Capt Jim Wyatt
Hanging at the 10 Foot Stop
Staff member
ScubaBoard Business Sponsor
Scuba Instructor
By whose account?All true, but SDI has a reputation for more solid, thorough training courses.
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By whose account?All true, but SDI has a reputation for more solid, thorough training courses.
By whose account?
Along with this is the need for insurance, since bouncing around from shop to shop means you'll likely need to have your own rather than the shop providing it for you.Another consideration is whether you can be an independent instructor with an agency, or whether you must work through an agency-affiliated shop. PADI makes this easy, SDI is OK, SSI not at all. NAUI is simply irrelevant in most of the world. (Sorry, Boltsnap.)
That's primarily why I suggested it for the OP's purposes.ADDITION: It could be complete bunk as well. Just sharing what I've heard. Bottom line is that PADI, SSI and SDI are all strong, solid agencies. SSI seems to really be busting PADI's chops and in another 5-10 years may end up with a solid share of PADI's business. SDI does not seem to be growing at the same rate.
To be clear....if you are a PADI instructor an SDI shop (for example) might let you teach one of their students but it would be a PADI class you are teaching, not an SDI class. I'd guess this is very unlikely. Aside from the pricing/profit complexity, the shop would get no credits from SDI for that student and that is not to their advantage.I think a non-PADI shop could let you teach their students, as long as they're aware ahead of time.