Mixing Organization Certifications

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Without question the best course I've ever taken is GUE Fundamentals. It completely changed my diving career as it set the bar for standards. It took a considerable effort after the course to unlearn the poor recreational habits, but once achieved then all diving becomes simple and hassle free.

It's horrible to see a group of people out of trim, "scissor kicking" up the silt, arms flapping with kit all over the place. It shouldn't be like that at any level of diving.
I am not NOT gue trained.
Most experienced divers do not kick up silt, arms flapping and with kit all over the place. It is a learning curve not necessary has anything to do with certain one or two agencies.
 
A lot of 'professional' divemasters are managing groups of people. If you are on a live aboard, the divemaster is co-ordinating the crew, the customers, the equipment, doing site briefing and safety checks. Their diving skills are excellent.
But then they are not zero to hero types.
I've dived with a lot of 'technical qualified divers' , who struggle to manage themselves, let alone 12 or 20 divers.
Excellent!
I am ONLY a recreational diver(rec and tec) and more than happy to let the professional to get on his/her duty.
 
All divers will benefit from rock solid 'core' skills: buoyancy, trim and finning.

The test is being able to hover motionless and move around without destroying the visibility and environment. When these skills are sorted, you can do so much more as regards task loading without issues.

Photography becomes simple. Observing flora and fauna is safer if you can back out without using your arms. Penetrating wrecks is easier and safer without kicking out the visibility. Buddy diving is safer. Holding your decompression stops is simple and less frenetic (safety stops).

Everything is easier and safer.
Thanks. I'm not trying to be a pain in the neck, but I mean exactly what do you do in tech. courses that gets you to being really good with these skills-- most of which you should be able to do from taking rec. courses. Such as, kicking techniques SHOULD be part of a Wreck course (they weren't in mine). Holding decompression stops-- different than holding a safety stop (maybe, I don't know, never did a decompression stop and thought they were the same but longer)? Hover motionless--should be doing that in OW course.
How is buddy diving safer-- what specifically do you do in a tech. course making that so?
I do assume that trim may be dealt with a lot more than in OW, though it should be in PP Buoyancy courses. Kicking I can also understand, as I don't recall getting ANY instruction on that in any of the rec. courses I've taken, and have not given back kicking a fair try with my split fins.

So again, are there any specific drills/exercises that improve these basic skills, or maybe you are saying the instructors are much more experienced and teach them better than your average instructor who isn't a tech. diver? That would make sense to me too.
 
Hi all,

This is my first post and I had a question regarding mixing certifications. I know there isn't much difference when mixing OW and AOW, etc but was wondering if how that was looked on when going for Divemaster?

I'm currently SSI open water with about 30 dives; currently in Colombia and found a great price to get SDI certified for advanced OW (or whatever the equivalent is called for SDI).

I am looking to also do my divemaster this year and it would most like being in either a PADI or SSI location, so I was wondering if I might face any issues or challenges in that regard (particularly if I went to PADI) as my previous 2 certs would be SSI and SDI.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated :)

Best,
Justin

If you want to do a professional certification, look at what it's going to bring you. PADI has the deepest reach around the world, but DMs are a dime a dozen. If you plan on working with a shop, as opposed to just doing the class to learn, I'd stay stick with the cert that the shop uses.

FWIW, the SDI course is much more academically challenging than the PADI course. The dive theory is taught and done well. PADI doesn't require dive theory until you get to the instructor level, for the most part. PADI does require a lot more tasks than SDI, though you could easily complete everything that PADI does and more in an SDI course (there's more leeway for your instructor to add things).
 
If you want to do a professional certification, look at what it's going to bring you. PADI has the deepest reach around the world, but DMs are a dime a dozen. If you plan on working with a shop, as opposed to just doing the class to learn, I'd stay stick with the cert that the shop uses.

FWIW, the SDI course is much more academically challenging than the PADI course. The dive theory is taught and done well. PADI doesn't require dive theory until you get to the instructor level, for the most part. PADI does require a lot more tasks than SDI, though you could easily complete everything that PADI does and more in an SDI course (there's more leeway for your instructor to add things).
Yes, I heard that the theory part of the PADI DM course was trimmed way back right after I took the old course in 2009. I assume it's all the same stuff now in the instructor course, as it was when I did that free SSI Science of Diving one last year. I don't know what the "more tasks " include in the PADI course. Agree with your idea to do both PADI & SDI-- if you can afford it....
 
It's horrible to see a group of people out of trim, "scissor kicking" up the silt, arms flapping with kit all over the place. It shouldn't be like that at any level of diving.

