I am a newly almost certified diver (medical condition limits me to 1 dive a day and I have 2 more OW dives left) so I'll try to pass along all the info I've learned about the subject recently.
Organizations:
PADI; good outfit, structured curriculum unlike NAUI.
NAUI; just as good, may be going from non-profit to profit. Curriculum is instructors choice after they pass the instructor test, which really shows how serious the instructor is about teaching. In my way of thinking if you get a NAUI instructor who goes out of his way to really teach you the ins and outs of diving you've found a good instructor because with the leeway given to NAUI instructors there's room for slacking off and cutting corners just to get students certified.
YMCA: don't know much about them
Organization is less important I think then instructor. Mostly the outfits all requre the same stuff and when buying/renting gear they're all the same to the shops. I've found that PADI is more popular around the world however.
IMO I would get certified here if you live here. This does two things: 1. If you want to continue to dive here you're already used to the conditions and environments, and might have picked up some buddies in your class 2. if you want to dive tropical then the equipment (wetsuits) will be less cumbersome and you'll enjoy it more since you'll appriciate not having 7mm suits and hoods and the like.
If you want CPR training go take a class at a hospital. 's what I did. If you're thinking of Rescue classes then that's a whole different thing. SCUBA classes are organized like so: open water (OW), advanced, rescue, Nitrox, etc. (not in any order but OW is the first class, the rest you can take whenever)
I got a lot of info from NWGratefulDiver here on the forum. I called around and spoke to some instructors and found Brian (wingnut here on the forums) with Northwest Sports Divers to be right up my alley. He's very knowledgeable, extremly patient and works with you to develop and practice your skills both in the pool and on the OW dives. He usually has 1 instructor or DM with every buddy pair for the OW dives. To be honest he's one of the best teachers of any subject (and I'm a college student so I'm picky) I've seen. The shop is similarly first-rate. The employees will work with you to custom-tailor your equipment if you buy any (rentals are all pretty much the same but all good gear) to best serve you and the type of diving you'll be doing. If you're a vacation-only diver who dives in warm water, they'll suggest gear for that. If you dive here they'll steer you towards cold water stuff. Some shops won't do this. Send NWGratefulDiver a PM, he'll know where all the dive shops are near you (at least he did for me) and might be able to recommend instructors.
