And how does that answer my question?LOL, ok, I'll bite. I started diving in 1973. NASDS, all active duty UDT/SEAL dive instructors, we didn't have BCs, or safe seconds, pressure gauges were luxury items, we had J-valves, scubapro made the mk7 "Honker" that would vibrate alerting you that your air was at 600 psi. The training was rigorous as the instructors attempted to insure you were safe in the water in all conditions. If you weren't an accomplished skindiver (free diver), you weren't prepared to complete the course. I have made dives all over the world. On several occasions I have been refused recognition of my NASDS cert, and also been refused dive trips because I didn't have a PADI wreck diver badge, "night diver", or whatever badge you needed for their trip. So if I make fun of PADI and their mentality, and business model, it is not without merit. Especially when some 20's something "Dive Master" is questioning my skills and experience and my first steel 72 has a born on date stamp of 1974.
NASDS merged with SSI, and then the former NASDS owner (Doug McNeese) bought out the former SSI ownership and brought all the old NASDS policies into SSI. (I got this information from a McNeese-led workshop I attended.) SSI now has at least as many certification levels and specialty courses as PADI, maybe more. What might have been true for NASDS in 1973 (43 years ago) is not what is true today. What is true today for ANY agency that existed in 1973, including PADI, is not what was true then.