I see it far too often. The industry is getting better, albeit quite slowly. I was surprised as to how much coral was getting hit by experienced divers when I was in Maui. It is a problem as dive sites are getting killed.
 
Mixing certifications can be counter productive if you are willing to become an instructor. My recommendation is to stick with one organization you ultimately targeting towards becoming instructor. You will get to know the material and performance requirements early on for each certification level, this will help you to be successful in IDC.
 
Thanks. I'm not trying to be a pain in the neck, but I mean exactly what do you do in tech. courses that gets you to being really good with these skills-- most of which you should be able to do from taking rec. courses. Such as, kicking techniques SHOULD be part of a Wreck course (they weren't in mine). Holding decompression stops-- different than holding a safety stop (maybe, I don't know, never did a decompression stop and thought they were the same but longer)? Hover motionless--should be doing that in OW course.
How is buddy diving safer-- what specifically do you do in a tech. course making that so?
I do assume that trim may be dealt with a lot more than in OW, though it should be in PP Buoyancy courses. Kicking I can also understand, as I don't recall getting ANY instruction on that in any of the rec. courses I've taken, and have not given back kicking a fair try with my split fins.

So again, are there any specific drills/exercises that improve these basic skills, or maybe you are saying the instructors are much more experienced and teach them better than your average instructor who isn't a tech. diver? That would make sense to me too.

Technical diving requires a superior level of control right from the beginning. You need to hover motionless within inches of a planned depth and control yourself very well whilst doing skills (e.g. removing a mask or doing valve drills). All finning must be done without moving your arms and must not disturb the silt, so a mixture of frog kicks, flutter kicks for speed, backwards finning and helicopter turns. Your trim must be flat (for streamlining and not hitting things). You will be expected to do certain basic skills such as out of gas donation (longhose), valve shutdowns (backmount doubles or sidemount), mask removal and replacement, putting up an SMB and not holding on to the spool/reel, holding a 6m/20' stop in open water.

Those are the requirements for all diving. For this you will put in a lot of time and effort to perfect these skills, spending a lot of time on a 6m/20' platform. Most of the time this is done by encouraging new divers to make the effort to practice together until they can complete these drills without problems. Diving practice will also help where you swim through "confined" spaces, such as a bus or aeroplane in a diving quarry/lake. Most/all technical diving courses will simply expect you to be at that standard, which you will put in a lot of pre-course practice.

The main difference I've found between "technical" and "recreational" diving is firstly the quality standards level required - if technical dive training, you're expected to demonstrate these skills at all times; if you dive with other technical divers, you'll all be at that standard, i.e. you'll see first hand what good looks like.

Recreational diving (meaning to basic PADI et al standards) doesn't encourage that level of skill. Doing one wreck course might teach you a bit, but not to that level. For example you may be shown frog kicking, but you're not going to be drilled hard on helicopter turns, back finning and small adjustments (mod frog). Or, to put it another way, there's no equivalent of PADI Fundamentals as it simply doesn't fit their pile it high and sell loads of courses model.

My point is not being snobbish nor elitist; regardless of where and how you dive, everyone can benefit from better core skills.


Example...
Yesterday (29th March 2021) England had a slight relaxation of Covid lockdown rules so I went to a diving lake (Wraysbury) which is well known for being quite silty. For three months nobody dived there and yesterday it was jam packed with divers! We took a bit of time to kit up (rebreather faffing and Kubi problems!) so got in about an hour after the first lot. The visibility was less than a foot/30cm in places where they'd kicked the hell out of the bottom and stirred everything up. Not pleasant, but at least it was a dive and the sun was shining!

I'm happy that I've sorted out the additional weighting for winter and it was my first dive in 5 months on the rebreather (damn that lockdown). Am now ready for the 30+ days of sea diving booked in the next 2 months. Freeeeedommmm!
 
As long as you are not planning on becoming a profession instructor (many of which are now unemployed, homeless and starving), why not mix yoiur agency certifications.
I have certifications from YMCA, DLRG, PADI, ANDI, TDI, NSS-CDS, IANTD, Barracuda, BDST, CMAS, and ScubaForce, in addition to Croatian and Spanish permits.
None of them have made me a worse diver.

Michael
 
Wibble--Thanks. I do see exactly what you are saying now. Many (not all as you say) of these skills are taught in the rec. courses, but they are not required to be done as precisely, nor at all times -- ie. yes we are taught to hover in OW, but not within inches of up and down. If it's more than that you still pass.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom