I'm thinking about getting into SCUBA diving.  I seem to recall that one of the organizations is better than the other.  So do I want PADI or the other one?

More about the instructor than the letters on the card

From what I understand SSI has a more in depth class design than PADI.

That said I've got my PADI advanced open water.

PADI is taught using dive tables as with SDI is taught using dive computers.

I've got an iPhone app that does the dive tables for me.  

Form a PADI divemaster who's father is a IANTD instructor.

PADI - Put Another Dollar In. As stated depends on the instructor.
NAUI - seemed a little more in depth though I have never taken any course from them (only PADI and IANTD).

Basically felt that PADI taught you how to dive if everything went okay and NAUI had a little more safety and in depth training in their courses.

Stay away from resort dives.

Learn in rough, cold, dark water and then the rest of the world will be fine. Was on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef and a lady from Florida would not get in the water because there was 1-2 foot chop on the surface. Tried to explain that once she got under it would be calm. She was having none of it as she had "learned to dive in Key West where it was flat as a mirror" and this was rough seas!

Have fun and don't forget your deco stop.

Can you swim 25 yards underwater to the point which you intend?

Both certifications are recognized all over for open water. With only a few small differences between the two, yoy can't go wrong wither way. I am cerrified SDI. They still teach dive tables but dont go as far in depth

I got my advanced open water through SSI, but that was 25 years ago.  They used dive charts back then, don't know how they are now.

Diving is actually a pretty cheap hobby once you own all your equipment...you only have to pay for air refills.

NAUI here since 1989.  OWII
 

I think PADI is the largest international certification agency.  I've been satisfied with my PADI courses, I had very good instructors.  They do have ridiculous fees for books, pic fees, etc.

My son works at a dive shop, free air fills so we dive for nothing.  

Most diver no matter what the cert. Level use dive computers anyway. It is nice to know dive tables as a backup. Talk to divers abd instructers to fins the best one for yoy. Ask questions and do research. Diving is something that can be very dangerous if not done with proper knowlege and pracrice

Yep, I'm a good swimmer.  No worries there.

DARN!

This is one of those areas where I really can't tell you anything. Why? Because any statement made regarding training can be seen as me assuming one as my student and then leave me open to liability should anything bad happen.

We have an informal joke in these parts. How do you know when you are a professional? When you start buying liability insurance.

I will say this. The recreational dive industry is such a small place that often people are known by their names and their reputations. I don't think I'm known by my name, but the boss I trained under (and his organization I work for) is certainly known. Our reputations often come from the students we train. We don't want our reputations tarnished by a graduate who is a risk to the next person who takes them on.

We don't want this situation: "Who certified you to dive?"
"Ounce did."
"Ounce, huh? Well, son, in that case, we need to go back to the basics."

The way I've been trained, it is a point to produce safe divers, divers who will keep their heads if things go wrong. Our measure of success is not by the numbers we produce.
____________________________________________________________________________
(After finding out his spy ship has gone down. "My God, Jack. How deep is the water there?"––Defence Minister Gray
"Not deep enough, I'm afraid."––1st Sea Lord, (w,stte), "For Your Eyes Only")

I was certified about a year and a half ago through SSI. I have grown up in a family who was certified years ago by PADI and am surrounded by people who have used PADI to become certified (within the past 2 years). Some of them have good amount of knowledge and some I refuse to dive with in open waters. I got lucky and had a VERY good instructor that taught me a lot of niches about diving. Most people use computers, but that isn't the only part of diving. There's a lot of stuff that's good to know in case something happens (to me it seems a SHTF situation is quite more likely underwater than above). Through my instructor and a friends of my father's who owns a dive charter, I look back and feel that many people are getting pushed through their certifications just to get money into the business and aren't being thoroughly educated. One dive partner I had didn't even know what a Safety Sausage was, or how to use one (at depth). From what I've seen most people are too heavily weighted.

The sport itself is very safe, but it's nice to know as much as you can before you make the plunge to save your wallet and your body.

In short, try and find a program that does NOT use an online class, but DOES have lots and lots of pool time.

