What is the real difference in certification levels

[swimmer_spe]

There are many agencies out there.

I am trying to clearly understand the true differences.

So, lets say you have multiple divers. They all have the same level of certification from different agencies. Lets say, they all have their own equipment. Lets also say they have the same number and types of dives.

As a buddy, would I notice a real difference?

Or, is the difference in the instructor who taught them their skills?

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

While there are differences in the various agencies basic level dive training programs, the most vast difference usually stems from the quality of individual instruction and the diver's commitment to their own training and experience.

 

[tbone1004]

If one of those divers had GUE training, one of those divers was trained by a good university, and one of those divers did a PADI course in the caribbean, you would absolutely notice a difference if we are just talking about recreational certifications. Lines get muddied in the technical certifications because the instructors are better, the programs are better, and the diving styles are all pretty similar.

Most of it is the instructor, but most of the instructors are all the same. If they have proper technical qualifications sorry PADI, but your technical instructors don't count, individually sure, but as a whole not a prayer*, but IANTD, NAUI, TDI, NSS-CDS, etc those instructors even teaching a PADI OW class will generally be better, but if the shop they are running through isn't great, then it is all a wash.

So yes and no. SDI, NAUI, PADI OW divers as a whole will look the same, there are exceptions but they are very few and far between. Quite easy to find, but quite uncommon and certainly not the rule.

 

[hroark2112]

I know some really awesome divers who are just OW. I know some terrible divers who are DM.

It's partly due to the instructors and partly due to the divers. A great instructor can only do so much with a student who doesn't care to excel.

 

[tbone1004]

I'll rephrase his statement appropriately

"I know some kickass divers who only have their basic OW Cert, but I know some equally terrible Course Directors....." fact, jack

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

I know some really awesome divers who are just OW. I know some terrible divers who are DM.

It's partly due to the instructors and partly due to the divers. A great instructor can only do so much with a student who doesn't care to excel.

Yes!!!!

 

[KeithG]

are you really asking about diver ability as opposed to certification (level).

in general, diver ability has very little to do with certification level or agency or number of dives.

some people are naturals, most are not, some people should never dive (just like i should never sing...)

on my last trip, a 20 year veteran with "thousands" of dives paniced and shot to the surface and had to be rescued by the dinghy of shame. why? she got some water in her mask. no amount of certification would make this diver competent.

 

[swimmer_spe]

are you really asking about diver ability as opposed to certification (level).

Ability.

Part of me thinks that certain certifications are more about ability than about the card in their wallet.

 

[kwinter]

The one that stands out most to me is AOW. I was always amazed that you could be a PADI "Advanced" diver with only 9 dives. Compare that to SSI whose requirements are (used to be?) 5 specialty courses and 25 dives.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[TSandM]

A good diver is a good diver, and you will notice only small differences among good divers. Remember that an agency doesn't train or certify a diver; an instructor does. That instructor is constrained to a greater or lesser degree by the agency under whose aegis he works. PADI, for example, has a very prescriptive curriculum, but fairly subjective standards. GUE has a slightly less prescriptive curriculum, but much more objective and enforced and periodically reevaluated criteria for student performance.

At the recreational level, you have a whole group of agencies which teach more or less the same class, and a couple of outliers. You WOULD notice a very large difference between a resort course RSTC diver and a GUE REC 1 diver, even on the first few dives out of class. But almost no one takes the GUE REC 1 class.

At the technical levels, it has far more to do with procedures, and still with standards. GUE, for example, does not permit students to advance to technical training until they have passed the Fundamentals class with a "tech pass", which evaluates the student's diving skills, in open water, for performance at a technical level. Once a student begins technical or cave training with the agency, they are taught GUE's procedures and protocols, which will be universal across the GUE community, no matter where one might dive. Other agencies permit a higher degree of autonomy on the part of an instructor, both in teaching procedures, and in evaluating students. That doesn't mean the instruction is necessarily inferior -- but you will not be able to assume the same degree of seamless integration of any TDI or DSAT or NACD student into a team, that you will with GUE.