances are that you will expand your diving to
more and more remote locations and more and more potentially hazardous
access areas because that is where the best dive sites are found. This
same reason is also why it's a good idea to know basic first aid CPR
techniques.
Our CPR/First Aid course will provide you with a level of
knowledge
that is quite appropriate to manage most medical emergencies
confidently and competently prior to the arrival of the local EMS
personnel on the scene. The course is taught by specially-trained
instructors and will provide you with a "first responder" level of
medical ability and knowledge similar to the skills used EMTs and
paramedics. The course consists of several classroom sessions, video
presentations and a number of practical skills sessions. Also, it meets
or exceeds all current First Aid/ CPR standards published by the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Training
Program: This course is
definitely NOT a "Diver Only" course. ANYONE desiring to know about
first aid and CPR is welcome to participate in this course. After the
successful completion of our First Aid/CPR course, you will be
presented with a certification in first aid and CPR that is rated among
the most comprehensive available and is valid for two years.
Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
With the introduction of
dive computers some 10 years ago, recreational diving has been
completely transformed into what recreational diving is today. By
constantly monitoring your depth and time during the entire dive, and
comparing the actual to the mathematical model in the computer, it has
actually allowed safer and longer bottom time than were capable using
the traditional dive tables to "calculate" the bottom time of the dive.
Training Program: In this
course, we
will cover the wide range of different types of computers, the
different mathematical models used and their general operation. If you
own a dive computer or plan to buy one in the near future, this is the
course for you. It will provide you with the knowledge and skills to
get the most out of these wonderful diving tools.
Prerequisites:
Advanced Open Water Diver or equivalent.
Overview:
The deep diver specialty
at United Divers is one of the most popular courses offered by United
Divers. We believe this course is ideal for the student just finishing
their Advanced Open Water course, while the deep diving part of the
advanced course is still fresh in your mind. It is also good for the
"experienced or veteran" diver as well. Of course, wreck diving can not
be left out in a topic deep diving. Most of the local Wrecks are in
"deep" as defined by recreational diving. No deep diving course would
be complete without a discussion of Wrecks.
Training
Program: This course covers
the physiology of deep diving, the effects of diving at depth,
simulated decompression diving, introduction to computer diving and
much more. Also covered in the course is a fairly indepth discussion of
some of the strange and curious things to discover at the greater
depths. Of course, you will be expected to participate in a number of
local dives both shore and boat to depths greater than 60 feet which is
the definition for recreational deep diving. Deep diving in cold water
has particular risks and circumstances that you will not normally
experience in the more tropical diving environments. These topics will
be covered very thoroughly as well as some tips on staying warm,
recognizing nitrogen narcosis, and exploring the marine environments at
greater depths.
Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
Our Drysuit Specialty at
United Divers is ideally suited for the person who has recently
purchased a drysuit, is thinking about buying a drysuit, or someone who
simply desires to know about drysuit diving.
If you have recently purchased a drysuit, we enthusiastically
recommend
this course because of the heavy focus on diving safely with the
drysuit. Drysuit diving requires very specific knowledge that is not
required in other forms of diving. All manufacturer recommended safety
techniques are covered in the course including flooding, how to control
your buoyancy, what to do in drysuit emergencies and other important
drysuit diving situations.
Training
Program: In the past, we
have negotiated with various drysuit vendors to borrow some of their
suit for a nominal rental fee which is included in the cost of the
course. This has been an early Spring or Late Fall activity and
pre-registration is require in order for us to know how many suits are
needed for the course.
Prerequisites:
None.
Overview: At
United Divers, we
enthusiastically support environmental issues. We believe that we need
to do our part to protect and educate the divers we serve. In the past
we have participated in efforts to clean up the areas we dive in and we
strongly emphasize in our curriculum, the concept of "think
environment" in all of our diving education and practice. This seminar
is aimed toward all recreational divers of all levels. We believe that
"actions" really do speak louder than words, so part of the seminar
involves a local beach or pond clean up, both in the water and on the
beach.
Training Program:
Taking this
seminar will help you to become more environmentally conscious about
local dive sites, will educate you about what to do if you should
happen to "bump" into a suspicious looking object in the water, and
above, it all will promote a "safety first" stance in addressing
environmental issues as a ecologically sound SCUBA diver.
