A C-Card is recognized by dive-ops as a C-Card. YMCA is highly respected.
You can get air and go diving.
Now its up to you to gain experience by actually diving and continuing your education.
The big agencies will give you similar sets of standards, and the individual instructor will either teach to the lowest common denominator or add his/her insight and experience to make an outstanding class.
If you want the most thorough education based on tough standards, then pursue DIR, GUE, TDI or courses from Thalassamania, LA County, etc., and then go out and dive to gain experience and expertise.
:blinking:Some people on this board would argue that the Instructor is a slave to the inadequate standards of the agency, but the following is an example of how Instructors can use or surpass the base standards.
My best friend is a NAUI Instructor, and many good buddies are SSI Instructors. I am a PADI Instructor. We dive together and compare notes all of the time. Everything is really similar.
The biggest difference is that my best friend doesn't like to spend too much time in the pool, so he tends to get through the class as quickly as possible and have the students accomplish the set forth NAUI minimum standards. He is an excellent communicator, a great diver, and a great teacher, but he is a busy man, and wants the most bang for the buck. He is satisfied and his students appear to be happy.
I teach a semester long Scuba Diving course at a major University, and my classes tend to be very thorough in the the classroom and pool. The students must pass the course for college credit as well as a C-Card. Its a minimum of 28 hours.
Our Open Water site is too deep for students to go to the botom, so all skills are done while hovering. Our students never even see the bottom, so there is no kneeling, no roto-tilling, only new divers becoming proficient at neutral bouyancy while they are demonstrating their skills.
In both confined water and open water, we spend additional time working on trim,
buoyancy games, various finning techniques, streamlining, dive planning, gear and equipment, question and answer sessions, etc.
So, while meeting all PADI standards, I exceed them throughout the course. I'm satisfied and the students appear to be happy.
Not PADI vs NAUI, just the way I like to teach, vs the way my friend likes to teach.
In the end, all of the education in the world is useless if the newly certified diver doesn't go out and dive. Practise and repetition, and varied conditions and situations, are the only way to use the new skills and not lose the new skills.
