The 2018 annual review of scuba training agencies around the world: volunteers requested.

[Roger Hobden]

Hello all, I was looking around on the internet for something like "the 2018 annual review of cars", but for scuba training agencies. As far as I can tell, such a guide does not exist.

Given that ScubaBoard has a such worldwide membership, i was wondering if the users here would like to share their knowledge and experience and contribute to this endeavour by giving a short rundown of each dive training agency that they know about.

Items to include would for example be the following:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Suggestions of improvement
etc.

Naturally, once a dive agency has already been extensively discussed, you should only add points that have not already been covered in the previous discussions.

The general idea of this thread is to cover the greatest number of scuba agencies possible, not to over-analyze one in particular.

I believe that such a guide would be of some use to people considering to start diving, or to continue training after their OW certification.

Any suggestions to help this thread achieve it's goal will be most welcome.

Any volunteers ?

 

[Sam Miller III]

@Roger Hobden

Suggest hat you review what has been previously been published

1) Whos Who of SCUBA Diving 1993
'
2) Diving almanac and book of records (most recent) (also produced in Canada !-- very well done)

SDM

 

[Roger Hobden]

Suggest hat you review what has been previously been published
1) Whos Who of SCUBA Diving 1993
'2) Diving almanac and book of records (most recent) (also produced in Canada !-- very well done)

Interesting information. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Anything for a French Canadian Podiatrist

I suspect Whos who will be difficult to find and expensive if located

The Almanac was printed in Canada and should be some what easier to locate and certainly not as pricey

<< FYI I am the only person on the current SCUBA board listed in both documents >>

SDM, 111

 

[Wookie]

<< FYI I am the only person on the current SCUBA board listed in both documents >>

SDM, 111

You were diving when most of us were in boy shorts....

 

[Sam Miller III]

@Wookie

Well sonny boy …
Ya brought a smile to my wrinkled scared face, a deep long belly laugh! and I frankly don't know if my pants will ever dry !

SAM

 

[KeithG]

Agency OR Instructor?

SB peeps are fairly sure that agency does not matter... Lots of posts on this.

 

[DanielRJones]

i know a padi instructor that is also a TDI advanced trimix instructor so a course of him is different to other Padi courses yes you may cover the same skills but alot more focus will get put on different skills.
If you train in the Uk you are going to be pretty good at DSMB deployment (only have 5 dives where i have not launched a dsmb.
Some instructors nav course may be harder that others while both following the same rules the same for peak performance buoyancy and wreck courses and nitrox courses.

So yes it is the instructor that counts not the agency.

I originally done my OW and AOW with an instructor that does not do any penetrations even into light zones and does not go below 30m and never uses Nitrox he is a very good instructor but if you wanted to learn how to wreck dive on nitrox he is not the instructor for you.
Thats were i found the padi instructor that was an advanced trimix instructor who spends 6 months of his year on diving expeditions with a passion for military wrecks.

I done my helitrox course and setup my gear exactly as a GUE diver would conducted all dives as 3 man team dives and all drills OOA and Shutdowns carried out in trim with buoyancy no deviating more than 300mm down and only given a pass if the instructor was happy for me to dive with his friends and family.

GUE divers are good no doubt about it and their gear setups come from a military approach where everything has its place but even in the military there is deviation. a tourniquet is worn on the left bicep if a member is missing his right hand he gets to wear it on his right bicep as long as that is communicated. I know of 1 or 2 people that have limited movement in their necks whcih means they get alot of pain when looking up so end up trimming out at about 15% off horizontal when finning they come back into perfect but dropping that 15% when stationary takes all the pain off their neck they do not move in the water and are perfectly buoyant but does that 15% make them bad divers. well to GUE it does

 

[northernone]

I'll play:

PADI: still here, still big. Do you want fries with that?
SSI: No, we're not a PADI shop. Yes, we do dive courses.
RAID: Not just rebreathers, promise. Did you know we don't print books?
ACUC: Canadian eh? Sorry for the ice in your OW checkout dives.
NAUI: We might only have 50 instructors, but they've got 50 years experience each.
BSAC: Recreational depth, what's that?
NACD: Vote pizza!

In short, I can make up caricatures of the agencies I've encountered in 2018, but at the end of the day... Dive instruction is about people, not a product.

I've met wonderful and horrible instructors in every agency (many teach for multiple agencies) and my sample size is too small to make useful comparisons globally.

Cameron

 

[Roger Hobden]

Anything for a French Canadian Podiatrist

Hmm ... I am not a podiatrist.

The image is that of the x-ray of a female dancer going on demi-pointe.