SDI standards are, like NAUI's, minimum standards. I am an SDI instructor and what I like about them is that they not only allow but encourage the introduction of other materials, skills to suit the local environment, and instructors have the final say over who gets a card. We can add skills and materials.
Now like any modern agency the instructor can make or break the course.
That said I am also an SEI (Scuba Educators International) instructor. That evolved, if you will, out of the YMCA Scuba Program. The standards for it are essentially the same as the old Y program with rescue skills, deco table use, etc. Some of the skills have actually been strengthened. The difference I see is that we are not only encouraged to add material and skills, but we are also REQUIRED to do that, by standards, to suit local conditions and insure diver comfort and safety. Required hours are 16 hours classroom face to face, 16 hours pool. Plus checkout dives.
But there are not that many of us.
The best way to handle this is simple. Get the name of the shop or instructor they want to use and interview them. Make sure that the student is being taught to YOUR standards. They can be if the shop or instructor chooses to do so. If they don't, deny the payment and require the student to find another instructor.
