SSI Open Water Diver materials are now available in English, Spanish, German, French and Russian. This is the first time in SSI's History that such a task has ever been completed within a year. It could not have been done without the outstanding efforts put forth by each Regional Center and their Development and Translation Teams.

The SSI Product Development Team has officially begun the 2004 development schedule and so far, it looks like it will be a great year. Here's a brief look at what we have on tap, and what you can expect to see for the year.

Boat Diving, Deep Diving and Enriched Air Nitrox, are currently under heavy revision. Along with updating all of the information and fixing mistakes in the text, SSI's primary goals are to: make the look and feel of the specialty student manuals match that of the recently revised SSI Open Water Diver Student Manual; update all of the photographs and illustrations and Insert the Divers Diamond and "Pearl" where appropriate; and integrate all new video and animation into entirely new multimedia DVDs. Each of these revised titles will launch when their inventory rolls over, so expect to see them at various times throughout 2004.

New for 2004 will be the highly anticipated SSI Search and Recovery Specialty course. Instructor materials and student materials (including a multimedia DVD) will be evaluated via test courses in the early spring, with final changes and program launch following shortly thereafter. In mid-2004, SSI plan to overhaul the SSI Diver Stress and Rescue, Night and Limited Visibility, Underwater Navigation, Equipment Techniques and Computer Diving Specialties.