Your favorite certification agency ...

I want to direct this question to students as well as instructors and dive masters.

Which certification agency do you prefer and why? I was reading through the websites of various agencies and I was particularly impressed by PSAI and UTD. UTD because of the way they structured dive training. Instead of doing OW followed by a specialty sampler, UTD had Rec 1, Rec 2, and Rec 3 which combined a lot of specialties into three different levels. It appeared to be more logical approach towards diver education instead of breaking fundamentals like boat entries, shore entries and buoyancy into "courses" and charging money to give you an AOW card. PSAI because of their Narcossis management courses that are broken down into various depths.

Whats your and why? Thanks.

+1 for UTD. I'm impressed by their inclusive philosophy (many gear configurations, many skill levels, tech or rec, all invited) and rigorous emphasis on basics such as trim, buoyancy, and teamwork/buddy communication at all skill levels. On top of that, their equipment is really innovative and great. But that's another thread.

I think UTD is turning out some of the best OW certified divers in the industry. GUE is doing something similar with basic OW training as well.

Now if only we could educate the consumers of dive education to understand the difference between these programs and the 2-day C-card mills...

I have done both the Padi And SSI ow courses (my wife book and paid for the second OW by mistake it was meant to be a refresher) and I truly believe it not about the agency, the quality and enjoyment in my opinion is about 30% to do with the instructor as they are required to teach a format and 60% to do with the quality of the assistance as they are the ones who have the time to sort out a problem when the instructor has moved on to the next student and 10% to do with the shop staff some tend to try to talk you in to buying gear that will give them a better profit rather than what is best for you.

CMAS is my preferred agency because of the more indepth training and having been lucky enough to find an excellent instructor who has become a mentor. I am also PADI certified but prefer CMAS for many reasons and I also dive in areas where CMAS is preferred over PADI.

Have to echo the sentiment that the instructor has a lot to do with it. Agencies only sets 'minimums' that must be adhered to.

I want to take a class from an instructor who looks at the 'minimums' and then goes beyond them. I want to be ushed as far as my ability but not break it. I want an instructor who realizes that everyone is different and may have to modify some aspects of what is considered 'basic skill' given some of my unique medical issues and physical form (to be exact I can't do a certain entry technique because of an elbow and screw up shoulders, Ast. Instructor showed me a few alternatives. Physical form is learning skills about a traditional weightbelt are moot given I have NO hips to rest upon to keep it where it belongs).

I have had PADI, NAUI instructors I wouldn't hesitate to go out on a dive. I've read some instructors from other agencies here I would never take a class from.

I have cards from PADI, NAUI, TDI, GUE, UTD and NACD.

I like GUE (which will not surprise anybody who knows me) for the following reasons: They have public, published standards available to anyone to read, including evaluation criteria for each skill and what score a diver must get to pass a class. They begin with the end in mind . . . All training is designed to create a diver who CAN, if he wishes, move on to the next level in a seamless fashion. Although many people find the gear requirements onerous or inexplicable, they set the new diver up in a gear configuration that will take them almost anywhere, as opposed to equipment which has to be jettisoned if the diver wishes to move on to anything deep or technical. They are a non-profit organization that operates according to their basic tenets, without concern for income (at least to the agency itself). They require their instructors to be certified at least one level above where they teach, and there are significant currency requirements for maintaining instructor status (nor is it easy to become a GUE instructor in the first place, which is part of why there are so few).

UTD has some similar qualities, and adds the on-line classrooms, which would be fabulous if they were adequately quality-controlled. However, the agency is for profit and it shows, and they have diluted the quality of their instruction by mixing it with agency-branded gear sales.

Every other agency with which I have worked, as student or professional, suffers from a lack of significantly clear standards and evaluation criteria, as well as an overly easy process to become an instructor.

Recreational: PADI
Technical: IANTD. I probably would had gone PADI as well but PADI was totally against the idea back in late 90's.

I also like the CMAS system when it is done properly. The Level 1 doesn't allow independent diving and the Level 2 is more 'advanced' and slightly more difficult to attain than other agencies (PADI/SSI/NAUI) who seem to use the 'advanced' as a fairly hollow marketing ploy.

Again, this is when it's done properly. I have seen some god-awful divers from multiple rec agencies.

I currently hold C-cards from YScuba, NAUI, SDI/TDI, IANTD, GUE, and NSS/CDS ... and my preferences have less to do with agency than they do instructor. Of the 20+ classes I've taken so far, only two were chosen specifically because of the agency ... GUE, because they were at the time the only agency offering a course like Fundamentals, and NAUI because I wanted to become an instructor and liked their "freedom to teach". Other than that, every single course I've chosen was either by chance ... YScuba because at the time I wasn't aware I even had more options ... or because I selected a specific instructor and didn't really care what agency they represented ... IANTD and NSS/CDS for example.

I do tire of the endless agency discussions on ScubaBoard ... particularly those that bash an agency while ignoring the fact that they all have good and bad instructors. I also tire of the obligatory "take a GUE class" interjections into every single question anyone ever posts about what class they should take. The truth is that even GUE has had bad instructors ... and GUE is not a good fit for everyone's diving needs or preferences.

There's a reason why multiple agencies exist ... and the one that works best for any given individual depends as much on what that person wants out of the program, on their particular learning style, and on availability, as it does the agency or the instructor. What works best for you may be a horrible choice for someone else ... and the reasons that turned you on to a specific choice may be a huge turnoff for the person who's asking the question.

To answer the OP's question directly, I don't have a favorite certification agency ... not even the one I teach for. What I have are specific needs at specific points in my development as a diver. The agency that works best for me at any given time is the one that can provide me with an instructor that best meets those needs.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)