Among other things, this course covers, you, the diver, how
do you
dive, what kind of equipment do you use, how do you use it, how is your
buoyancy control, what can you do to improve you diving skills, how
does your diving impact the environment. Lots of topics to discuss,
lots of ideas to think about and, as usual, lots of dives to do.
Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent, we provide digital camera with housing.
Overview:
Learning underwater
photography is exciting and fun. U/W photographs are a great way to
remember your last dive vacation or weekend dive in New England. Your
non-diver friends can even get a grasp of what SCUBA is all about, too!
Training Program: Our program
consists of two class sessions on evaluating shots, editing, and
cropping and two pool seesions. We also provide air and a camera for a
day of local open water diving for you to apply the technique and skill
to some of your favorite local sites. During the first class
session, many topics will be presented
including photo fundamentals, camera functions, lenses, strobes,
lighting, and composition. For first pool session we setup an
underwater reef and shoot pictures. The second class session will
include
critique of photos as well as recommendations for the second pool
session and upcoming open water dives!
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
At United Divers, we
believe that our Equipment Specialty course is among the finest the
SCUBA industry has to offer. The course is structured, such that, every
piece of equipment you have is inspected and evaluated to make
suggestions about what you can do to keep you gear in tip top shape.
You will receive instructions on the latest maintenance concepts,
techniques in preventive maintenance, and how to prolong the life of
your valuable investment.
If you do not currently own any equipment, this course is also for you.
You get a first hand education about what is good, not so good, what to
look for when purchasing your new equipment, and what to beware of when
looking for the "right" gear for you. Our expert staff will address any
and all questions you have been thinking about and give you the latest
state of the art view of the world of SCUBA diving equipment A to Z.
Even if you are new to diving, this course will save you time and money.
Training Program: The Scope of
this
course is on routine maintenance intended to focus on the kinds of
things an owner /user needs to know about SCUBA equipment. We will show
you how a regulator works. care and maintenance of a BCD, Wetsuit,
Tanks, Consoles, Gages, and other equipment. You will also have an
opportunity to tour our state of the art retail facility as part of the
Q&A session and be introduced to some of the latest additions
to the SCUBA diving technology.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
One of the things that
frequently frustrates beginning divers is their lack of navigation
skills and not knowing where they are at any give part of the dive for
sure. By the time you finish this course, you should never worry about
where the boat is again because you will know where it is.
Training Program: After taking the
United Divers Navigation Specialty course, not only will you know you
are, but you will also be able to get back to the same site whenever
you want. We incorporate many different kinds of geometric patterns in
the exercises conducted in the open water so that you will not only be
comfortable with your navigation skill, you will have a lot of fun
doing it. Part of the course involved underwater map making, placing
and retrieving articles in the open water using only your navigation
skills.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent (Advanced Open Water is
recommended).
Overview:
Perhaps the most exciting
and mysterious experience we have as divers is the Night dive. We
learned in our Advanced Open Water course that night dives are not full
of goblins and monsters. In fact, night dives are frequently far more
interesting and exciting because of the vast number of creatures that
we never see during daylight hours. They are so well hidden by day that
we never notice they are even there but freely come out at night to
feed, mate and go about their nocturnal business, usually without any
notice whatever.
Training
Program: During the Night
Diver Specialty course, you will have several opportunities to
participate in different night diving environments and will be amazed
at the different scenes you will observe that in the daylight seem
fairly void of marine life and at night will be teeming with all sorts
of new and strange creatures that you did not know were even in these
waters.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
Our Nitrox Diver Specialty
at United Divers is ideally suited for the person who has recently
purchased a nitrox system, is thinking about buying a nitrox system, or
someone who simply desires to know about nitrox diving.
If you have recently purchased a nitrox system, we enthusiastically
recommend this course because of the heavy focus on diving safely with
nitrox. Nitrox diving requires very specific knowledge that is not
required in other forms of diving. All manufacturer recommended safety
techniques are covered in the course including flooding, how to control
your buoyancy, what to do in nitrox emergencies and other important
nitrox diving situations.
