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

[DetectorGuy]

USDiver, The info I have from Padi is first hand. Last year I finished the Divemaster course and it took me about 6 months to complete. Not because of my typical slow learning rate, but because My instructor went above and beyond what was required from Padi to pass the certification. This extra effort from my instructor was greatly appreciated and was not watered down at all. During those 6 months Padi had changed their requirements twice for course completion and these changes were not stricter each time, but very much softer. The instructor let me and the others in the class know about the changes as we were going through the course. Since then I get the updates from PADI when course requirements change and I can tell you for a fact that Padi wants more people to get pushed through the system than years past. Does this make them bad? Not necessarily, as I think they are good enough for the 4 courses I took through them with an instructor that pushed more than the requirements. Do I think I am too nervous to let my little girl get certified through them? Yes. As far as the other specialties that Padi and the other orgs offer... For $500 I could set up a Padi Certification course for underwater knitting if I wanted to. All they require is a little denaro and you can make up any certification course you want. I know there are other agencies in town, but like Ford versus Chevy, Padi and Naui are the two heavy hitters with Padi being the largest but my opinion is that NAUI is what I would call the best. That will strike a nerve for quite a few of you, but Apples to Apples, Naui has the stronger language of the two. The requirements for Naui are more stringent on most courses when compared side by side to PADI. There are different reasons why I placed any of my money into Padi's hands. I think I am done collecting C-cards and have no intentions of going on to be an instructor. Infact the Divemaster class I only took to gain a knowledge base to draw on from time to time. I do want to take a course from Dive Rescue International called Dive Rescue 1. Any other certifications would be possibly advanced Nitrox, Trimix, and possibly intro to cave. I have no intentions of getting Full Cave at this point in my life.
I did hear that SDI offers a Solo Diving Cert, but with about 1/3 of my dives being solo already, it may be a waste of my resources. I know that there are still Naui Instructors in the area and the quality their of instruction has nothing to do if whether or not they are attached to an actual diveshop. I have seen the "Commercial Diving School" in action... This is just my opinion so don't start foaming at the mouth or anything