PADI Full-Face Mask Diving Course - (w/Diver- diver & diver- surface comms)

Used as common practice by the military, safety divers and commercial divers underwater communication devices are now spilling over into recreational diving. The underwater communications equipment is still not in-expensive by any stretch of the imagination but is becoming more common place. The amount of recreational divers (certainly buddies) using this type of system now is growing.

The AGA Divator mask manufactured by Inperspiro as used in the FFM course. This mask is the same item of equipment used by the military / fire / police / search & rescue teams world wide, and features built in 2 way single sideband radio communication gear operated by a simple ‘push to talk’ button located on the front of the mouthpiece. Communication with both another diver and the surface can be established.

The FFM Diver course is 2 days in length and the successful student will receive the PADI Full Face Mask diver certification.

The full face mask equipment is used widely in specialty areas of diving but increasingly more common place for recreational divers as mentioned. Other uses such as for marine conservation studies. When a dive team is surveying coral reef the need for good communication is imperative. Increasingly due to the falling costs of the FFM masks, divers shall come across this type of diver equipment in trhe very near furture.

The Full Face Mask - The AVA Divator:

This Divator Full Face Mask is very popular, not only by professional divers, but also by recreational divers, who often dive in cold water or wish to stay in communication underwater even in warm. The Divator is fitted with a low volume diving visor designed to minimize the amount of air inside the face mask in order to reduce the effect of positive buoyancy. Weights are available which can be attached to the locating lugs on each side of the visor, if required. In addition to the counteraction of the positive buoyancy - the closer the visor is to the wearer's eyes the better the angle of vision.

The mask is available with 2 types of regulator, an ordinary demand regulator, or a 'positive pressure' regulator, which keep a positive pressure inside the mask, this add an extra safety feature while diving in contaminated or dirty water. The positive pressure reduces the risk of in leakage and the positive pressure in the mask is maintained irrespective of the diver's momentary air consumption. But if water should still have penetrated, the mask is easily drained by pushing the purge button of the breathing valve. The valve is designed to give a slight positive pressure of approximately 200 Pa (20 mm water column) in the mask. The positive pressure (safety pressure) is turned on automatically when the user takes his/her first breath in the mask. This ensures that there is no way of forgetting to turn on the positive pressure or that it could become accidentally turned off.

For PADI Dive Instructors: Mermaids have witnessed that the dive industry prefers to take dive instructors on for dive employment from the MSDT level and higher. Although it is possible to achieve dive jobs directly from an IDC (Instructor Development Course), dive employers are more likely to offer a dive position to a diver that has more experience. The MSDT scuba diving rating displays that the dive instructor has good experience teaching diving. The MSDT internship with PADI specialty diver courses can assist in your dive career.