PADI vs NAUI

[Thalassamania]

PADI has about 70% of the world market, NAUI has about 3-4% and maybe in financial trouble with the worlds current economic down turn. Sorry you NAUI guys, but they better get their act together. SSI would be a better second choice in my opinion. The training is all about he same with some minor differences. I like some things, and dislike others in all the organizations. The bottom line is that it is all controlled by the WRSTC who set the minimum standards. The instructor is the biggest factor in how well someone is trained, not the origination, although PADI has the largest worldwide recognition, not that they are the best.

Training is not all the same with some minor differences, for an example at the extreme, most AAUS programs, that are far more complete than PADI or SSI programs, operate comfortably under NAUI standards but could not operate under PADI or SSI standards.

The WRSTC and RSTC do not develop standards that they require the agencies to conform to, rather then codify a woefully inadequate mish-mash of the collected minimums of their members.

 

[Doppler]

PADI has about 70% of the world market, NAUI has about 3-4% and maybe in financial trouble with the worlds current economic down turn. Sorry you NAUI guys, but they better get their act together. SSI would be a better second choice in my opinion. The training is all about he same with some minor differences. I like some things, and dislike others in all the organizations. The bottom line is that it is all controlled by the WRSTC who set the minimum standards. The instructor is the biggest factor in how well someone is trained, not the origination, although PADI has the largest worldwide recognition, not that they are the best.

Where on earth are you getting your information?

Whoops, just saw Thalassamania's posting... so no need to expand. Just a simple WTF are you talking about to BushDiver

 

[BushDiver]

Here are a list of some Scuba training organizations worldwide, sorry if I forgot someone.
ACUC, AED, ANDI, ANIS, ANMP, ATEC, AUSI, BSAC, CEDIP, CMAS, DIWA, DRI, ESA, FIAS, FIPSAS, GUE, IADS, IAHD, IANTD, IDD, IDEA, IDIA, ISEA, ISE, ITDA, LACUIA, IART, Microdive, NACD, NASDS, NASE, NAUI, NOB, ÖSPV, PADI, PDA, PDIC, PRONRC, PROTEC, PSA, PSAI, PSS, SAA, SDI, SEI, SRS, SSAC, SSI, SNSI, SUSV, TDI, TXR, UEF, UDI, UDT, USAS, UTD, VDST, VDTL, VIT WOSD, YMCA. Do you really think NAUI has more than 3-4% worldwide market share today? They did maybe 30 years ago. The WRSTC is made up of 4 regions, RSTC-US, RSTC-CANADA, RSTC-EUROPE AND C-CARD JAPAN. The United States RSTC has these members IDEA, PADI, PDIC, SDI, and SSI.. It is interesting that from 1986 to 1992 the WRSTC was administered by Ken Brock, the executive director of NAUI at that time. NAUI is no longer a member of the RSTC-US, which benefits everyone who is an instructor by setting an agreed upon minimum standard of training for their members.
Here is an interesting WRSTC web site: WRSTC Downloads

 

[Thalassamania]

Here are a list of some Scuba training organizations worldwide, sorry if I forgot someone.
ACUC, AED, ANDI, ANIS, ANMP, ATEC, AUSI, BSAC, CEDIP, CMAS, DIWA, DRI, ESA, FIAS, FIPSAS, GUE, IADS, IAHD, IANTD, IDD, IDEA, IDIA, ISEA, ISE, ITDA, LACUIA, IART, Microdive, NACD, NASDS, NASE, NAUI, NOB, ÖSPV, PADI, PDA, PDIC, PRONRC, PROTEC, PSA, PSAI, PSS, SAA, SDI, SEI, SRS, SSAC, SSI, SNSI, SUSV, TDI, TXR, UEF, UDI, UDT, USAS, UTD, VDST, VDTL, VIT WOSD, YMCA. Do you really think NAUI has more than 3-4% worldwide market share today? They did maybe 30 years ago. The WRSTC is made up of 4 regions, RSTC-US, RSTC-CANADA, RSTC-EUROPE AND C-CARD JAPAN. The United States RSTC has these members IDEA, PADI, PDIC, SDI, and SSI.. It is interesting that from 1986 to 1992 the WRSTC was administered by Ken Brock, the executive director of NAUI at that time. NAUI is no longer a member of the RSTC-US, which benefits everyone who is an instructor by setting an agreed upon minimum standard of training for their members.
Here is an interesting WRSTC web site: WRSTC Downloads

And your point is?

Here is the reality:

The RSTC was founded for the purpose of hijacking the Z-86 process of the American National Standards Institute that had been run by the Underwater Society of America (a CMAS affiliate) as well as to try to deflate CMAS' importance at a time when PADI was aggressively trying to expand internationally in a way that we prohibited by CMAS international agreements.

