Pcfaj and Eric - thanks for the comments on GUE, I hadn't heard of them. What other agencies have you trained with for comparison's sake?
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Nothing really compares to GUE's style and gear config other than perhaps some other cave cert agencies? I'm not a cave diver so I really don't know. My TDI tech courses certainly weren't even up to GUE's standards.Pcfaj and Eric - thanks for the comments on GUE, I hadn't heard of them. What other agencies have you trained with for comparison's sake?
NAUI (ow, aow, nitrox, cavern, cave 1), padi (rescue, efr), nss-CDS cave dpv, iantd tech supervisorPcfaj and Eric - thanks for the comments on GUE, I hadn't heard of them. What other agencies have you trained with for comparison's sake?
Are you looking for the hardest, in terms of physically demanding, or are you really looking for the most thorough? The larger training agencies have rigorous standards that they demand their instructors adhere to. I have certifications from PADI, SSI and TDI and have been both a PADI and an SSI Instructor. I know first hand that no agency wants its instructors turning out unsafe and irresponsible divers. The standards tell us what we must cover and how we must teach it, within certain parameters. Some of the "old time" teaching methods would definitely get you sanctioned today.If there is a difference in agencies, what who/which has the hardest training? I don't want to take the easiest route, but I'd rather be trained by the best. Is that a thing anymore?
I completely agree with this. I feel that this sort of information to a person looking to get certified leads to a lot a anxiety that they might get hooked up with a loser, and that's just the way it is. Unfortunately, too many times it's true.Overall, standard of diver training at the recreational level is disappointingly poor. Consensus on this board is that "it is not the agency but the instructor that matters." To me this statement is indicative of the fact that training agencies are a global failure. The whole purpose of a certification agency is to create and maintain a certain standard across the board. Imagine how silly it would sound if someone said, Harvard, MIT, Oxford do not matter. Look for a good professor instead. Or, it does not matter whether it is Burger King, McDonalds or Harveys. Just look for the Chef. The rhetoric which is unacceptable in almost any other context is totally acceptable when we talk about the diving industry.
The only two exceptions I can think of are GUE and UTD. While I am not fully convinced of everything these guys do and I find their training and diving to be expensive, one thing that I give them credit for is that they do a far better job at maintaining standard than any other agency I have come across. This is not to say that other agencies do not have good instructors but that they do a pathetic job at filtering out the bad ones.
Pcfaj and Eric - thanks for the comments on GUE, I hadn't heard of them. What other agencies have you trained with for comparison's sake?
NAUI (ow, aow, nitrox, cavern, cave 1), padi (rescue, efr), nss-CDS cave dpv, iantd tech supervisor
Rec2 includes some "rescue diver" curriculum, I believe.
And yes GUE is uniformly better than the rest.
Generally speaking I think that there are few differences between recreational agencies beyond instructor competence aside from BSAC. BSAC does pretty much their own thing, in a strictly British context and IMO are well behind the curve when it comes to integrating emerging best practices. (and by well behind the curve I mean 15-20 years). They appear to have not kept pace since their break away from CMAS and presently, the only divers I routinely see who would appear to be further behind the curve are public safety divers on mainland Europe, some of whom are still using horse-collar BCD's because their commanders haven't discovered electricity (and therefore the internet) yet.TL;DR: Is there any difference between any of the certification agencies anymore, or does it all boil down to the instructor? If there is a best (or better) cert, what is it? I am not looking for the cheapest/easiest or the chest-thumping'est route. I'm looking for the agency this is most likely to ensure that my training will prevent me from being a statistic in some government report.
I got certified almost 20 years ago by PADI (OWD) and DRI (Public Safety Diver) and then took 14 years off from diving. Recently, I went on vacation and did a re-cert and some OW dives in Jamaica. While diving with the "resort divers" I ended up rescuing a dive buddy at the surface (she forgot to connect her low-pressure hose) and helping a panicked diver when she was faced with a swim-through that she wasn't ready for... Both of those situations showed me that I am under-trained for what I was encountering and encouraged me to get more training. Here's the question: Is there any real difference between any of the dive training agencies anymore, or is it more just a question of who your instructor is/and the instructor's experience? I did my AOW training with PADI in 01, and just repeated it last month, and while I learned some things, I can say that on the whole, I have not been impressed with dive training in general. I want to know that my instruction and skill set is the best that I can have and while there's a certain measure of individual responsibility there, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, I don't know what I don't know.
If there is a difference in agencies, what who/which has the hardest training? I don't want to take the easiest route, but I'd rather be trained by the best. Is that a thing anymore?
Thanks.