FFESSM or PADI

[red_sea_diver]

Hi

I'm a diver in Aqaba,Jordan, I dive for fun, but last year I decide to work in Saudi Arabia for navigation company in Jeddah as a diver. I know that the first stip for that is to get certified. but I'm confused to chose PADI courses or FFESSM courses.Here in Jordan there's only PADI in Aqaba, but I have been offered to get FFESSM in Egypt in Sharm Shikh.

Simply FFESSM is too cheap compared to PADI, BUT it`s not approved as padi here in region. Is there any procedure to get equivalence of the FFESSM to PADI?

Thank you .

 

[knotical]

In many parts of the world, to work as a diver you need training from a professional diving agency, not a recreational one like PADI or FFESSM.
Diving on the job often presents hazards not covered in courses by recreational agencies. Diving professionally without professional dive knowledge and/or training can be quite risky.

But if you really want to go the recreational route, FFESSM should issue a CMAS card at the completion of the FFESSM course. CMAS is almost universally recognized.

For those not familiar, FFESSM is Fédération Francaise d'Études et de Sports Sous-Marins (French Federation for Underwater Study and Sports).
CMAS is Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (World Underwater Federation)

 

[red_sea_diver]

Thank you sir ,
may you indicate me some professional diving agencies located neareby Middle East,
And how can I distinguish betwwen recreational and professional one?

 

[knotical]

Your questions are excellent. I wish I could help more.

First, I shouldn’t have used the term professional diving. In many (most?) countries it is called commercial diving.

A search here in ScubaBoard on “commercial” looks like it would be useful. There are several folks here who have been (still are?) commercial divers.

Here’s one list of commercial diver schools:
http://www.diving-industry.com/index.php?id=60,95,0,0,1,0&hashID=f31abccd17106f655026f422a25424ec
None of those are near you. Perhaps a google search for commercial dive school, plus the countries near you would be useful.

There are many recreational agencies, one fairly complete list is here:
http://www.aquanaut.com/agencies/
I don’t think any of them offer commercial diver training.

Commercial dive schools are of course expensive since they require so much more training than recreational.

Perhaps find out what type of diving you would be required to do and from that research the risks and necessary training.

You might also want to post your question in the Africa/Middle East regional forum here on ScubaBoard.

 

[red_sea_diver]

Sorry for late too much to reply you Sir and thank you again
You alreeady help me.

I found this site, "http://www.tdisdi.com/sdi/region/region.html"

This company categorized under "Technical Organizations". The qustion is this company teach diving as professional or recreational?

Thank you.

 

[chrisch]

TDI (TDISDI) is a "technical" organisation which is "advanced" diving but not for money - it is not commercial and therefore not what you need. Sorry.

Chris

 

[red_sea_diver]

Please chris , What is the defference between "commercial" and "technical"?
May you explain me?

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Please chris , What is the defference between "commercial" and "technical"?
May you explain me?

Totally different.
Technical is using gas mixtures other than 21% O2 air, mainly Trimix (Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Helium). Commercial is doing some construction work underwater, like cutting and welding.

Regarding your main question, both FFESSM and PADI are approved worldwide, but PADI is more recognized. Actually FFESSM is a part of CMAS.

 

[JMcD]

Without getting into too much detail, "technical" diving is a term to refer (in a broad generalization) to dives that are breathing something other than air in your scuba cylinder, (such as a specific gas that has a mix of helium, nitrogen, and oxygen in a certain %) or dives that are below the typical recreational diving limit of 130 ft of depth.

(Aas these typically are so deep that the pressure causes a large amount of nitrogen to disolve into your body tissues and blood - in order to surface without this forming bubbles (like opening a bottle of pop and seeing the gas come out of the liquid) you need to surface slowly and stop at certain points for certain amounts of time to "decompress" - release the gas slowly.)

"Commercial" diving (most simply) is diving that is done for money as a profession, but other than just teaching diving or guiding recreational divers. Like underwater construction. In some cases these are complex environments and often working with underwater tools instead of just looking at all the pretty fish. Often there is different equipment used (including perhaps full face masks instead of a regular mask and regulator to breath from, etc.) Now many of these types of dives may require you to "decompress" as well, but the point is that to work in a "Commercial" dive you need to understand the details and knowledge for diving and also of the environment, tools, equipment, etc.

I am not sure, but I believe most "commercial" training takes place in a more formal school type program as opposed to "after hours" classes - I may be wrong on that.. I have just never seen any programs that are not "school based", but I have only really seen what is in North America.

Hope that helps.

 

[red_sea_diver]

thanx all.