any other agencies other than padi and naui?

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detox

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again one day I'm hoping to get certified so in the meantime I'm doing my reading and research. Are their any other agencies to get certified with other than naui and padi? Or are they just the most reckognized? RIght now I'm leaning towards Naui due to the feel I get on the board that PADI tends to rush instructors and students. I feel NAUI might be harder but in essense make me a more compentant and diverse diver. It also seems as if the majority of the people here are NAUI. Any suggestions? ALso are their any website that compares the requirements from the two agencies neck to nec?
 
SSI
YMCA
 
are they worth going for? is there a site that compares differences? I am looking for something that is most widely reckognized and accepted
 
Generally accepted knowledge on the board is that the instructor is much more important than choice of agency affiliation. Find a good instructor and you will get good training, no matter what your card says.

As far as universally accepted, you will probably have no problems with any of them, but PADI is definitely the largest and most prolific.
 
detox once bubbled...
again one day I'm hoping to get certified so in the meantime I'm doing my reading and research. Are their any other agencies to get certified with other than naui and padi? Or are they just the most reckognized? RIght now I'm leaning towards Naui due to the feel I get on the board that PADI tends to rush instructors and students. I feel NAUI might be harder but in essense make me a more compentant and diverse diver. It also seems as if the majority of the people here are NAUI. Any suggestions? ALso are their any website that compares the requirements from the two agencies neck to nec?

It's OK to compare requirements. The problem is though that there are too many instructors who don't follow the requirements. Also the difference between a great class and a poor class is often due to things not even addressed in the standards. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't research agencies but you should also research the instructor.
 
I certified with SSI and had a pretty good instructor. The one thing to remember is to ask questions. The two buddies that I go with fairly often had a bad experience with their PADI OW course.
He told me that they did'nt get any training or discussions on alttitude diving (which here in Utah it's 4200-7500 feet for most dives) and was told by his instructor that was another course and extra money.

My friend went to the SSI LDS that I went through to get his son into a class for OW. He told me that he sat in on his sons class and his son got much more time in the classroom and pool.

I feel I got pretty good instruction and it serves me well. I'd give my push for SSI but I'm sure that there are others out there that are just as good. It seems to be a mix of LDS, Certification agency, and instructor. I'm not an expert but, I've experienced one side and my friends have told me another.

Just my little humbled opinion,

SD
 
I can't BELIEVE they don't at least give them a little info about altitude diving! I had the pleasure of diving Homestead Crater and Bonneville Seabase this summer and had a quick course in altitude diving from a really cool instructor. Even though those dive sites seem "simple" there's still the danger posed by the altitude, to me it's irresponsible to fail to notify your students about all hazards posed by the dive sites in the training location. My students are trained to exit zero visibility situations (all too common in Ohio) but that doesn't mean they don't get drilled in the pool with a 45 minute zero visibility exercise to build comfort levels.

Hey DETOX
No matter what agency you choose there are good instructors from that agency on the board and they're always willing to answer questions. Feel free to post your experiences and ask for advice or help if you need it.
Ber :bunny:
 
Good points,

My two buddies both certified in the Homestead Crater and live in Salt Lake. Driving over the pass past Jordanelle Dam (which is the shortest route to SLC) and then Parleys summit west of Park City which is about 6750 (ballpark - don't know off hand exact) feet could be considered some ammount of elevation gain. I don't know the exacts on what my buddy got or didn't get from his course overall but I know he was not a happy camper as we say out here.

Not much was mentioned about traveling over mountain passes in my course but, alttitude diving (along with airplanes) was briefly but, carefully covered and talked about. I've been to Seabase and they have a alttitude chart there for divers to use.

I know for a fact that this hobby/sport holds it's unique properties but with anything that requires skill you're going to need competent instruction.

Cheers

SD



Ber Rabbit once bubbled...
I can't BELIEVE they don't at least give them a little info about altitude diving! I had the pleasure of diving Homestead Crater and Bonneville Seabase this summer and had a quick course in altitude diving from a really cool instructor. Even though those dive sites seem "simple" there's still the danger posed by the altitude, to me it's irresponsible to fail to notify your students about all hazards posed by the dive sites in the training location. My students are trained to exit zero visibility situations (all too common in Ohio) but that doesn't mean they don't get drilled in the pool with a 45 minute zero visibility exercise to build comfort levels.

Hey DETOX
No matter what agency you choose there are good instructors from that agency on the board and they're always willing to answer questions. Feel free to post your experiences and ask for advice or help if you need it.
Ber :bunny:
 
There are a lot more agencies than those two, though availability will depend on where you live. See Certification Agencies for most of them.

As far as a comparison, there is a controversial article at http://diverlink.com/newdiver/agencycomparison.htm It's so controversial that PADI sued the site that published it after cooperating with the author in ensuring accuracy and thanking him for it. You can read more about that elsewhere around here so I won't go into any details.

Regardless of the agency, the choice of instructor is important. Be sure to read an article about choosing a good instructor at http://diverlink.com/newdiver There are some other articles in that same section you'll want to read.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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