Advanced Course: PADI VS SSI?

[lizzygirl]

My hubby & I are planning on getting Advanced Cert in Koh Tao soon. Wondering what the difference bwtn SSI & PADI is? The 5 dives seem the same....
We are OW cert with NAUI, but it doesn't seem that I have to stick with them since it's pretty hard to find a NAUI outfit overseas....
I'm considering Simple Life VS Big Blue.
Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Quero]

You should find an instructor you have confidence in and just do the cert with whichever agency s/he teaches for. The courses aren't all that different. Beyond that, I would expect the SSI course to be a little cheaper than the PADI course because of the cost of the manual, which SSI students are not required to buy. However, on Tao, some operators skirt the intent of the PADI requirement with a book buy-back scheme, effectively making the two courses the same price.

 

[DevonDiver]

The SSI and PADI courses are essentially identical at OW level. As Quero says, find a dive centre and instructor that you are confident in. There are plenty of threads that you can search here on Scubaboard that will give you a clear indication of what questions to ask and what to look for when deciding on your course provider. The quality of dive shops on Koh Tao varies remarkably, so it pays to be choosy.

 

[tstormdiver]

Actually, there ARE some differences between PADI & SSI at the AOW level. That being said, SSI's Advanced Adventurer is identical to PAD's AOW. PADI's AOW & SSI's Advanced Adventurer is a course in which the student does 5 dives based upon different specialties offered through the agency. Sort of a "sampler platter" of the specialties. These typically include core dives of deep, navigation & night diving. The other 2 are generally left up to the instructor. For SSI's AOW it requires 4 full specialty (diving) courses & a minimum of 24 logged dives.

 

[=C=]

The question is where are you heading with your diving? If you would like to become one day a DM or Inst I would say stay PADI (if you are PADI now). But if that's not your goal and you found a great instructor then go with it. I have a had good and bad instructors and can confirm that what makes one program better than another is a good instructor. I would add that most systems honor each others certs so its not *that* big of a deal.

 

[Quero]

Actually, there ARE some differences between PADI & SSI at the AOW level. That being said, SSI's Advanced Adventurer is identical to PAD's AOW. PADI's AOW & SSI's Advanced Adventurer is a course in which the student does 5 dives based upon different specialties offered through the agency. Sort of a "sampler platter" of the specialties. These typically include core dives of deep, navigation & night diving. The other 2 are generally left up to the instructor. For SSI's AOW it requires 4 full specialty (diving) courses & a minimum of 24 logged dives.

You are (of course) correct, Tammy, but what you may not be aware of is that here in Thailand the SSI course that is offered at the post-OW level is almost exclusively Advanced Adventurer, meaning that when Andy and I say the two "AOW" courses are virtually the same, this is the SSI course we are referring to. I would speculate that this is at least partly because PADI has a huge market share (and this is the course that fits in with the marketing for those dive schools that offer both PADI and SSI), but it's also because our students generally don't stay put here long enough to undertake the longer course. So I'm assuming (and I'm guessing Andy is, too), that the SSI course the OP is looking at is Advanced Adventurer.

 

[emoreira]

In fact there is no Advanced OWD course in SSI.
SSI has specialty courses. Several of them sum up for AOWD, some not.
When you have taken 4 specialty courses that sum for AOWD and you hit the 24 dives mark, you can get the AOWD certification card.
The specialty courses that sum for AOWD have check-out dives. Those check-out dives sum for the 24 dives count required for the AOWD cert. Also the OWD check-out dives (your very first dives) also sum for the 24 dives count.
The specialty courses that sum for the AOWD cert are (among others) : onboard, drysuit, night&limited, deep, navigation, etc.
The specialty courses that do not sum for the AOWD cert are (among others) : nitrox, etc.
This information should be available in your SSI LDS.