Ok So be it. I am breaking my own rule about even reading threads that start out with, Whats the best fins, or whats the best BC or whats the best tires for my car or whats the best oil for my tractor, ect...ect... I never fails, every forum regardless of topic has to hash out this stuff. I have been all over the world traveling to SCUBA related destinations and have met people that have been certified by agencies I haven't even herd of.
A previous post claims of P.A.D.I and 6 others. Well I could be wrong but there are WAYYYYYYYYYYY more then 6 others. I personally know of a C card issued in 1959 to one of my closest friends and it wasent P.A.D.I I don't care to even worry about who is best but I will never believe that P.A.D.I has certified more people then( ALL) the others combined. I don't care what the Google numbers say. It's common sense that dictates otherwise.
I am a P.A.D.I instructor I am also an S.S.I instructor and an S.D.I. instructor I hold 14 specialty cards for P.A.D.I on top of my original C-Card. I felt at the time that if I was going to be teaching them I better have them myself.
Now as for numbers the figure of 936,000 Certifications came forth in another post. Ok then am I In the P.A.D.I book of stats as One or fifteen?. and for that matter I didn't even count Dive master, assistant instructor, Instructor and advanced instructor so I guess as far as numbers go I count for 19 of those 963 Gazillion numbers P.A.D.I is claiming. Ok great , so be it.
We all know it's a numbers game driven by the almighty dollar.
We will just have to agree to disagree about who has cashed the most checks.
When I was teaching for a Local shop the only way they could pay the rent was to jam stuff down peoples throats to make ends meet.
I had a hard time looking people in the eye and convincing them they needed a Spare Air, a Squeeking duck noise maker, a built in signal sausage, a built it air operated tank band a 7 mill suit, a hood, gloves( that no one lets you wear,) A giant BC with integrated weights bulging out in front, a weight belt just incase , a 7 mill pair of boots so your feet don't get cold, and some gimmick pair of fins that look cool in the magazine's .
It's no dam wonder when you take them to Cozumal on their first trip that their out of air in 15 min pushing all that crap through the water that they don't need, most of all the classic ( False sense of security Spare Air) LOl WOW I cant believe I ever did that to people. I regret it to this day and wish I could line up all the people we did that to , give them their money back and start over but its not going to happen. So if your out there Im sorry.
Too bad the whole industry is so driven by the almighty dollar that making good divers out of people has gone by the way of, SELL SELL SELL.
As for P.A.D.I being the almighty Messiah of the deep that everyone is Supposed to bow and pay homage to every time the acronym comes up in converstion, SORRY, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!
All you are doing is PADI bashing...This post makes no sense... You start out by saying you don't get involved in "the best" threads- then launch into an Anti-PADI. tirade.
First, no one asked or implied PADI was "anything" - this part of the thread was about the quality of the books, particularly the open water and Tec books PRODUCED in the scuba industry at large.
Do YOU think the PADI books are bad? If so Then state WHY... But I think you'll be all alone if that's your opinion. Because the one thing PADI has done right is it's books- research, marketability, and proof reading. They are CLEARLY ahead of everyone. That may be because of money, smart folks running it, or MARKET SHARE... But anyone denying it has Zero credibility.
Second YOU stated that PADI was "no friggin way" the largest in scuba market share - YOU said it. So-Where's your proof? I cited what's out there- what data do you have that contradicts?
<long wait>
"Because I said so" doesn't cut it... You do realize that, right?
Third, there could be upwards of 150 agencies - but
a)how many are recognized, CMAS/WRTSC members,
b) have more than a few members Or
c) operate outside a tiny country (every town in Europe seems to have their own diving agency).
Point is almost every one of the smaller ones count their membership in the hundreds- the big four in the tens if not hundreds of thousands.
Oh yea, the big 4 (NAUI, PADI, SDI/TDI and SSI) and there are about 6 other prominent ones (can you count specialty agencies? NSS-CDS, NACD, IANTD- not if they are training POST open water because then they are already counted elsewhere). That's not opinion it's FACT.
If you can produce ANY proof to the contrary please do...
<second very long wait>
Didn't think so.
Now, as I pointed out earlier in my previous post, we know PADI inflates their numbers.
We all know that. But even if we assume EVERY person ever certified by PADI took OW, AOW, RES, MSD and DM and 10 specialties, for a total of 15 "certifications" PADI has issued 21 million certifications - that means they STILL certified AT LEAST 1.4 million DIFFERENT people - and while there are LOTS of duplications - 15 is an extreme number and DAN data suggests most divers do not progress beyond AOW so this estimation is way under representative of reality. The number is probably around 10million if we extrapolate the DAN rate of maximum AOW attainment.
Look, PADI isn't the best at lots of things- but to deny their books are good or that they aren't the largest share of the scuba market by far isn't a debatable opinion - it's DELUSIONAL NON REALITY.
Nobody denies the scuba industry (like every industry) is money driven... Should lessons be given away? Maybe like obamacare "we are all entitled to free scuba for life" because it's a fundamental right.
Point is no one in this thread said we need to bow down to PADI, ONLY YOU. you said it in constructing your flawed, inaccurate, straw man argument...
And now that argument is? Oh yea, debunked.
Dan-O
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