Today the RSTC and WRSTC exist for the purpose of creating credibility for incredibly bad standards. To the best of my knowledge no agency has ever had to raise its standards to join or to maintain their membership. These so called standards are nothing more than a collection of standards in which the least demanding standard of the member agencies in each area are draw together and presented to the populace as an acceptable minimum standard. NAUI was the only organization with enough guts to call them on this.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

NAUI is no longer a member of the RSTC-US, which benefits everyone who is an instructor by setting an agreed upon minimum standard of training for their members.

The RSTC does not benefit everyone who is an instructor. I am an instructor, and the RSTC does not in any way affect me ... positive or negative.

The RSTC only affects member agencies. It's not a regulatory body ... it's a club.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The RSTC is not something that anyone should look to for dive standards. They just came out with standards for a "Supervised Diver" for chrissakes to justify putting incompetent people in the water and to give some legitimacy to these programs for those who have to be led around by the hand. It was not universally popular within the RSTC. I got that from an RSTC board member. It is all about money and making a lot of it. The RSTC is more and more losing any credibility it might have had in the dive community. The more they water down and standards the more of a joke they become.

In some ways it does benefit me. It allows the certification of divers who then have to come to me to get the training they should have gotten in the OW class. They did not and either felt that much was missing, got the crap scared out of them, or got pissed at the entity that took their money and did not give them what they paid for because they stuck to bare minimums. So in a way their lack of competence and poor standards push people to instructors like me.

 

[Thalassamania]

As someone who was directly involved in the Z-86 process both with the USA and the RSTC I must say the the RSTC never had any creditability when it came to standards, all they had was a lot of cash. What they did, in essence, was to buy credibility in the eyes of those with insufficient background to know any better,

 

[Pullmyfinger]

It really is a shame that people get caught up in which agency is the best. All agencies adhere to EXACTLY the
same standards for their Basic course.

Where did you hear this? Whoever told you that every agencies' basic courses are the same because they all have the same standards, probably wasn't truly aware of what the other agencies are doing.
There are big differences in how OW courses are taught. Also it's not about getting "caught up" in the best, it's about seeking better instruction. Sorry, but with most products some are better than others. I don't have to get "caught up" in it to know the differences.

If there's a McDonald's sign over the door, I already have a pretty good idea of how the burger is going to taste.

I'm sure there are plenty of McDonald's employee's out there who truly believe that their burger is as good as one of these:

Home - DuMont Burger Restaurant - Brooklyn, New York

Even though they are both hamburgers, and may contain similar ingredients..........one is clearly made to a higher standard.
Not that there's anything wrong with a McDonald's burger when you need something right away. ;-) They have to be good.......everyone else is eating them.

-Mitch

 

[Brendon]

PADI has about 70% of the world market, NAUI has about 3-4% and maybe in financial trouble with the worlds current economic down turn.

You are straight trippen, what did you look that up in 10yr old PADI sanctioned magazine or something. You obviously dont know jack about NAUI or PADI...

 

[BushDiver]

Guys, we are talking about “recreational diving” worldwide here. Do you really think the French and CMAS really care about AAUS. They always tell me they, (CMAS) are the best and only REAL divers. Like I care what they think. I see what they do. Allot of it is crazy and dangerous. I don’t know if they were trained that way or not. No BCD a hard back, no octopus, and no weights, no computer, in warm water with only a skin. But they did have a buddy. We are talking about PADI, NAUI, and worldwide recognition. The guy that does 5-10 dives a year on vacation in BFE. Yes, I forgot AAUS, probably one of the best US dive organizations, but not mainstream recreational diving, with a probably .001% worldwide market share. See how that flies worldwide when you whip out your AAUS card. You’ll probably get allot of people that say WFT in BFE. I said the instructor is the most important aspect of diver training. With any agency I have seen terrible divers from great organizations. They probably had a terrible instructor, or pressure from the boss at some vacation spot to cert them in 3-4 days. I know a guy who became a CD over dinner, he was an OWI. Like I said it’s the individual instructors training that make good divers, not the organization and their conscious if they have one to see that they made a good and safe diver before they cert them. As far as the RSTC goes, everything about diving is the money. You would be crazy if you just taught to the RSTC minimum standards. But if not them, then who? Do you think your dive organization is going to stand behind you if you get sued by some crazy that went out and hurt themselves and is not a member of the RSTC. At least in court you can say you and your training organization followed these “RSTC” universal standards agreed upon by the majority of the largest diving instructional institutes. In other words the people that crank out the most divers and have the most money. But in court it works, the jury goes oh yea it must be good they all agreed, unless you’re a real screw up. But we are off the NAUI vs PADI thing again. Do you think Brown eggs are better than White eggs?