Open Source Dive Organization

[Edward3c]

So, yes, there are dive clubs--BSAC comes to mind--that can give you what you are looking for. You can also get instruction from people volunteering to help you, understanding that these people will not have liability insurance, so if something goes wrong, the ensuing lawsuit will be tough on them. You also have to not mind leeching off of them.

Seconding @KenGordon, All BSAC members (Divers and Instructors) are covered by Third-party Liability Insurance. Training is provided to members at no cost for the instruction (to comply with the UK's Diving at Work Regulations), but there are other costs - its not free.

 

[VikingDives]

What is interesting about RAID? Have heard of them and see that there seems to be a fair few people teaching for them, but don't know anything about them really.

Why should one consider RAID?

(New topic?)

You should really check out their free e-learning courses to see, but off the top of my head:

Pros:
1. Buoyancy and trim start in the pool as soon as the student gets in the water (as it should). With instructors demonstrating in neutral buoyancy and trim.

2. The academic requirements for all their courses are well done, and probably exceed other agencies in both the level of knowledge and presentation. Here's a link to their open water videos.

3. I posted a complaint about them not responding to me in the I2I forum last year that ended up with a response and some back and forth with Paul Toomer, RAID's president on the thread, via DM and via email. We agreed that we should meet up at DEMA and have a beer and any man who suggests drinking a beer with me goes up in my estimation

Cons:

I'm not wild about the regimented, PADI style, you must do X before you do Y, rules for instructors.

I'd likely be a RAID instructor today, but for their SSI-like policy about having a dive center. When I moved away from PADI, that didn't work for me, but now... I may have to give them another look... BRB

 

[shopguy]

To play off the Linux mention by the OP... reminds me of SSL certificates, which I always thought was a similar scam (rich get richer thing) to scuba agencies. Basically a few select organizations get this power to issue certificates, and the requirements to start your own organization are so great that they don't fear any new/real competition. In the diving world the names would be PADI, SSI, NAUI, etc. In the SSL world it started with Verisign and Thawte, but now has finally grown, and we finally have a real free option (Let's Encrypt).

Let's Encrypt is free because of billionaires with various interests in providing the services. Maybe what could happen for diving would be like this: Take Elon, Jeff and Bill on a dive, so they can see how awesome it is. Then explain that divers spend a lot of money and travel a lot, so they should want to track us (analytics data). To enable this, they just need to give dive shops around the world free equipment to quickly validate a persons certification status (thumbprint, facial recognition, driver's license, etc -- with offline abilities or they provide Starlink/Satellite service to remote locations). Then to make sure it is wide-spread, give free certification to anyone with existing certification, and also offer no-fee certification options to dive instructors (making it better for them to use this system vs PADI/others).

In return, the billionaire gets data about every diver that dives from any commercial outfit, since they can track each time your certification is checked. Now, next time that diver goes on Scubaboard, Facebook Google, etc -- they can target ads to that person related to their travel history/etc. Down the road, once they have enough power, they can also start to change the rules -- make dive shops run a registration check for every purchase (it is super easy, so why not?), and now they get analytics about every purchase every diver makes also, not just trips/dives they make. Bill especially might like the potential "green" options -- having this power could maybe start to let them control who dives where and when. "Sorry, you used up your 3 carbon dive footprints for this year, you have to wait until next year to get within 100 feet of a reef again."

Personally.. the system is horrible, but every time something changes, it just gets worse.. so keep it as is, for as long as possible.

 

[Wibble]

Faecesbook et al -- take all of your privacy, data and then sell it back to you whilst providing an ephemeral service designed to piss you off to get more eyeballs. They destroy all competition, especially specialist interest forums and the like.

I am not their product to sell.

 

[OliDox]

Sorry to jump in without taking the time to read all previous post.
In answer to the very first post, has anyone mention about IFDI?

IFDI : Learn scuba diving & get your IFDI certification.

Learn scuba diving, easily and safely with IFDI: International Fun Diving Instructors. IFDI is a neutral and international diving organization, based on the international ISO standards which guarantee you high quality courses and a worldwide recognition.

www.ifdi.info

 

[lowwall]

Sorry to jump in without taking the time to read all previous post.
In answer to the very first post, has anyone mention about IFDI?

Yes. On page 2:

IFDI : Learn scuba diving

This is exactly what you are looking for. Unfortunately, their level of relaxation includes a lack of interest in marketing and an unwillingness to jump through the hoops to receive national or WRSTC recognition. So I'm not sure how much luck you'll have finding an instructor or whether the cert card will be accepted by the dive ops you want to use.

Since you are apparently the creator of IFDI, it appears your level of relaxation also extends to a lack of interest in wading through all of 33 posts on a thread.

Kidding aside. As I indicated on the linked thread, I like what you are doing with IFDI, especially your training info - IFDI : Learn scuba diving - which cuts right through the marketing nonsense to focus on the info required for the current world of diving computer-based diving. But without recognition from some sort of national or international body, I believe it would be irresponsible to recommend that someone get certified through your agency because of the uncertainty that it will be accepted further down the line.