The Argonauts John or Jean Francois ???????

[Deltaforce]

DetectorGuy --

Not sure where you are getting your intel.  Yes PADI is by far the largest cert agency in the world, but I'm not sure that makes them bad.  They put together a sensible approach to a basic certification and then offer a wide range of specialties that you can choose from based on your personal interests.  They also seem to be fairly responsive to the market -- as an example, they will soon be offering a recreational rebreather cert.

As far as PADI being the only game in town?  Hardly.  Most of the instructors I know are cross-certified to teach SSI courses.  My son finished his OW SSI course at the U or M last year.  They are a viable option -- plus they have the only solo diving cert (which you may want to check into).

And as Grumpie stated, there still are NAUI instructors around if you want to go that route.

You can even attend a commercial diving school in Brainerd if you are so inclined.

If you don't like PADI, why do you keep writing checks to them?  There are lots of options.