Let me ask you all this. As a diver with a recently broken "bubble" can anyone tell me a little bit about the differences in the agencies. By this I mean style (teaching and diving), Philosophies, how long they have been around. Just curious about a little bachground.
Also (not that I am considering this) do people switch between agencies as they progress through the ranks ie. ow aow etc.
Most agencies tend to teach about the same material. The major difference is in how they teach it, and what they emphasize. I'll discuss just the ones I'm most familiar with.
PADI is by far the largest agency. PADI's curriculum is fairly structured ... module "B" follows module "A", and so on. There's some room for the instructor to add content, but he or she cannot fail a student if the student meets the PADI mandated requirements but does nor perform the added stuff to the instructor's satisfaction.
NAUI is a much smaller agency, although generally considered in the mainstream. Their student materials are similar to PADI's in terms of quality and presentation, but their teaching philosophy is different. NAUI uses a concept they call "freedom to teach", which means they give their instructors a set of "minimum" guidelines, and allow them to add content or rearrange the order of teaching modules as they see fit. The reasoning is that local conditions are going to call for differences in what is taught ... and how it is taught ... and that the local instructor knows best what the needs of the students will be.
Both teaching styles have advantages and drawbacks, and by far those are outweighed by the quality of your instructor and how much effort you are willing to put into the class.
Another difference is in how they emphasize the topics. PADI tends to focus on the mechanics (how) of diving skills, while NAUI tends to focus on the philosophy (why) of diving skills. Again, both approaches offer advantages and drawbacks, depending on how they're presented.
The YMCA's YScuba program is generally more comprehensive than either PADI or NAUI ... in part because it offers more class time and more pool time for the basic OW class. However, a lot of that time is spent on swimming and skin diving skills ... which many mainstream agencies currently feel aren't as necessary for diving as they once were considered to be. In many respects, the YScuba program tends to be "old school".
Of the three, the YMCA program is the oldest ... followed by NAUI ... followed by PADI. However, that's rather irrelevent, as they have all been around for a long time.
There are several other agencies out there that one can consider "mainstream" ... hopefully others will discuss them without too much rancor or poking at the other guys.
As to your last question ... it's common for recreational-level divers to take classes from more than one agency. I started out with the YMCA for OW, AOW, and Rescue ... then switched over to NAUI. I have also taken classes with a few other agencies. They all offer something of value, assuming you take them with a competent instructor.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
