We prefer PADI.
I guess we are partial. NAUI is a bit harder to come by locally. So Who is your certifying agency?
I am looking into NAUI or BASC for my snorkeling instructor cert.

julie

I think there is (for some reason) a bit of politics between the different qualifying bodies. Personally, I qualified with PADI, because it was what was around.

I spoke to a lovely lady who qualified with BSAC and she said the main difference is that BSAC covers some safety elements with dive emergencies in the basic BSAC qualification, which is only covered in the PADI rescue diver course. Which I guess is a pretty good thing.

I've also seen some differences in that for instance, PADI recommend the max recreational depth as 40m, whereas BSAC recommends a max depth of 50m.

What gets me is that I had to pull teeth to get my snorkeling cert. I didn't want just put a mask on and go. I wanted to learn everything similar to the BSAC program.
The PADI never heard of a snorkeler needing triangulation or drift diving. They also had a hard time understanding how DCS and snorkeling go together.
I had to literally take what I could from all resources and make my own practicums and OW test. Now the instructor wants me to go through all the same book work as the diver and apply it to advanced snorkeling. Which is great!
So now we are up to Rescue diver,, allot of good it did me when I was needing a rescue.. hehehe

julie

PADI is the most popular and it is the one I worked with. I have nothing but good things to say about it.

I'm BSAC! Looking at what my friends did for their PADI open water i can say i preferred the BSAC training, but then i am one of those people that likes the safety aspect

I am PADI certified and reason being is that it seems as if that is the most widely-recognized certifying body globally.

That and because my darling dearest is an instructor hahahaha.

I'm PADI certified but at the time i didn't realise there were so many different organisations to certify with, probably still would have chosen them if i'd have known about the others!

I qualified with SSI in Oz and our instructore told us that there are no major differences between PADI and SSI until you get to your DiveMaster! Really the only difference I spoted is the naming in some of the equipment, such as BCG/BC! Otherwise I haven't spotted much of a difference between the two bodies as of now, having dived with both!

See ya!

Hmm, I thanks for all the information on those groups. I will have to do some searches on google to read up.

Angel_Eyes83 wrote:
I qualified with SSI in Oz and our instructore told us that there are no major differences between PADI and SSI until you get to your DiveMaster! Really the only difference I spoted is the naming in some of the equipment, such as BCG/BC! Otherwise I haven't spotted much of a difference between the two bodies as of now, having dived with both!

Yeah the first stepping stone are pretty much all the same! They do vary a little bit as to what is included! At the end of the day it doesnt matter what agency you go with as you can dive with any agency once you have your qualification! I can walk into any PADI branch and dive with them as much as someone who has been diving with them for years, for example!

I have been looking at dive schools here in Phuket and they all seem to offer the PADI course.

It doesnt really matter, most agencies are close to the same. What does matter is the instructor, thats where you will find the biggest difference.

I got certified with PADI and had some problems, however, the problems were not related to PADI but the to the divemaster and the dive shop that I did it through. Main problem was that the dive master rushed through everything and had little patience. She had been diving for years so she brushed over some things which were obvious and second nature to her but not to new divers. I also had problems with the cost of my course not being all inclusive- lots of extra charges along the way which pissed me off and also the equipment wasn't exactly state of the art. If I had gone through Perth Diving Academy which is more expensive and also PADI it would have been all inclusive, they update their gear every year, they have a specially built diver training pool in their complex (I had to use a public pool). I also had a problem that my dives with Mindarie Dive only took me to max. 7m- that doesn't even require a safety stop! Also they are too tight-ass to send me my cert. PADI card, they won't mail it, I have to come in and pick it up. Grrrr. As I said though it was not PADI it was the dive shop and instructor.

pacdiver wrote:
It doesnt really matter, most agencies are close to the same. What does matter is the instructor, thats where you will find the biggest difference.
I think most who dive will agree with this statement. Your training is only as good as your instructor and how well he motivates you. The only time I think this changes a little is when you get into the more advanced diving then there are certain agency's that specalize in certain things.

Danikajaye wrote:
I got certified with PADI and had some problems, however, the problems were not related to PADI but the to the divemaster and the dive shop that I did it through. Main problem was that the dive master rushed through everything and had little patience. She had been diving for years so she brushed over some things which were obvious and second nature to her but not to new divers. I also had problems with the cost of my course not being all inclusive- lots of extra charges along the way which pissed me off and also the equipment wasn't exactly state of the art. If I had gone through Perth Diving Academy which is more expensive and also PADI it would have been all inclusive, they update their gear every year, they have a specially built diver training pool in their complex (I had to use a public pool). I also had a problem that my dives with Mindarie Dive only took me to max. 7m- that doesn't even require a safety stop! Also they are too tight-ass to send me my cert. PADI card, they won't mail it, I have to come in and pick it up. Grrrr. As I said though it was not PADI it was the dive shop and instructor.

Couple of things I'd note here:

As said before, no particular body can guarantee you a good tutor - it's down to the individual.

I don't see the problem in using a public pool, you just get to show off a bit

I do a safety stop on ALL dives, regardless of depth. If I've been under for more than a few minutes, I've been breathing air under pressure and require a safety stop, I believe that's standard PADI procedure. I read about a 12 year old suffering from DCI after only being at 4m.