SSI or PADI

[Bookmon]

If not too late.
I’m cert PADI. I find PADI and NAUI to be more gunho macho. I can say this having worked with both.
My wife is SSI. They are much more gentile and accommodating in approach to pool skills. Nurturing you into proficiency. And again, I worked with the SSI folks too. I am a Divemaster.
The card is the same weight anywhere for open water diving. I enjoyed working with SSI much more than the others.
Good luck with either.

 

[yle]

PADI or SSI?

It's like asking which you should choose, Ford truck or Chevy truck. They do the same thing. Pick the one you like. And then be prepared for people to tell you all the reasons you should have chosen the other one. But ignore them... and just enjoy your new truck.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

For openwater, the agency isn't as critical. Once you get to Divemaster, you're kinding of locking yourself in to one or another agency and you should think carefully. (You can cross-train to another agency, but that's an added level of effort.)

Between openwater and DM, there are differences but I'd still go with the earlier advice of "pick a shop that works for you." The other differences are trivial enough it doesn't matter.

I started out YMCA (doesn't exist anymore) because they had no vested interest in selling gear. I did NAUI advanced openwater because the instructor where I work was NAUI and could certify me for the cost of the card. I did PADI Rescue because, well, it was convenient. I did PADI DM because the shop I trust and that has the most complete services is PADI. If I go instructor, I'll go PADI because I'm already in their system.

If I were King of the Diving World, I'd resurrect YMCA and work solely through them. But that ain't happening.

 

[SapphireMind]

I'm NASE, because that was the shop that fit my schedule the best at the time. But the shop wasn't super close and so as I've moved on and taken more diving classes, all of my classes are SSI. I honestly chose at random for the classwork. My open water dives were actually with an SSI instructor.

The one thing I do for my classes is to do private sessions for ocean diving classes. I'm a perfectionist and I don't want to feel like I am holding others back if I want to practice a skill more. When I did my open water, my instructor was satisfied with my lost regulator finding and buddy octopus handoff, but I didn't feel comfortable with the skills yet, so I kept doing them longer until I felt like I could be minimally competent in my own opinion.

I also sometimes get nervous practices new skills in front of other people, which can increase the likelihood of mistakes. Plus my instructor only has to watch for me and what I'm doing, not 3 or 4 other people. Add that into my weird work schedule - it's just better all around.

I've also definitely found instructors I don't like as much and some that I love. I try and make sure I check who the instructor is so at least I know what I'm signing up for LOL

 

[Scuba Scott]

I find PADI and NAUI to be more gunho macho. I can say this having worked with both.
My wife is SSI. They are much more gentile and accommodating in approach to pool skills. Nurturing you into proficiency.

There is just no part of this that is true in any way at all. This may be your personal experience but it is not the norm.

I know several PADI instructors and one NAUI instructor. None of them are this way. The NAUI instructor I know can run a tough class if he wants to but it is not the norm.

I can be used as an extreme example. I am in the military and all of my last 50+ students so far this year have also been military. You might assume these would be "macho" classes.
I teach a fun and relaxing class. My students have enough stress and don't need more in the little time they have off. In fact, I start my class with 3 rules and rule 1 is "have fun. If you aren't having fun, stop me and let me know so we can find a way to fix that."
I don't like the "macho" style classes because they just take too much time for games that don't translate to required skill proficiency.

Please don't make general statements about instructors from any agency until you have met all of them. That will be a more difficult task with some agencies than others. Feel free to discuss the written standards of the various agencies as this is something that shouldn't vary between instructors. Interview your individual instructor to make sure your personalities mesh.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Late to the party, but in terms of overall skills that are taught, there really isn't much of a difference. There are some organizational differences, but most students wouldn't notice. I think SSI has the best online training there, but everyone else is working hard to catch up. I don't think that is a competitive advantage.

I think it is most important to find an instructor from any agency that you seem to have a rapport that teaching neutral buoyancy from the start. There is no need to be on your knees ever, not even in confined water 1.

 

[purbeast]

I don't recall the details because it was months ago when I went to the orientation, but the OW cert class I'm taking will allow me to have PADI, NAUI, and SSI after I'm done with my checkout dives. I would only have those 3 though if I did the checkout dives with the class trip since the instructor is the one who does it. I really don't even know the difference though, I was just going to do PADI since that's what I had mainly heard of lol.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

but the OW cert class I'm taking will allow me to have PADI, NAUI, and SSI after I'm done with my checkout dives.

So you are fulfilling the academic requirements for all 3 agencies?

 

[purbeast]

So you are fulfilling the academic requirements for all 3 agencies?

I'd hope so considering what he said at the orientation. I'm assuming there is a lot of overlap? Again, I don't remember any details or anything since it was months ago.

 

[Diver0001]

You're absolutely right. I acknowledge that PADI permits primary donate. I'll edit my post. But a friend's PADI OW instructor wouldn't teach her with a 40" hose, and insisted on PADI's textbook configuration. Whether or not it's in standards, not a few shops and instructors have interpreted their pictures as "rules." My pointing out that the standards allow different equipment configurations didn't make them budge.

Some instructors don't fully grasp what they are doing. (present company not included, I'm talking in generalities here).

I'm guessing that the ones who look at the "comic book" version of the course and don't bother really delving into the details of what they are doing will also look at the pictures of students kneeling on the bottom and conclude, despite standards explicitly stating otherwise, that they are not required to teach neutral buoyancy to their students beyond struggling through the couple of minutes of "sort of hovering" that I'm sure they find to be the most difficult and challenging things to teach.

My point being... also to the OP... that the instructor is EVERYTHING at this level. There are VAST quality differences in the delivery of any course from one instructor to the other and nowhere does it show up more than at the novice level.

As for PADI or SSI..... SSI started life as a PADI clone. They copied the course and changed only the minimum number of things to avoid copyright infringement. Fairly recently PADI has been innovating again--as John pointed out--and at some point SSI will follow suit, because following is what they do best, but in terms of basic learning at this point in time, either system will do provided you can find a competent instructor.

I want to say that last thing again.... "provided you can find a competent instructor". NO system, regardless of how good it looks on paper is worth it's weight in doggy drool if your instructor doesn't know what they are doing. Every system has good instructors who know how to use the system to teach well and every system had bad instructors who look for the wiggle room to justify being an incompetent bozo who will put you, as a novice diver, at risk.

Making this distinction is difficult if you have no frame of reference to go on, so you absolutely NEED to get references and recommendations. This is one case where shopping around does make a huge difference.

R..