Question ISDA equivalent in PADI

[Undersea88]

I have a commercial diver license and I'm interested in going for PADI dive instructor. Unfortunately, I don't have any PADI licenses and I'm not exactly sure what my commercial license is equivalent to in the PADI scheme.

The license was issued by the Danish Maritime Authority and the training was done according to the standards of ISDA, my cert has me at the B level.

If anyone can share some insight on this that would be great! I've also sent PADI an email but thought I'd post here too. Thanks!

 

[veryfastfourier]

I have a commercial diver license and I'm interested in going for PADI dive instructor.

I’m curious what your motivation is for trying to jump straight from commercial to being a PADI instructor?

Unfortunately, I don't have any PADI licenses and I'm not exactly sure what my commercial license is equivalent to in the PADI scheme.

Does this mean you have no recreational diving certificates, PADI or otherwise? Only your commercial level B? Hopefully you’ve been diving recreationally, for fun, on your commercial license

The license was issued by the Danish Maritime Authority and the training was done according to the standards of ISDA, my cert has me at the B level.

Someone with some more ISDA experience should chime in here, as I’m only moderately familiar with commercial training, but level B training for open circuit down to a maximum of 30 msw seems at least consistent with PADI’s AOW cert.

A PADI instructor should chime in here on the possibility of using the commercial license as a pre-req for PADI courses (DM then OWSI, in OPs desired case).

 

[Undersea88]

I’m curious what your motivation is for trying to jump straight from commercial to being a PADI instructor?

My motivation is that I want to teach people how to dive, eventually. If PADI wants me to take their dive master course first I'll do that. I no longer live in Denmark and this license is very specific to Denmark so I'm trying to convert my license to a more widely recognized level of competency.

Does this mean you have no recreational diving certificates, PADI or otherwise? Only your commercial level B? Hopefully you’ve been diving recreationally, for fun, on your commercial license

That's right! I have used my commercial license when on holiday in the past with no problem. I have a open water cert from SDI but that was a prerequisite to get my commercial license, and I never use it for anything.

Someone with some more ISDA experience should chime in here, as I’m only moderately familiar with commercial training, but level B training for open circuit down to a maximum of 30 msw seems at least consistent with PADI’s AOW cert.

I would hope it was equivalent to at least divemaster, the training was more comprehensive than an open water course. In fact, looking over the PADI divemaster curriculum it looks virtually identical. Regardless, since I'm trying to get a PADI license, what they say goes in the end.

Here's an example of one of the courses in Denmark, it's using the same curriculum as the one I attended. The course seems to cover the same material as Divemaster with the added material of diving with an umbilical and having a surface tender with radio communication.

https://shop-diving2000.dk/scuba-erhvervsdykker-30m/

 

[tursiops]

I have a commercial diver license and I'm interested in going for PADI dive instructor. Unfortunately, I don't have any PADI licenses and I'm not exactly sure what my commercial license is equivalent to in the PADI scheme.

The license was issued by the Danish Maritime Authority and the training was done according to the standards of ISDA, my cert has me at the B level.

If anyone can share some insight on this that would be great! I've also sent PADI an email but thought I'd post here too. Thanks!

I'm not aware of ANY equivalence between PADI levels and commercial licenses. Is there an ISO rating for your license?

 

[rsingler]

The DM course is as much about how PADI teaches, as about the diving skills themselves. There's a "skills circuit" that is emphasized in the DM course that is a part of the final exam. When you get to the Instructor course, your ability to teach those skills is assumed and the emphasis shifts to Standards.
When I took my Instructor course prior to the exam, my school insisted that I audit the Divemaster Course before starting the Instructor portion for which I had paid. I was SO glad I did! It made passing the exam so much easier, even though I had already not only been a DM for a year, but an AI.

 

[Rich1280]

Many moons ago when I did my commercial diving award, we were granted an equivalency should we wish to undertake further training. For my inshore surface supplied diver award, it mapped to BSAC Sports Diver or PADI Rescue diver, and if we wished to carry on training we would have been able to start at the next step in the respective training regimes.

I cannot see a PADI equivalent alternative level of training table, but the BSAC one is here:
Equivalent BSAC qualifications

Having had a quick look, it could be the IDSA B class maps across as Ocean diver or PADI OW/AOW only I'm afraid, and you'd have to undertake training from that point onwards. You may need to talk to someone local who can help map things better however.

Good luck,
Rich

 

[Undersea88]

The DM course is as much about how PADI teaches, as about the diving skills themselves. There's a "skills circuit" that is emphasized in the DM course that is a part of the final exam. When you get to the Instructor course, your ability to teach those skills is assumed and the emphasis shifts to Standards.
When I took my Instructor course prior to the exam, my school insisted that I audit the Divemaster Course before starting the Instructor portion for which I had paid. I was SO glad I did! It made passing the exam so much easier, even though I had already not only been a DM for a year, but an AI.

That's a very good point I hadn't considered.

Many moons ago when I did my commercial diving award, we were granted an equivalency should we wish to undertake further training. For my inshore surface supplied diver award, it mapped to BSAC Sports Diver or PADI Rescue diver, and if we wished to carry on training we would have been able to start at the next step in the respective training regimes.

I cannot see a PADI equivalent alternative level of training table, but the BSAC one is here:
Equivalent BSAC qualifications

Having had a quick look, it could be the IDSA B class maps across as Ocean diver or PADI OW/AOW only I'm afraid, and you'd have to undertake training from that point onwards. You may need to talk to someone local who can help map things better however.

Good luck,
Rich

Thanks for the link. I've been getting a hold of my own sources in Denmark and they tell me the same story, so I have to start at the Divemaster course it looks like, which is what I expected.

 

[CanonDiver]

I just attended a PADI Pro night (basically a go pro sales pitch) and based on my understanding according to a PADI Course Director and a PADI Regional Manager, the only way to get a PADI professional certification is by paying for the PADI courses, Crew Packs, annual membership fee, and hold dive liability insurance. Doesn’t matter what other certs you may have. You have to do the PADI coursework.

For Open Water Scuba Instructor, you have to have done Divemaster First. OWSI will only allow you to teach the basic courses, not any of the specialty courses. Divemaster costs about $1,000-$1,500 for everything. OWSI will cost you about $4,000-$6,000. Crewpack alone for 2022 is about 1200. Some of those costs are the PADI fees and won’t budge more than say 10% but the rest of those fees are what your instructor or dive center will charge. So there is some wiggle room on that side. Might even be able to get the training for free if you work out a sweet deal with a shop owner that needs more help.

Hope this info helps some and I also hope that the PADI mafia doesn’t target me for sharing family secrets. Haha

*USD Currency