After that comes the gear, which is going to be a bit expensive. The trick is to buy good enough gear that'll last you for years. Once you buy the expensive stuff (BCD, Regs, and Computer are the bulk of what you pay), the rest of the sport is very inexpensive. Since I'm in southeast Florida I only have to pay for a tank fill and beach parking ($8 total) to go have fun diving. I usually use these beach dives to practice basic skills taught in the class, like taking off and putting on your bcd and gear, underwater. Practice Practice Practice!

As others have said - the instructor is more important than the letters.



In my limited firsthand experience - NAUI divers have been less aware and knowledgeable than SSI and PADI divers I have been with.  Wife is NAUI first - and said that her SSI AOW was much more thorough and taught to a higher standard.  I did SSI basic and AOW.



Your safety depends upon it.  Choose wisely and keep that in mind while in class/pool.


 

I did PADI. If I were going to be looking into technical diving in the futre I would look into some of the other programs.

1991 here





 

I certified through  Professional Underwater Scuba Instructors. I love to dive PUSI.

I was certified back in 1972.  I'm sure everthing has changed since then.

SSI here.  


Loved it.  I did it when I was 14 I think.  Still dive from time to time.

Padi's O/W cert leaves some to be desired however their Advanced O/W should be the minimum IMO. SSI's basic course is better but a diver should never just stop with either. PADI's O/W FULL course is fine providing you have a good instructor, stay away from any 'condensed' or 'resort class.'

Even if you have zero desire to cave/cavern dive the PADI/SSI/NACD course is highly recommended.

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Get both!!

I did PADI through a group that was only dive instruction.  No affiliation to a shop.  It was fantastic, 3 very competent and thorough instructors.   IIRC it was $250 for the class and that included all the gear and books.  You just showed up in a bathing suit.





My wife certified through an SSI shop.  It was $300 or so for the class, plus many required items and lots of "encouragement" to buy things from the shop.  Surprisingly it the better of the two shops in town, the other one is at least twice as expensive all said and done.





It depends who you dive with and their competency level.  An experienced diver doesn't make a good instructor.  My wife passed her class no problem, but to this day is too nervous to dive again because she doesn't understand how to get her buoyancy correct.  When I dove if you couldn't get neutrally buoyant and control your buoyancy you we not passing.  I dove with her class once and it was basically the instructors saying "yeah, its tricky, you just have to figure it out".  





There are good groups and bad groups, just do your research.




 

I got a NASDS card way back. Scuba cert is like a pilots license.
Get it any way you can, its just a learner's permit until you build time.
Definitely the more experience you get the better you are qualified.

I got mine back in the 86 from IDEA. Do not even know if there around any more. The head dive master was a drunk . A few beers before dive class and a few after.

I got my PADI OW certification in 89 from a pothead.

It was all euro trash teaching at the resort I got my open water at.

Shit I feel better now, my  open water cert. dive was in 4' swells off Panama City in water with shit visibility, and my buddy and I lost the dive rope and I ran out of air and had to breath of his spare.

Took my night dive course in AR.  We went to 50 feet, they turned off our air and took our masks off.  I've never been in more darkness, it was scary...but a good lesson on what can happen.  We were closely monitored, but it still sucked.  They then gave our masks back, and turned our air on and we had to navigate to land without surfacing.

oh hell yeah

What you did there. I sees it...

Although I've been PADI and YMCA Certified since the late 70's, I'm not familiar with the new programs.

I haven't been diving in years, and I really miss it.

Besides the old Dive Tables, has anything else changed?

NAUI here since 90.



2 years ago my son at age 10 did a resort class with a PADI instructor and it went great.  He just completed his PADI certification in a one day course, he had to do book work and film work before the class at home, and in 2 weeks he will do his open water dives in Aruba.


 

I got my C-card through SSI, I was able to sit in on some PADI class's later. I prefer SSI.

My open water class took place in SWEPCO lake in Arkansas in early March.  They assured us the water would be nice and warm since the lake was used for cooling water for the local power plant.  They also assured us the viz would be great because it was a mostly rock bottom lake.  We had particularly cold and rainy weather the week before, which meant viz was 2-3 feet and the water was damn, damn cold because the power plant was shutdown for maintenance.  I wore 2 3mm wetsuits, it was a little chilly when you first got in the water.  Then we swam out to the downline, did one last check and started our descent.  That first shot of water down the back of the wetsuit was a little bit chilly.