What matters it to have a good instructor. There are many very good or excellent instructors running PADI courses.
There are also a minority of not-so-good instructors which are not teaching so well. PADI tolerates them in their ranks, if they provide a decent number of certifications per year. Also other agencies tolerate such sub-par instructors.
Probably PADI is more tolerant.
But from the consumer point of view, what matters is to find a good instructor, whatever the agency he is operating with. And for assessing a good instructor, reputation from previous students is the most reliable source.
So just ask around, and you will easily spot the best instructors of your area. Then probably they will cost slightly more than others. But that is money spent very well.
Regarding the "value" of your certification, actually PADI is the best: recognized worldwide everywhere. You will never have a problem with it...
My sons have been trained and certified by me and my wife, as we are CMAS instructors. But at the end we also had them re-certified by PADI as AOW, as that is the card which allows them to travel the world and dive everywhere. Our Italian CMAS certification has not the same degree of acceptability, despite the fact that a Cmas (or BSAC) course is longer and more challenging than the same-level PADI course.
So PADI has got my money, which from a certain point of view is nonsense, as I am a full instructor, I can release certifications myself. But PADI is some sort of a brand, low level but worldwide recognized. So I did find worth to spend my money having my sons certified by PADI.
And, surprise, we all learned something new!
The WHEEL: a completely mechanical computer system for repetitive dive. Ingenious!
There are excellent brains also at PADI: working for profit, sure, but not the last ones arrived in the world of diving...
There are also a minority of not-so-good instructors which are not teaching so well. PADI tolerates them in their ranks, if they provide a decent number of certifications per year. Also other agencies tolerate such sub-par instructors.
Probably PADI is more tolerant.
But from the consumer point of view, what matters is to find a good instructor, whatever the agency he is operating with. And for assessing a good instructor, reputation from previous students is the most reliable source.
So just ask around, and you will easily spot the best instructors of your area. Then probably they will cost slightly more than others. But that is money spent very well.
Regarding the "value" of your certification, actually PADI is the best: recognized worldwide everywhere. You will never have a problem with it...
My sons have been trained and certified by me and my wife, as we are CMAS instructors. But at the end we also had them re-certified by PADI as AOW, as that is the card which allows them to travel the world and dive everywhere. Our Italian CMAS certification has not the same degree of acceptability, despite the fact that a Cmas (or BSAC) course is longer and more challenging than the same-level PADI course.
So PADI has got my money, which from a certain point of view is nonsense, as I am a full instructor, I can release certifications myself. But PADI is some sort of a brand, low level but worldwide recognized. So I did find worth to spend my money having my sons certified by PADI.
And, surprise, we all learned something new!
The WHEEL: a completely mechanical computer system for repetitive dive. Ingenious!
There are excellent brains also at PADI: working for profit, sure, but not the last ones arrived in the world of diving...