Ongoing ed/certifications with different agencies?

[hhmoore]

A friend (and most frequent dive buddy) believes that there is benefit to having certifications with more than one agency (ie PADI & SDI). I believe the bulk of his reason is the idea that there's a degree of "us vs them" mentality which can be reduced, possibly garnering some better treatment in the process. By that I mean if one is diving in a location that doesn't have a strong PADI presence, a PADI certified diver might come under more scrutiny, or be declined certain options.
I'm just curious about whether others share that opinion; and what are viewed as pros and cons of doing all ed/certs with one agency vs spreading the wealth, so to speak.

 

[Gareth J]

As a general rule, the instructor is far more important than the training agency. An agency can have excellent training material and courses, which are let down by the instructor. Similarly, the training materials can be poor, but a good instructor can provide an excellent course and tuition.

That said, there is a big advantage to having a diverse learning experience.
I personally hold qualifications with PADI, BSAC, TDI, IANTD.
Different agencies may have a very different idea on the type of diving they are looking to produce. Basic diving qualifications are very similar between the agencies. This may be related to their business market, target customer base, environment in which they dive.

TDI and IANTD where originally formed to teach diving techniques which the main stream training agencies disagreed with or thought to 'technical' or dangerous for recreational divings. To some degree, they have been a victim of their own success, in that the mainstream training agencies have adopt these new gases and techniques and introduced these courses.
The big issue, for these courses is that you really want to have tuition from people doing this type of diving, which is very different to general recreational diving.

 

[lowviz]

...//... I believe the bulk of his reason is the idea that there's a degree of "us vs them" mentality ...

In truth, there is no 'us vs. them'. All you or I am is a diver trained by a (name your agency) professional.

You don't belong to anything.

 

[hhmoore]

As a general rule, the instructor is far more important than the training agency. An agency can have excellent training material and courses, which are let down by the instructor. Similarly, the training materials can be poor, but a good instructor can provide an excellent course

I agree entirely. I did my OW with a PADI shop... and, while the curriculum was probably fine, (looking back) I'm somewhat dissatisfied with my experience - due in no small part to the instructor I had for the pool sessions. I did nitrox with an SDI instructor (a matter of cost and convenience), and chose to pursue Advanced with him. I've recently done a course with another, less local, PADI shop, and was quite pleased with the experience...enough so that I'll likely do more with them.

I don't plan on "going pro"; so I doubt I'll encounter much inconvenience from doing things with both shops.

 

[rhwestfall]

It is vastly about the instructor, and very little of the agency.....

FWIW, I hold certs from YMCA, PDIC, NAUI, SDI/TDI, & PADI.

 

[Colliam7]

I'm just curious about whether others share that opinion; and what are viewed as pros and cons of doing all ed/certs with one agency vs spreading the wealth, so to speak.

I agree with the sentiments expressed thus far, about the importance of the Instructor. Perhaps, my breadth of dive region experience is a bit limited, but I have never experienced more or less scrutiny as a diver because of my particular agency affiliation.

Now, as an Instructor, I have openly said (I have a dream!) that I would love to take some courses through other agencies, to see if there are techniques / practices applied in educational offered by other agencies that I can 'borrow' and use in my own teaching. But, that is a different focus from what I believe you are asking.

 

[hhmoore]

I don't know how much he has experienced vs anticipated (or heard about); but he mentioned things like being required to go with dive master, going through computer to check depths and number of recent dives, etc.

With all respect, I understand that the comments about instructors are well intended; and I'm wholly in agreement with them... but I don't think that has anything to do with what I was trying to find out, which was Is there an actual benefit (or negative) to getting different certs through different agencies.

 

[Colliam7]

I don't know how much he has experienced vs anticipated (or heard about); but he mentioned things like being required to go with dive master, going through computer to check depths and number of recent dives, etc.

If he is certified as an Open Water Diver, irrespective of agency, there is no reason that he would be required to go with a DM simply because of the certifying agency. There are any number of reasons why an operation might want to verify actual experience (recency of diving, frequency of diving, depths attained, etc. (The first time I signed up to do a dive on the Spiegel Grove in FL, I was required to shown proof of an AOW certification, and logbook evidence of recent dives deeper than 80ft.) But, that should be independent of the particular agency through which he was certified.

 

[hhmoore]

I know he's got OW, AOW, + Rescue, and I think he's got Master Scuba Diver.
I agree that what you describe is how it should be. I'll have to ask him if he's actually had issues that were specifically related to the agency. Maybe there was some (lighthearted?) poking going on, and subsequent questions were taken to be related.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

I'll weigh in a little here. I don't see that it would really make much difference what agency you're certified through when going on dive outings. In my experience so far the dive operators I've dealt with didn't check the agency I'm certified through (NAUI)....just that I was indeed certified. And FWIW, I've never had a DM or an operator look through my computer or my logbook to see how many and/or what type of dives I've done. Just my c-card that showed I was okay to perform them.

Now having just recently (last weekend) completed Rescue & Advanced Rescue through NASE and NAUI, I can say the training between agencies varies a bit. And obviously it really depends on the instructor, too. But I noticed quite a bit of difference between the learning portions of the NASE and NAUI courses, whereas I didn't feel the NASE stuff was very beneficial because half of the things that were on the final written exam weren't actually discussed in the reading materials/videos. Our instructor supplied us with some supplemental materials to help and ultimately we ended up doing the requirements for the NAUI Rescue and Advanced Rescue in the process. That being the case, we were given the opportunity to certify through both agencies by simply paying for the eLearning materials and c-card through NAUI since we did all the written and practical requirements for both agencies. Some of the requirements for the NASE certification were sort of vague and unnecessary (buddy line tow?) but we managed. Even still, though, this is where some additional requirements were requested of us by the instructor that are actually required during the Dive Master courses. He required them in order to make us better divers and to essentially give us better tools to use in case we ever needed them. All in all it was a great experience!

So I guess my point is that it's not really an "us vs. them" mentality in having certifications through more than one agency. More along the lines of different agencies teach different things and it never hurts to have more knowledge and different tools in the bag when you need them. There's certainly nothing wrong with being really well-rounded.