Training
Program: In the past, we
have negotiated with various nitrox vendors to borrow some of their
systems for a nominal rental fee which is included in the cost of the
course. This has been an early Spring or Late Fall activity and
pre-registration is require in order for us to know how many systems
are needed for the course.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
The recommended treatment
for serious diving accidents is the immediate administration of
emergency oxygen. Administration of emergency oxygen is highly
recommended in CPR efforts as well.
In conjunction with the National Safety Council, United Divers Inc.
offers an Oxygen Administration course. The program is a hands on
program in addition to lectures. The topics covered include oxygen
equipment and use, legal issues, equipment characteristics, selecting
and maintaining oxygen equipment.
Training
Program: Proper use of
medical equipment requires more than a lecture. Students will assemble,
operate, and feel comfortable with the mechanical aspects of oxygen
units.
DAN certification in addition to NSC is available for divers oxygen
units are used in this course.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent (Advanced Open Water
recommended), and your own equipment (subject to Instructor approval).
Candidates who do not have these specific certification levels may
still participate in the program while working on the prerequisites.
Overview: At United Divers our
Rescue Diver course is primarily intended to provide a training program
for the average diver to be able to manage a typical diving emergency
in a timely and competent manner. The course is not intended to
supersede or replace the local recognized Emergency Medical System. It
does provide enough information and practical training to make a
difference in a real medical dive emergency.
Training
Program: As a United Divers
Rescue Diver Candidate, you will attend 5 academic sessions covering
but not limited to Self Rescue, Dive Physiology of Stress, Psychology
factors concerning stress, Dive Equipment considerations, Dive First
Aid, Dive Emergency Management, Dive Planning, and much more. You will
also participate in an intensive weekend of open water diving and
experience, first hand, many dive accident scenarios, role plays, and
practice in emergency prevention and management. This course is
particularly recommended for couples, people who dive together, and
candidates for upper level Dive Courses, such as Divemaster, Divecons,
and Master Diver programs.
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Prerequisites:
Advanced Open Water Diver or equivalent.
Overview:
Next to Buoyancy Control
and Navigation, this is one of the most useful skills you can have in
diving. In this course, you will be able to to find and recover almost
anything related to recreational diving in an underwater condition. You
will be able to re-locate objects, take bearings on objects, and use
search and recovery tool such as liftbags, search patterns and wreck
reels.
Training Program:
We'll cover many
different types of search patterns and the "how to's " about bringing
your recovered items back to the surface safely. Why you may even find
sunken treasure on your Search and Recovery check out dives. At the
very minimum, you may never lose a weight belt or other valuable piece
of equipment having taken this course.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent.
Overview:
Here in New England, we
have a unique opportunity to see a multitude and variety of cold water
creatures that are not seen in any other parts of the world. Our local
dive sites are teeming with life everywhere you look. Lobsters, Striped
Bass, Sculpins, Moon Snails and some of the most beautiful Anemones in
the world lie just off shore for us to see. Taking our Underwater
Naturalist course will not only help you identify the various species
of marine life we have in our waters, but we will also have slide shows
and videos of other parts of the world to give you a more generalized
introduction to the topic of marine creature identification. You will
have lot's of opportunity to interact with a number of our instructors
and divemasters to find out about what really is "down there."
Training Program: Course
contains a
fair amount of classroom activity and several dives to complete the
certification. The goal of the course is to have fun while learning
about the marine environment. It has a cold water focus, naturally,
because this is the environment in which we live and dive.
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Prerequisites:
Open
Water Diver Course or equivalent (Advanced Open Water is
recommended).
Overview:
Perhaps the most exciting
and mysterious experience we have as divers is the Wreck dive. We
learned in our Advanced Open Water course that wreck dives are not full
of goblins and monsters. In fact, wreck dives are frequently far more
interesting and exciting because of the vast number of creatures live
among the man-made reef environment of a wreck.
Training
Program: During the Wreck
Diver Specialty course, you will learn safety precautions needed during
wreck dives, how to enter and exit from wrecks, and have several
opportunities to participate in different wreck dives. You will be
amazed at the number of different types of wrecks that lay silent on
the ocean floor just off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
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