PADI vs SDI

[offthewall1]

While we're talking about Agencies... I've heard on here about SDI, PADI, SSI, NAUI etc... the big guns... but what about the others... like IDEA, YMCA, PDIC, ACUC, BSAC, IANTD, PSAI, and a host of others... what does anyone have to say about them?

 

[stimpy4242]

I skydive and there is a manufacturer that says as part of the tandem waiver video, ”There has never been nor will there ever be a perfect parachute, a perfect airplane, a perfect instructor or for that matter a perfect student.”

This argument about agencies is beating a dead horse. We have mostly all agreed that the instructor makes the course. Nearly all the courses are the same. Mostly what people don’t like about certain agencies are one or two aspects of the agency. I know my friend is really upset with PADI because they cost too much and you can achieve a level of “advanced open water diver” in as little as nine dives. He will agree that the standards for teaching are more or less the same as all the other agencies.

I am just so tired of listening to the debate. The amount of effort we expend arguing we could all develop the super agency…so that the next round of divers can knock it too.

Happy Diving!

 

[offthewall1]

Hey... I have a Trademark on that!

 

[Walter]

He will agree that the standards for teaching are more or less the same as all the other agencies.

He's wrong.

 

[stimpy4242]

of course he is, did you think I was posting that thinking someone could just agree...they are all the same more or less...breathe in and out, swim up and down, don't hold your breath...thats diving...

Can you name a MAJOR difference between two agencies for an open water course?

 

[Walter]

Even the agency with the poorest standards get into more detail than that. Have you ever read the standards for even one agency?

 

[Don Wray]

If you have a choice between PADI and anything else, it does matter, and you are normally better off with anything else.

And if you have an SDI instructor available to you, that is one of the best choices that you could ask for.

Regarding dive computers, I personally recommend always using a good one, with a backup. My backup is another dive computer.

Regarding dive planning, I recommend using deco software, if you have it. Then after planning your dive, dive your plan with a dive computer. Then you would be cutting edge.

Most dive computers allow you to plan NDL dives with their features instead.

I do not recommend any of the in-your-head or on-the-fly methods for NDL or deco diving. They are fine, and they sort of work, a little, but they are not very precise, and therefore they are not worth the risk factor that comes with using them.

You can dive like a cave man, without computers, if you want, but in this modern day and age there is simply no need.

It would be much easier to take you seriously if you did not hide behind a moniker, and had something to say of substance. You never offer solutions, only your wealth of unsubstantiated knowledge. There are two words that escape me right now to most of your post but I'd be happy to pm them to you.

 

[stimpy4242]

Oh my god, it wasn't meant as being serious for how an agency actually teaches...I teach for three agencies, SDI, ERDI and PADI. I have read them...my point, and slow people don't ever get it, is that scuba is not incredibly difficult. The agencies are all fundamentally teaching the same thing.

AGAIN, can you name a MAJOR difference between two agencies standards while teaching and open water diver course?

 

[Scubakevdm]

AGAIN, can you name a MAJOR difference between two agencies standards while teaching and open water diver course?

Some agencies require tables to be taught.

 

[Scubakevdm]

While we're talking about Agencies... I've heard on here about SDI, PADI, SSI, NAUI etc... the big guns... but what about the others... like IDEA, YMCA, PDIC, ACUC, BSAC, IANTD, PSAI, and a host of others... what does anyone have to say about them?

YMCA is my favorite. It's more about the learning, less about the selling. Unfortunatelythis very thing has caused them to be seen by much of the public as not being a major, or a "big gun", when actually just the opposite is true. They were the original big gun.

I also like GUE training very much, because they actually test on the "diving" part of diving, as well as essential skills, and quantify mastery. They are not, as far as I know, teaching open water yet though, but it has been in the works for some time.