Which SCUBA Training Agency is Best?

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It’s a frequently raised question and topic for hot debate.

“Which SCUBA Training Agency is best?”

As a PADI and BSAC instructor as well as a technical diver certified with several different agencies, I can offer some opinions.

The Reality: We Are All Built Pretty Much the Same

I mean in terms of our physiology as it responds to diving. Regardless of which SCUBA training methodology or training a diver follows, we all respond to the effects of pressure and compressed gases in very similar ways. As an example, we don’t buy PADI, BSAC or SSI dive computers, we just buy a “dive computer”. A dive computer doesn’t care what agency we trained with or support.

Similar to dive computers, training agencies provide training that doesn’t much care whether you believe x or y, support this diving group or that diving group. All agencies have just one thing in mind with entry level training.

SAFETY

Entry level diver certifications are designed you get new divers up and running so that they can be safe and go and have some fun. They are not designed to each the intricacies and technicalities of all aspects of diving.

The diving industry competes with many other leisure activities for peoples precious spare time time, attention and money. Getting divers in the water having fun whist being safe makes economic sense for the dive industry. It also means that new divers get to have fun sooner.

On certification of new divers, I am careful to explain that an entry level qualification is very similar to getting a driving licence. A driving licence does not mean that a driver knows everything or is an expert driver. It simply means that they are safe enough to use the roads. Driving expertise is naturally picked up along the way as the experience of just driving increases. It’s the same with SCUBA diving! Diver expertise builds naturally with experience. I encourage newly certified divers to just go diving (sensibly of course) to gain experience.

Agency Animosity: Why Do You Want to Dive?

In the many hundreds of divers that I have come across in both a training and social capacity, there seems to be some occasional problems with perception of SCUBA training standards. I have heard BSAC divers slating PADI and vice versa. If you have been diving for more than 5 minutes, no doubt you will have heard the same.

I believe that this issue boils down to the following:-

Why do YOU want to Dive?

If your answer is, like most new divers, “to have fun“, then the choice of training agency really doesn’t matter as they all will all teach “safe diving”. There are naturally differences in perhaps the quality of training that you will receive although agency affiliation requires minimum standards are upheld. The differences that you might notice are down to things like how the instructor feels on the day and whether they can be bothered to offer that little bit “extra”.

The Ongoing Debate

After giving this some thought, I believe that there are several contributing factors in the friction between divers trained by differing agencies.

Unfulfilled and Unrealistic Expectations During Training.

Divers achieving entry level certifications are sometimes surprised when, at the end of the course, they still have difficulty mastering the basics of basic skills such as buoyancy. They typically do not have the experience to realise that good buoyancy is acquired through practice and that, for many divers, it is only after 50 dives that they start to feel comfortable in the water.

“I thought you would teach me to dive?” might be some of the questions of newly certified divers who struggle with buoyancy. The next thought might then be “I bet BSAC/PADI/SSI/TDI/NAUI or whoever) would have taught me buoyancy…”. This perhaps leads to unsatisfied divers who will always wonder if the “grass is greener” with other agencies.

Natural Social Loyalty

May people start diving for the social aspects of the sport and many SCUBA agencies operate on a club basis. It’s perfectly natural for club members to want to support and promote their club, agency or group. This is fine, but some members can go further than just “support” and start rubbishing other clubs, agencies of groups.

SCUBA as an Extreme or “Macho” Sport

Thankfully these divers are in the minority but do exist. Driven by a desire to do SCUBA because it can be “dangerous” (and therefore “impressive”??), these divers are on a quest to dive deeper, longer, faster than everyone else. They find “buddies” of similar mindsets end engage in “competitive SCUBA” going deeper, longer, colder, darker than their peers. Often relatively inexperienced, these divers will rush into technical diving with little or no training in an effort to compete with their “buddies”. Sadly, this is where things often go wrong. I have witnessed this type of “peer pressure” lead to nasty accidents on several occasions. It is unnecessary, unhealthy and does the sport of SCUBA no good in my opinion.

What can happen these dive circles is that certain agencies will command more “kudos” than others. Specifically, technical training agencies get more “kudos” than recreational agencies as they are seen as aligning more to the perceived “extreme” sides of SCUBA such as deep, mixed gas or risky wreck or cave penetrations. Recreational agencies and divers can get “rubbished” in these circles of divers.

Sadly, these divers sometimes do not limit their views to their peer circle but will “preach” extreme SCUBA ideas to anyone who will listen. This, unfortunately, sometimes includes novice divers who can see the “technical diver” as an expert and will therefore believe what is being said.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Do you want to dive for the fun of it? If so, it doesn’t really matter which agency you train with. All agencies teach how to dive safely whilst at the same time hopefully having some fun.

There are some fundamental differences in the curriculum of courses offered by agencies (e.g. BSAC provide addition training specific to UK diving practices) but all of these additional skills are easily learnt by divers trained by other agencies.

Any diving training should be geared towards:-

Diving safely
Having fun

Let your deciding factors be the quality of the dive operation and its staff rather than the certifying agency.

Turn a deaf ear to other divers who seem to enjoy SCUBA as an extreme sport. SCUBA(even technical diving when done properly) is not and extreme sport and is for everyone to enjoy.

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