PADI Instructor Numbers

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Dogbowl

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Just browsing through my log book and noticing the instructor numbers of all of the instructors I've had the privilege of diving with...most start with 2xxxxx, some with 3xxxxx and only one starts with 1xxxxx. I suppose these numbers are sequential. If that is the case, does anyone know approximately when these instructors would have been certified as instructors?

Anyone here have less than 6 digits in their instructor number?

I know dive shops also have shop numbers and I've dove with #23 before...

Anyone care to shed some light on these numbers and their history?

Just curious that's all.
 
Our original instructor has a 3xxxx number. (We got certified in 1990, don't know offhand when he became an instructor.)
 
I got my DM certification July 2015 and my number start with 36****

The number you get when certified Dviemaster sticks with you. So the number aren't from when the instructor were certified.
 
I suppose these numbers are sequential. If that is the case, does anyone know approximately when these instructors would have been certified as instructors?

I don't know what the logic is. All the instructors I know have a number starting with 9 and we all got our DM certifications in Europe. PADI's computer systems in different countries were not linked well (if at all) in the past. I suspect that part of the number has to do with a region so they weren't giving out identical numbers in two places.

My guess is that they still do this because.... well.... it appears to me as if they outsourced their ICT to hobbyists with good intentions. Just judging on their online tools, it has taken them forever to get something that worked at all, let alone well. Even their current batch of tools is unreliable in the sense they don't work on all devices/versions and on some devices they don't work at all. Moreover, the interfaces need some serious attention. In the piconline app, for example, if you make a mistake you sometimes have to start over from the very beginning of the process to fix it. That said, piconline is an order of magnitude better than the last system they had, which was still paper based, so I'm happy that it's there at all....

Nevetheless, they really need to start partnering up with a professional ICT club, imo. They're too big, and the IT is too important in this day and age to make a mess of it.

So getting back to the original point, I don't know how they assign certification numbers but I'm almost certain that they are not sequential. There must be some coding to it although I have no idea what it might be.

R..
 
Ok, so I learned 3 things...1) you get your DM number and it stays with you when you become an instructor; 2) European DM/instructor numbers start with a 9; 3) Americas (including North America and Caribbean) start with 1, 2 or 3 (so far).

I wonder about DM/instructor numbers from Asia.
 
Just to throw a spanner in the works; all my instructors and pro buddies who certified in the UK have numbers starting with a 3...
 
Just to throw a spanner in the works; all my instructors and pro buddies who certified in the UK have numbers starting with a 3...

Ok then, my #2 & 3 above have now been disproved!
 
Just to throw a spanner in the works; all my instructors and pro buddies who certified in the UK have numbers starting with a 3...

That makes sense because the UK regionally fell under the USA for some time. PADI central at the time was based in Switzerland for much of mainland Europe.

In the intervening time the Switzerland office has closed (I think) and PADI Europe has moved to the UK. Good chance that newer instructors in the UK no longer have a 3. After the Brexit they'll be back to Switzerland and the UK will probably fall under who ever wants to have them.... :)

All of this is just guesswork, of course, because as I said I have a sense that the numbers are coded but I don't know how.

R..
 
Only a 5 digit guy. 22***. Wife is 6 digit also 21***. Those come from mid 80's.
My original open water instructors were 4 digit.
 

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